Please, you have to be cognizant of the fact that there are other humans on the road, and that your actions may adversely affect them. And by them, I mean me! Turn off your fucking high-beams, Sparky! They should only be used when it’s raining or foggy.
There is no reason to have them on while driving on the 405 Freeway on a clear night. It’s a well lit freeway, and there are lots of cars, all with their headlights on. Are you ready for the irony? If you turned your headlights off, you would be able to see better than I can with YOUR HIGH BEAMS IN MY REAR-VEIW MIRROR!!! Are you trying to get my attention or something???
Here’s a clue, Brainiac! If you shine a bright light in someones eyes, it temporarily blinds them. If I’m driving toward you on a dark canyon road, and I’m tempoarily blinded by your high-beams, theres a good chance I will plummet to my death, or crash head-on into you. Have some fucking courtesy and click them off when you see another coming.
Oh, and if you have an SUV or one of those moster trucks with the 2 sets of headlights and your high beams are on, I want you to die.
And yes, I’m aware this topic has probably been broached before. I don’t care. It’s obvious from my nightly trek to work that some people haven’t heard the message!
Nah. It’s actually quite a bad idea to use your brights when it’s foggy. Light reflects off the fog and it makes it more difficult to see.
I do agree with you about the lack of courtesy, though. There are tons of people out there with those 6 kajillion candlepower PIAA lights on the front of their cars and trucks, angled right into the eyes of other drivers. Just follow the dude until he goes into a 7-Eleven or something. Then kick them straight back into his grill. Or if they’re on the roll-bar of a truck, just swat them off with a hefty stick like Mark McGwire swinging for the cheap seats.
Although the brights are bad, what about this newer idea that everyone needs supernova-level standard lights. Ever been blinded by someone who then flashes their brights to let you know that these are their regular lights?
I don’t live on the dark side of the moon, so I don’t see why these people have to have the vampire-killer specials on all the time.
No, I hear ya on this. I always - always - always flick off the high beams when I see oncoming traffic, and don’t use them if there’s another car within a certain distance in front of me. Dickwads with enough wattage on the front of their oversized penis substitutes to light a stadium should have their eyelids taped up and be forced to stare into their own headlights for hours on end.
Then there are the people who assume that because you’re not directly in front of them, you won’t be affected by their brights. Hey asshole, just because I passed you and am now 200 yards ahead of you doesn’t mean I can’t see (and be blinded by) your brights. Light travels fairly efficiently (especially in air). Wait until you can’t see my taillights, okay?
I agree that brights (hi-beams?) are dangerous in fog. Fog lights are used for that; a yellow tint tends to be helpful. However, billion-candlepower rally-style yellow fog lights have no function in clear conditions except to annoy drivers who realize what they should be used for. Save the money on the PIAA yellows and buy yourself a clue.
In my experience, most of these assholes don’t have their brights on, they just have their headlights poorly aimed or are in a taller vehicle.
What I hate are these new headlight covers that show the headlights as white when looking straight on, but look blue when viewed from an angle. I had one of these jackasses behind me for 50 miles on one trip to LA. It was very distracting having his headlines change from white to blue with every pebble in the road.
The new halogens are great, but you have to make sure you get them aimed properly or you lose the benefit while blinding everybody else.
Now see, this is interesting to me. I completely agree on the subject of high-beams. If you feel you need to use them ( and you never should in fog ), be courteous enough to turn them off as you approach another car.
But the fog lights - Are they really such an annoyance? They’ve never bothered me at all ( on regular sedans, I can see where KC lights on a truck or something might be different ), as they aren’t set high and they aren’t particularly bright. Frankly, I like to drive with them on, because they illuminate the ground directly in front of my car at night. Now I don’t think that teensy bit of added visibility makes the slightest bit of difference safety -wise, I just prefer it. Now when I got my current car ( a Maxima ), which is the first vehicle I’ve owned that had them ( they came as part of the package, I would certainly never have paid extra for them ) I went back and forth on having them on or off. I’ve heard that some people don’t like them, but they seem ubiquitous these days, as I said they bother me ( and the few friends I polled ) not at all, and my inclination, again, is just to leave them on.
So am I being a rude driver? I’d rather be polite than gratify my irrational desire to see the pavement in front of my bumper at night . C’mon, speak up. If enough of you ( like Klaatu ) can articulate why running fog lights bug you ( beyond the purely ascetic ), you may very well change my behavior .
flippin’ on the highbeams
changing the radio station
fishing out the cassette that dropped in the passenger floorboard
putting on makeup
yammerin’ on a cellphone
adjusting the mirrors
doodling with the AC/heat
raising/lowering the windows
goofing with the sunroof
lighting a cigarette
checking the roadmap
Yeesh! Safely operating the vehicle just GETS IN THE WAY of all this other stuff, dunnit?
