There is no evidence to date for the safety advantages that should accompany the introduction of daytime running lights. This ECF President Manfred Neun and ADFC Federal Chairman Karsten Hübener explained to Federal Minister of Transport Manfred Stolpe (SPD) on October 13th in Berlin. The effects of daytime running lights of lorries and cars on other road users are still not clearly identified. True-to-life studies from France and Austria even allow the conclusion that daytime running light offers no positive contribution to road safety", said Hübener in conversation with the minister. Daytime running light leads to dazzling effects, it covers the light of indicators and contributes to visual overstimulation. Also a study in Israel with two phases of six-months each with and without daytime running light came to the conclusion, that daytime running light offered no gain in safety. Following a comparable study in Australia a regulation on daytime running light was withdrawn.

ECF President Manfred Neun Federal Minister of Transport Manfred Stolpe, Germany

The Federal Ministry of Transport should rather pursue the aims of the European Traffic Safety Programme, according to Neun: "Whoever throttles speed effectively and succeeds in prohibiting alcohol at the steering wheel, would bring about more safety to our roads." The discussion about daytime running light shall be continued at a colloquium, in which the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF), the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), the Federal Ministry of Transport and the ADFC participate.

ECF Position Papers on the topic:
ECF's response to the report of the High-Level Expert Group for a European policy for road safety (November 1991)
The ECF welcomes the goals of the Gerondeau Report and most of the proposed means to achieve them. However, ECF thinks that daytime running lights and urban traffic speeds of 100 kilometres per hour are detrimental to the safety of vulnerable road users. The proposals about cycling disappoint the ECF, because no mention is made of primary safety for cyclists.

FEMA (Federation of European Motorcyclists´ Associations), ECF and FEVR (European Federation of Road Traffic Victims) are strongly opposed to daytime running lights (DRL) for all vehicles as a mandatory requirement within the European Union.
www.fema.kaalium.com/docs/PosDRL.pdf (PDF, 99 KB)

Manfred Neun took the opportunity to expressly thank Minister Stolpe for his support in the current preparation of the Velo City Conference in Munich in 2007.