VISIBILITY Good all round visibility is now one of the mass requirements of body design.

This clearly depends on the size of the windows opening and their position relative to the occupants. Forward visibility can be improved by bringing the front seats of the passenger car closer to the front wind screen. On the other hand the problem of entry is increased since the distance between the seat and the pillar is decreased. Ease of entry is possible by suitably shaping the doors (as shown in the figure in dotted line) at the expose of the more complicated structure.

In military vehicle the downward visibility is important and the driver must be positioned a high as possible in relation to the lower edge of the wind screen. These are no strict regulation regarding visibility; it is assumed that the angle of vertical visibility should be such as to enable the driver to see the traffic lights etc., and this must be taken into consideration at the design stage. Rearward visibility has assumed considerable importance in modern traffic condition and

the increase in glass area required to maintain a given rear view vertical angle with a fast-back window shown in fig.

Visibility can be divided into 2 aspects ability to see and to be seen. In daylight, color is probably the most important characteristic in making cars more easily seen glitter also makes a car, more visible as well as more attractive. Requirements, however now demand visibility are considerable angle, in addition to front and rear visibility. Fig shows legal requirements and recommendation for positioning lamps and for direction indicators.

Repeated flashers on the side must considerably increase the chance of seeing a turning vehicle sideways on. This only deals with proposition of hazards of closing or entering roads. Although a semaphore arm direction indicator has the advantage of being more visible from partial side position, it is so much less recognizable for its function so that the sooner it is eliminated the better. The vertical position of signal light needs considering, some are too low to be easily seen by closely following driver in traffic. This applies to front lights since some drivers will follow other vehicles so closely on side lights only that low positions of those lights make them invisible in the rear view mirror. Non-dazzle rear views for after dark makes it possible to estimate the distance of the following vehicle on dipped head lights. A coupling device is used between steering arm and head lamps, which turns them in the direction of the car is turning. This arrangement uses the over Ackerman effect principle. Thus the inside head lamps are directed very well round the corner and the outside one is less so. This obviously improves the view of the road, which is about to be transverse by the driver.

MEASUREMENT OF VISIBILTY: EYE POSITION: The drivers eyes are taken as being 2 apart and facing forward so that they lie on a line perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle and so that each eye is at a vertical height of 26 above the point on the inflected seat, 5 in front of the vertical target to the seat squab.

For commercial vehicle the eyes are at this screen height and in line with the center of driver seat and at a distance c forward of the vertical tangent to the seat squab. The distance c is a correction factor for seat back angle. The drivers seat is adjusted to a position such that the effective leg length (a+b) is equal to 36. Generally it is difficult to measure the visibility direction is more method used is to place two projector lamp bulbs are in the position of each eye and to study the shadows thrown by these on a screen. (a)Forward vision: Using electric lamps placed at the specified eye positions the vehicle is positioned facing a semi-circular visibility screen so that the midpoint of the drivers eyes lies on the cylindrical axis of the screen. The vehicle longitudinal axis is parallel to the horizontal bisector of the screen and the eyes are positioned

on the base diameter of this screen. The areas visible to the driver are outlined by the shadows the wind screen pillars, wind screen wiper sections etc. on the screen when the lamps are switched on. (b)Rear visibility: Light from the lamp is reflected by the mirror or mirrors and fails on two planes. Screens placed parallel to each other, a known distance apart and perpendicular to the vertical axis at a convenient distance behind eyes. The area illuminated on each of these screen is a development of the shadows of the reflecting mirror or of the back light when applicable, so that it is useful to be able to identify the coordinates of the similar point on these area by the use of grid placed on back light. Coordinates of the identifiable points are obtained separate from both screens and are used to plot the ground plan of rearward vision.