Parking Lights - What do people use for them for?

[Star_Was]

I have never used parking lights in my life. What are they for?

[Star_Was]

Could a mod please fix the title. Thank you.

[CaveMike]

Parking

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Here is one use from the Illinois DMV:

Parking a vehicle, whether occupied or not, is prohibited:

• on a highway between sunset and sunrise unless parking lights are displayed in front and rear or you are within an urban district where lights are not required. Headlights on parked vehicles must be dimmed.

[CaveMike]

Here is a better quote from the same site:

PARKING LIGHTS: Front and rear parking lights are required for any vehicle stopped on a highway at night. Some local communities may allow unlighted night parking on streets.

[epepke]

@Star Was

I have never used parking lights in my life. What are they for?

They’re for parking. That is, when coming home in the wee hours, having enough light to guide yourself but not enough to blaze through the windows of your neighbors who are trying to sleep while you are turning. Hence the name, “parking lights.”

[Meeko]

People use their hazards for turbulent weather… perhaps parking lights could work for this as well… minus the flashing…

Wonder if people also use them, to hint to other drivers that one car is following another…

[Star_Was]

If you are going to park on a highway, why don’t you just put on the hazard lights?

[stuyguy]

This question gets asked every 6 months or so, and I just don’t understand why people are so mystified.

I too never ever used my parking lights until a few years ago when I realized just how handy they can be. Sometimes you want to be seen, but not blast your headlights (draining your battery) or blink your hazards. You use the parking lights. What’s the big mystery here?

[caphis]

Cops (in these parts, anyway) use them at night when parked and speedtrapping.

[ccwaterback]

Any time you are parked near moving traffic at night you should have your parking lights on. I believe it is against the law to drive with only your parking lights on, but I think it is rarely enforced.

[ccwaterback]

Let’s try that again …

Any time you are parked near moving traffic at night, in a space not normally used for long term parking, you should have your parking lights on.

[scotandrsn]

Actually, I was once in a very tight parallel-parking situation, in need of some above-and-beyond precision indicator of my corners. Flipped on the parking lights and determined how close I was to the other guy’s bumper by how sharp the image of the reflected light was. Very handy.

[Joey_P]

@scotandrsn

Actually, I was once in a very tight parallel-parking situation, in need of some above-and-beyond precision indicator of my corners. Flipped on the parking lights and determined how close I was to the other guy’s bumper by how sharp the image of the reflected light was. Very handy.

If it’s late at night, it’s also nice to be parallel parking without your headlights reflecting off the other car and blinding you.

[FilmGeek]

I only use them when pulling up to a store with a big window. The glare is annoying for me and for anyone inside.

I try not to use them too often, because I don’t have to turn off my headlights when I turn off the car so they stay on all the time. (I only have a choice of daytime running lights, full headlights or parking lights). My parking lights stay on with the car off so I run down my battery.

[jacquilynne]

In a related question, I often see mini-vans driving around with nothing but parking lights on. It’s only ever mini-vans, and I see 2 or 3 a week doing it. What’s up with that? Anybody know?

[Lobelia_Overhill]

which ones are the parking lights?

[asterion]

The interesting thing is, I always thought those were supposed to be useful as fog lights. You know, when there’s enough fog to need some sort of light but it’s thick enough for the white to reflect and blind you. Or something like that, anyway.

[ltfire]

How come we park in driveways, and drive on parkways?

…sorry…

[St.Urho]

@caphis

Cops (in these parts, anyway) use them at night when parked and speedtrapping.

We use them all the time when we’re posting at night with the ambulance. We’re parked with the engine running, so there’s no point having the headlights on, but we can still see the gauges, the radio, etc.

St. Urho
NREMT-P

[Kimstu]

In 1995 the Car Talk guys did a column on the origin and use of parking lights:

Before they were called parking lights, they were known as “sidelights.” And at one time, they WERE used to make a parked car more visible, when it was pulled over to the side of the road where other drivers might not expect it. But since the mid-sixties, we have emergency flashers or hazard lights for that.
[…] They’re also used during the “twilight hours,” instead of full headlights. But there’s really not much reason for that either. If the purpose is to make your car more visible to other drivers, headlights do a better job of that.
[…] In fact, a number of manufacturers, including GM, Volvo, and Volkswagen are now equipping cars with “daytime running lights.” That means some kind of headlights will be on whenever the engine is running, so the car will always have the maximum visibility to other drivers. And that should make parking lights even more obsolete.
[…] We obviously need to come up with some other uses for parking lights to justify their continued existence…and perhaps a new name for them, too. Do you readers have any suggestions?

And then they did a followup on the topic:

This will “date” me, but all I can remember using parking lights for was at the drive-in movies. My family would all go together and if you arrived after the projector started to roll, you had to find a spot to park the car using only your “parking lights,” lest you ruin the show for everybody else. Same thing for cars leaving before the show ended. […]

Parking lights “needed and justified,” or “a relic from the past?” Both! As defined in the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) in Surface Vehicle Standard J222, 2.2.1 “Parking lamps, whether separate or combined with other lamps, are located on both the front left and right of the vehicle which show to the front and are intended to mark the vehicle when parked. In addition, these front lamps serve as a reserve front position indicating system in the event of headlamp failure.” Here’s a little history: The parking lamps used to work independent of the headlamps, so you could have the headlights on without having the parking lights on, too. But back in 1968, cars were first required to have “side marker lamps.” The side marker lamps were to be lit up in both the “parking” mode and the “headlamps on” mode as a way of making the vehicle more visible from the side in the dark. So, to accomplish this as simply as possible, the side marker lights were wired into the parking light circuit and the parking lights were simply set up to remain on when the headlamps were turned on. So, the parking lights lost some of their uniqueness. But, as an added benefit (by design or default?) the parking lights then provided a reserve means of position indication in the event a headlamp burns out. That’s what makes them still useful! […]

Tom: Thanks, David. I hadn’t thought about parking lights as a “back up” to blown headlights, but you’re right, they CAN help you figure out what you’re looking at. When you see one headlight barrelling down the road towards you, the parking lights help you determine whether it’s a) a motorcycle 2) a car with its right headlight out or III) a car that’s driving in the middle of the road car with its left headlight out.

Ray: So if that’s their only useful purpose, why don’t we drop the “parking lights” name? They have nothing to do with parking anymore. Maybe we should just call them “front marker lights” and be done with this “parking light” charade. It’s a ruse… a sham perpetrated on the American people!

Tom: I disagree. There’s historic significance to the term “parking lights,” because they used to be used for parking–before there were street lights and set-aside spaces for parking. You think we should just throw away our history because technology changes? You think we should change the term “dial the phone” to “push the phone” just because we now have push buttons instead of rotary dials? You think we should change the designation “cc” for carbon copy to “lpc” for “laser printed copy” because carbon paper is out of date?

Ray: Yes. And while we’re at it, in the interests of modern day accuracy, I think they should also change the name of our column to “Ray Talks About Cars and Tom Rants and Raves About Everything Else.”