I agree with J.L.A. on the instrument lights. I have a very hard time seeing in high contrast lighting situations (like bright instrument lights vs. dark outside environment). They also tend to reflect in my glasses and having them dimmer helps to keep them out of my sight.
I also have daytime running lights, and I have a choice: DRLs, parking lights or full headlights. I forget to turn the full headlights on if I’m just on DRLs, so I leave them on all the time. I don’t use my parking lights because they don’t turn off when you turn off the car (as full headlights and DRLs do in my car)… and I always end up with a dead battery.
I lived in Florda for a spell and the law there, at least 30 years ago, was that if it’s raining hard enough to use your wipers, turn on your headlights as well. It’s a habit I’ve continued ever since. I also have them on if I’m on a two-lane highway (i.e. folks coming the other way will be coming into my lane for passing). If I’m on a freeway or divided highway, I don’t bother.
I have DRLs on my car, but have been pulled over once for not having my lights on. The cop was behind me, and didn’t see my running lights on. This was about dusk (barely into dark), and I was in a very brightly lit area, and moving slowly, so I wasn’t really paying attention to my instrument cluster, and didn’t notice. He let me go when I turned on my lights (after he ran my info of course), and we had a good chuckle about it.
I don’t know what the OP is calling “night”, but when I was a kid, nobody turned their headlights on until the sun had dipped below the horizon (as opposed to now, when many people turn their brights and auxilliary lights on sometime during mid-afternoon, because they paid extra for them when they bought the car and all those lights look so totally awesome anyway). The simple reason was because you don’t need them on the rest of the time–they shine in other driver’s eyes and do not improve your view of the road. For that simple reason I suspect that it is a baseless Dumb Idea–and since in the US it is now law many places, I can only consider legislative endorsement to be final proof.
~
When my family moved to Canada 6 years ago, where DRL are standard, My mother did not know how to turn on her headlights and instead turned on the DRL at night. When I got my license and pointed this(the fact that for the last 2 years she has never turned on her headlights which are required to be on at night) out to her we had a big argument. She insisted that her lights were on, when in fact it was only her DRL. She countered that the next setting on the headlight control was for high beam. I, with a chill down my spine, demonstrated the proper method for turning on DRL, headlights and highbeam but it took 20min of shouting and demonstrations to convince her. Although she now knows how to turn headlights on, she’s still bitter about it.
I can’t imagine why she was never stopped for it. I get a good chuckle out of this story every year, it’s right up there with the time she insisted that tire pressure was something that should only be checked by a mechanic once every year. It’s scary that I actually learned most of my driving skills from this woman.
I’m pretty sure the law’s the same here, but people don’t seem to care. I really don’t want to hit anybody because I couldn’t see them in a semi-tropical downpour…idiots.
I turn on my headlights whenever I realize, “Hey, I could see that car better if its headlights were on.” flick
But sometimes I’ll turn my inside lights on when I turn my car on and I’m either facing another car or someone’s home. Occasionally, I forget to turn on my headlights once I pull away.
I’m also familiar with the on/off flick = your lights are out and the on/brights flick = your brights are on. But the few times I’ve been flashed for not having my lights on, it was the on/brights flash, and I got all confused, hehe. I’d look down at my (illuminated) panel, and see no “brights” symbol lit up, so I’d just wonder what they were bitching about.