Yeah sure. Car with green light= in motion.
As I have put in a few headlights myself I can’t see why anyone would want to keep paying for them by leaving their lights on.
have no idea what they cost to put in these days but those fancy lights can’t be cheap.
I keep my headlihgts on most of the time. My truck has 150,000 mi. and is on only its second set of headlights. I can live with that.
In New Hampshire, much of Route 101 has mandatory headlight use at all times. Along the road are crosses at accident sites where people died b/c it is a two-lane (one each direction) undivided highway with speed limits of 50-60 mph. The headlights make cars much more obvious to see, even in the daytime, and it has helped cut down the very high death rate on the road. Now they are finally making it into the nice multilane divided highway it needs to be to handle traffic to and from the coast so the headlight use rules will probably go away.
side-note: When and where I grew up, the only people who drove with their headlights on in the day were in funeral or wedding processions,driving busses, or on curvy one lane roads. It was sortof a sign “Warning: I am bereaved/elated/carrying large numbers of children/drunk-- stay away from me!”
The daytime light users irritate me to the highest, because it makes the simple courtesy of not cutting off a procession impossible.
My new VW Jetta has daytime running lights. As far as I can tell, they’re exactly the same as the headlights; turning on the headlight switch doesn’t change the amount of light coming from the front lamps. (It does turn on the dashboard lights and the taillights, of course.)
I once passed a funeral procession in which the cars did not have their headlights on. Each of them had a little “Funeral” sign stuck to its roof, apparently with a magnet, which made it impossible to confuse funeral cars with those that simply have running lights.
I can accept that a light in the front of the car may be of benefit in two lane roads and in passing situations. I also may accept that in streets with lines of cars on the side a moving/not moving indicator may be good.
I on the other hand HATE people who have their headlights on in the day time. They are just too bright. I don’t like driving on busy roads at night because of the bright lights (luckily they’ve begun putting blinds between undivided interstates lately), but now I can avoid them in the day. On roads with even a slight hill, the head lights shine directly into the eyes of the oncoming drivers and in the rear view mirors of the guy in front of you. This is very problematic. In the day you cannot dim your rearview mirror to mute out the light either, and still use it. The glare of on coming lights blinds me to the people in front of me, who are immediately more important.
I would suggest this, daytime running lights which consist of amber parking lights, or at minimum lower, dimmer headlamps. Until they add dimmer settings on the cars, please use your parking lights, they will do just fine, brighter is not better. A better arrangement would be implementing mandatory headlight usage on two lane roads, and possibly in city streets, but not and interstates and busy roads. Leave the power up to the driver, and don’t perscribe this as permanent on all cars. It isn’t a passive system, you may put others at risk.
My Dad would reply to this thread with:
“To make people ask questions”
The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don’t have it.
George Bernard Shaw
Here in Canada DRLs have been madatory since 1990.
I have never noticed them being too bright during the day as the sun is much brighter.
I think they are a good idea, since you no longer have to rely on people to turn on their lights during rain or fog.
Now what my brother and I can’t figure out are the passenger side airbags. I am 6’ and I can’t reach the dash by leaning forward in most cars. If you don’t wear a seatbelt in a car you deserve to go through the windshield.
Scoobysnax
Save water drink beer!
D R L definitely work!
I have scared many a moose of my local roads with my lights on!
But seriously, folks.
I turn my lights on before dark because here in the great northeast a traveller heading west has the sun in his eyes. Brake lights aren’t good enough! Day Time running lights are very safe.
My '98 Corolla has DRLs and sensors to detect diminishing light. To me, it’s a small convenience not to have to turn the lights on at night. What I like better is the fact that my insurance company recognizes DRLs as an added safety feature (like air bags) and I get a discount on my policy. Nice.
“All the headlights do is make it just a little bit easier for
other people to see you coming.”
So, this begs the question, is driving while having sex, safe?
In response to Papabear…
Everybody knows that the only reason they put headlights on vacuum cleaners is to scare cats and men away from them.
Neenah
Many funeral directors now ask people to put on their high beams (‘country lights’ for some of you) in procession.
Anyway, I hate the funeral procession of cars (for a variety of reasons). Just give everyone a map to the cemetery – they’ll get there.
Peace.
One reason? Old people going to the bank with their check. They can’t see to well, and dammit, nobody’s taking their liscense away!
Wow, is that as offensive as you low down, high smellin, no good, two timing, sidewindin, knuckledraggin, inbred, throwback poor excuse for a pack of bum steers can get? Thats cool.
Factiod: The US Air Force found that they got a lot fewer bombers blasted out of the sky by ack ack (anti air craft fire to you civvies) when they mounted downward facing high intensity spotlights on the belly of the plane with sky blue gels in front of them. Turns out the sky is pretty darn bright most all the time, and no matter what color you paint the plane, it looks like a dark spot unless you provide some extra light.
What the hell does that have to do with daytime headlights? Well, I've always wondered if the same effect could happen when your car is backlit by just the right horizon. Things to think about on that next road trip through Kansas.....Two points:
While I always believed in driving lights (especially on long, straight 2-lane highways in the West) whether on my motorcycle or in my truck… I occasionally forget around twilight, and switch on the real headlights after a few moments, at which point someone thinks I’m flashing my high-beams. Potentially dangerous in L.A., I s’pose.
If required to drive with day-running lights (for example in a test area with a sign requiring it), I imagine this provides ample probable cause for the highway patrol to pull over people… Always wondered about that down in Imperial County, and other places along the Mexican border. The signs are not pictographic, and actually require you to read.
“Proverbs for Paranoids, 1: You may never get to touch the Master, but you can tickle his creatures.”
Just a note: driving with parking lights on is illegal in many states, including Pennsylvania (though it is legal to pass on the right in PA, go figure?). They are parking lights, not driving lights. If it is “dark” enough to need lights, please make us all safer and use your headlights.
“Shoplifting is a victimless crime. Like punching someone in the dark.” -Nelson Muntz.
When I lived in the Florida Keys it was suggested but not manditory to drive with headlights on. It didn’t seem to make much difference to me
Like another poster said, you just got used to seeing lights on and ignored it.
But then everyone else seems to think it helped so I guess it doesn’t hurt.
In Arizona, their are certain sections of highway whh require you to turn your headlights off during daylight because of light refraction on the hot surface of the road. On hot roads, you see an optical illusion of water or silver far in front of you. If a car is coming out of this optical illusion with its lights on, it is difficult to tell if the car is really there. Therefore you are warned to turn your headlights off. But signs do tell you to turn them back on when you leave the sections of roadway where this effect is prevalent.
Wow - I thought my topic had died a long time ago - enjoyed your posts everyone. Reading the references to funerals, I have to add my experience (which I didn’t include in the orignal post for fear of boring everyone). Coming out of a side street from work onto the main highway one day - my light turned green; I looked first, as I always do, because of red-light runners. I started to go, then realized a car was continuing thru their redlight - headlights on; Ijust figured it was a red-light runner; I waited; another car with headlight on - whoa - a funeral procession - but just one more car went thru.
Hmm… short funeral procession. I waited another few seconds cause Ididn’t know what the hell was going on. Hard to believe three people would run the red, but awfully short funeral procession. It bothered me because it was a dangerous situation. Someone less cautious than I would have hit one of those guys!