Drivers and headlights

jrrowleyws

Also... morons who insist in driving with side lights on rather than dipped beams.. you cant see anything with side lights and they dont particularly make you any more visible to other road users either, they are crap.

diamond_mum

what is annoying is the really bright head lights, get blinded while driving!!!

Gers

Gers wrote: »

I'm in the same boat - Vauxhall do sealed units which means that a blown bulb can't be fixed on the road. The other day I 'lost' my dipped beam and had to drive 200 miles up the M1/A1/A1(M) with either only sidelights (in heavy traffic) or main beam (in light traffic in dark sections). At one point I used my front fogs but they don't shine far enough ahead.

what is annoying is the really bright head lights, get blinded while driving!!!

Also... morons who insist in driving with side lights on rather than dipped beams.. you cant see anything with side lights and they dont particularly make you any more visible to other road users either, they are crap.

:eek::eek::eek:

Think I am two categories of annoying driver in one fell swoop!

vinylmusic

The reason that Danish and Swedish drivers have to have their headlights on at all times is obviously because of the short daylight hours throughout their long winters
Even in daylight it's proved to be a life saver with less road accidents so I think that anything that can save lives makes sense and shouldn't be frowned upon.

Once I was stopped by the police in germany for having only one light working. I didn't get fined or anything but their attitude was that ignorance isn't an excuse.

I've never heard of the British police stopping motorists for a blown headlight, even just to tell them and considering the amount I see on a daily basis I'm sure that many drivers are aware but just dont care

Imagine your on a narrow country road and only see one headlamp approaching. It would be all to easy to assume that it as a motorbike and after the possible resulting collision it could be difficult to prove who was to blame hence causing both drivers to be blamed

While I'm having my rant, one other think that bugs me in the UK is the amount of drivers who drive around at dusk with only parking lights on
When will it ever sink in that parking lights are for parking
Even more reason why daylight headlights should be compulsory.

I'm going to buy a set of DRL lights and I don't care what anyone else thinks. If I do get a blown headlight without being aware of it at least others will notice me until I get it fixed

DCFC79

vinylmusic wrote: »

The reason that Danish and Swedish drivers have to have their headlights on at all times is obviously because of the short daylight hours throughout their long winters
Even in daylight it's proved to be a life saver with less road accidents so I think that anything that can save lives makes sense and shouldn't be frowned upon.

Once I was stopped by the police in germany for having only one light working. I didn't get fined or anything but their attitude was that ignorance isn't an excuse.

I've never heard of the British police stopping motorists for a blown headlight, even just to tell them and considering the amount I see on a daily basis I'm sure that many drivers are aware but just dont care

Imagine your on a narrow country road and only see one headlamp approaching. It would be all to easy to assume that it as a motorbike and after the possible resulting collision it could be difficult to prove who was to blame hence causing both drivers to be blamed

While I'm having my rant, one other think that bugs me in the UK is the amount of drivers who drive around at dusk with only parking lights on
When will it ever sink in that parking lights are for parking
Even more reason why daylight headlights should be compulsory.

I'm going to buy a set of DRL lights and I don't care what anyone else thinks. If I do get a blown headlight without being aware of it at least others will notice me until I get it fixed

i forgot about this,

thats exactly my point vinyl music, its quite annoying when you see 1 headlight approaching and you think its a bike but it turns out to be some numpty with a blown haedlight,

MsHoarder

DRLs may reduce car accidents, but they also increase risk to cyclists and pedestrians as they become harder to see against lights. Car drivers are fairly safe anyway.

Azari

jrrowleyws wrote: »

Also... morons who insist in driving with side lights on rather than dipped beams.. you cant see anything with side lights and they dont particularly make you any more visible to other road users either, they are crap.

They can be quite dangerous when you get one car with sidelights in a stream of cars driving with headlights. It can look like a gap in the traffic.

Not enough to cause an accident by itself but it could easily be part a set of circumstances that leads to one.

It's often older (nowadays, much older) drivers who do this because when cars were fitted with dynamos rather than alternators you could drain your battery driving slowly with headlights on. (Or so I've been told.)

SHIPSHAPE

bargainbetty wrote: »

My bulb blew last week, less than two weeks after my MOT. I have got it booked in for a repair with my mechanic, but since I work full time, it won't be done till next week when I could get time off.

We're not all irresponsible lazy g*ts, y'know?

I take it you will be off the road until the bulb is fitted then?

scottishblondie

anxious_mum wrote: »

I drive a Volvo V50, so there's no chance me forgetting to put my lights on! I find it annoying that I have to have them on all the time, is it the law in Sweden or something? Well, it isn't the law here, yet. Still, its better than when I picked up a hire car at Schipol ariport the other evening and drove about three miles on the motorway before being flagged down by a helpful Dutch man who told me I'd forgotten to put my lights on at all......doh! It was quite interesting, when he approached the car, the first thing he said was 'Are you English?'

I like having the lights on all the time. I feel it's a bit safer just in case I forget to put the headlights on, and also in case of weather that isn't quite bad enough to put proper lights on.

It's the people that seem to permanently drive around with their fog lights on that really annoy me. My BF thinks I'm a bit daft for letting me annoy so much, but it really does drive me up the wall.

Interestingly, when my parents brought a Volvo over here in the early 70s they used to get stopped by people all the time to tell them they'd forgotten to turn their lights off!

foxwales

What annoys me the most is 90% of people who do not have their headlights on the correct weight setting for their car.

This means you get blinded by even standard headlights, if your car is empty, put your bloody lighting load to 0 not leave it at 3 so you blind everyone!!!!!