I think I just had a really good idea when I was standing at a road and tried to cross it. My problem with the situation was that it was already dark, there were no street lamps and the cars were coming from both directions. Not constantly, but about every 5 seconds there was one passing me. With the darkness and pretty much only seeing their headlights, I almost couldn't estimate their distance and how fast they were going (I am also not too familiar with that specific passage). I stood there several minutes, until I had the situation assessed and tried my luck.

It looked a bit like that, but without snow and I am taller than that.

Obviously, it went well at the end. But since it was raining and windy - overall weather you would expect in November - I ended up cold, wet and pissed off about the whole situation.

On the positive side, I had an idea of how that problem could be fixe and not just for that specific place where I was standing (street lights would be a help..), but generally for everyone everywhere in such a situation.

Inside the car, you see anything, but outside of it?

Cars With Headlights That Show How Far Away They Are, Short: Distance Lights

What if cars had a special feature to their headlights or a third headlight that does not shed light on the way ahead for the driver, but that points on the street and draws one or several lines with each line standing for a specific distance ahead of the car.

While this would be only of minor interest for the driver - it could be useful if it also indicated the distance the car needs to come to a halt - such lines could be very helpful for pedestrians and cyclists trying to assess the traffic situation as it happened to me.

It would cause extra costs for cars, but I believe the benefits would be significantly greater than the costs.

For cars it are solutions, but for pedestrians?

The Technology Is Already Out There, It Only Needs To Be Reapplied Accordingly

The "headlight science" is basically finished. Today, the headlights even of cheap cars are powerful and they come with features like that the lights follow the curve ahead of the car. That's why I believe it would be easily possible to focus a part of the light, point it on the road and vary the distance of the line drawn depending on the speed of the car and the topografical profile of the road.

The latter is probably the biggest hurdle and so far I believe only expensive cars have the necessary sensors built-in for topografical information. But since this kind of technology is permanently evolving and becoming cheaper and you can also use the information from such sensors for other purposes in the car (think of the autonomous driving mode), the additional costs for a distance light should be below one-hundred Dollar per car.

It is not only possible to assess the costs, but also the possible benefits of the technology.

Maybach headlights display an "M" on the road

Economic Benefits Of Distance Lights

Possible benefactors are all individuals who come across a driving car at night - not only in winter time. That makes it pretty much everyone in those parts of the world that have a certain car density and paved roads (I would say 3 Billion people fall in that category). On average, something like what happened to me happens to every person about once per month and every third time there is something critical in play. That can be time, children or rain as in my case.

If you now assume that you can save a 1 Dollar equivalent per incident with such lights, then you can calculate:

1 Dollar x 3 Billion people x 4 times per year

That makes distace lights a whopping 12 Billion Dollar idea... and this on a November evening outside in the cold. Not bad, I think. But of course, you have to compare this to the costs per car and see if the result is positive and then a verdict is possible.

On average, about every third person of these 3 Billion owns a car and if one of these distance lights costs 80 Dollar you have costs of 80 Billion Dollar. That is much more, but of course you don't need new lights every year but only about once per car life which is approximately 10 years. Here is the calculation for the cost side:

80 Dollar x 1 Billion cars / 10 years

The result is 8 Billion Dollar and that means, the costs are only two thirds of the benefits. On top of that I haven't accounted for other additional costs that can be prevented like health costs in case of accidents. It is not uncommon that people underestimate the distance a car is away from them and treating car accident injuries can be very expensive, especially if people outside the car have been hit.

Bottom line: This really seems to be a good idea.

Shoe of an organ donor

What Are Possible Negative Effects?

It is not impossible that people start relying too much on these lines and simply start walking even when they shouldn't. The essence behind the idea is to give pedestrians an idea of how far away a car still is and not that it still is far enough away. When the technology gets introduced, this needs to be clarified publicly or otherwise the learning curve could be very painful.

Another problematic aspect can be a wrongly adjusted distance lights. Every complex system has its weaknesses and in that regard lights are no exception. A consequence could therefore be that people rely too much on the lights in the wrong situation. Ideally, it should become mandatory to check their correct adjustment regularly like it is normal for standard headlights.

Overall, I think the problematic aspects are limited and can be managed, if they become relevant at all.

Version with three colored lights

What Do You Think About The Idea? Do You Know Where I Have To Go To Make It Reality? Let Me Know In The Comments!