Headlamp

This article is about the device for vehicles. For the personal lighting device worn on the head, see Headlamp (outdoor).
"Headlight" redirects here. For other uses, see Headlight (disambiguation).

A motor scooter's front with an impractical number and variety of headlamps, added for decorative purposes and characteristic of Mod culture

A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage, headlamp is the term for the device itself and headlight is the term for the beam of light produced and distributed by the device.

Headlamp performance has steadily improved throughout the automobile age, spurred by the great disparity between daytime and nighttime traffic fatalities: the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that nearly half of all traffic-related fatalities occur in the dark, despite only 25% of traffic travelling during darkness.[1]

Other vehicles, such as trains and aircraft, are required to have headlamps. Bicycle headlamps are often used on bicycles, and are required in some jurisdictions. They can be powered by a battery or a small generator like a bottle or hub dynamo.

  1. ^ Varghese, Cherian; Shankar, Umesh (May 2007). "Passenger Vehicle Occupant Fatalities by Day and Night – A Contrast" (PDF). Traffic Safety Facts, Research Note (DOT HS 810 637). Retrieved 29 May 2014.