page_title: Automotive lighting
section_title: Front position lamps
hierarchical_section_title: Automotive lighting / Conspicuity, signal and identification lights / Front / Front position lamps
context_page_description: The lighting system of a motor vehicle consists of lighting and signalling devices mounted or integrated to the front, rear, sides, and in some cases the top of a motor vehicle. This lights the roadway for the driver and increases the visibility of the vehicle, allowing other drivers and pedestrians to see a vehicle's presence, position, size, direction of travel, and the driver's intentions regarding direction and speed of travel. Emergency vehicles usually carry distinctive lighting equipment to warn drivers and indicate priority of movement in traffic.
context_section_description: "Front position lamps", known as "parking lamps" or "parking lights" in the US, Canada, Australia, and South Africa; and as "front sidelights" in the UK, provide nighttime standing-vehicle conspicuity. They were designed to use little electricity, so they could be left on for periods of time while parked. Despite the UK term, these are not the same as the side marker lights described below. The front position lamps on any vehicle must emit white light unless the vehicle is a motorcycle which may have amber front position lamps In the US, Canada, Mexico, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, Australia (only if combined with a side marker), South Korea, North Korea, Vietnam, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and much of the Middle East; they may emit an amber light on any vehicle.The city light terminology for front position lamps derives from the practice, formerly adhered to in cities like Moscow, London and Paris, of driving at night in built-up areas using these low-intensity lights rather than headlamps.
  In Germany, the StVZO (Road Traffic Licensing Regulations) calls for a different function also known as parking lamps: With the vehicle's ignition switched off, the operator may activate a low-intensity light at the front (white) and rear (red) on either the left or the right side of the car. This function is used when parking in narrow unlit streets to provide parked-vehicle conspicuity to approaching drivers. This function, which is optional under UN and US regulations, is served passively and without power consumption in the United States by the mandatory side marker retroreflectors.
caption: ISO symbol for position lamps[7]