For a fleeting moment in US roadway history, the government toyed with the idea of using yellow halogen streetlights. Ah, I miss those days. Just as I miss the days of driving through France, where not only the streetlights but also the automobile headlights are yellow halogen, and did not get blinded even by the high beams of the oncoming traffic.
There are a frightening number of people out there who have no clue that the pretty blue light on the dashboard means that their high beams are on, and go merrily driving around blinding people while having no fucking clue that they’re doing it.
And an equal number of people who cannot tell the difference between my high beams and low beams.
Fucking bastards. I drive a pick-up, it is high, the lights are bright (but stock) and are correctly aimed. I like the bright lights for those moonless nights on rural roads. I hate the fact that every damn sumbitch (seems about every tenth car on the road) who is pissed at someone else for not dimming their high beams just straight up drills me with their brights rather than giving me a courtesy flash. Hey fuck you, I am on my low beams. Sorry they aren’t dim enough to satisfy you, but your opinion wasn’t solicited.
Yup. They look cool and all, but most people install them aftermarket, and when they bolt them on to a piece of the front bumper that wasn’t designed to hold fog lights, the aim is often off. Instead of illuminating the ground in front of the car (as yours do), they are aimed directly up at the car ahead. And those big round PIAA yellows that are so popular with the ricer crowd (let’s make my Civic look like a rally car!) are horrible. They light up like mini Batman signals, minus the cool logo.
Bottom line: For the sake of all the other drivers out there, at least park in front of a wall and check the alignment of your fogs.
Oh, and I have to second obfusciatrist. The blue lights are maddening. And it’s not just the ones that change from white to blue and back. It’s the ones that are always blue. That blue color is very distracting. Especially when it’s the only one among many cars with normal (white) headlights.
I also have a question about my driving behaviour - when driving on a divided highway where the roads are separated by 30 feet of ditch, I don’t feel like I need to turn my (very average) brights down for oncoming traffic that’s so far away (30 feet plus two lanes). I figure if their brights aren’t bothering me, mine won’t be bothering them. Am I wrong in this assumption?
I would just wonder why you feel the need to use your highs on an apparently deserted stretch of fairly wide road. But it wouldn’t bother me, if I were the oncoming traffic.
some of you people sound totally clueless, and it scares me to think you may be operating motor vehicles on the same road as me. you use your high beams, aux 6 jillion watt lights, whatever, because what you don’t see can very well kill you! (especially on a motorcycle, or any rural roads with homocidal beasts lurking just on the edge of invisible, waiting to pounce in front of your porsche)light is right, the more the better! if the lights bother you, stay home or ride the bus. ask your friendy highway patrolman how many times he has heard “i didn’t see him, officer”.
and thats another thing! the only people i ever hear whine about the destruction of wild horses are those who don’t live anywhere near them and don’t have to deal with them wandering onto the highway in front of you or eating your landscaping. i also don’t like coyotes, jackrabbits and deer but i hear they are delicious if cooked right.
WELL, OF COURSE, TURN THEM OFF WHEN SOMEONE IS COMING! i guess the point i was trying to make is you need to indentify risks while driving and you need to be able to see them first, therefore, more light the better. i guess the original idea is, yes, turn them off when they become a risk to others.
my father once told me years ago that the technology exists to put BLINDING lights on cars, and with the use of polorized windshields, they seem to appear realitivly dim to oncoming cars. (he was a smart guy and had more details then i can relate here) the idea was shot down by the big 4 for some reason or another, most likely $$. sounds like a giant conspiricy, maybe even the illuminati are involved. (is this a pun?)
This too is a pet peeve of mine. I am absolutely anal about dimming them for oncoming traffic, and I would appreciate other drivers to be just as considerate.
That is exactly when you should use them, when the road is deserted. I know where I live I use high-beams whenever I can. I am guessing I get about, another oh, 200 yards or so visibility (that is a # I pulled out of my ass). That can and has saved me (and I am sure other drivers) from coliding with deer, moose, porcupine, skunk, drunk pedestrian, etc.
High beams (brights) are there for a reason. They help you see. Just make sure you use some damn common sense though and dim them when other drivers are oncomming.
I am no longer bothered by brights on the cars behind me, thanks to a cool device on my car. (FTR, it’s a Land Rover Discovery II)
My rearview mirror automatically dims when light behind me are too bright, so I am never blinded. Very cool little trick, never expected it. Thank you, kind British car guys.
As for the idiots with them on coming towards me- you people deserve to be run off the road. So what if you’re one lane over from me? Do you think I can’t see your lights? Dumbass.
I must remember to swerve towards the bright lights and take you with me next time, rather than merely killing myself in a ditch.
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