Driving with Headlights on

jase1

alastairq wrote: »

How would you know?

That BMW in limp mode you've just come across, is acting legally and correctly.

Absolutely not.

A car that's in limp-home mode has no business whatsoever on the motorway. The driver should be calling his recovery service and waiting to be towed to the nearest garage.

Driving the car in this state is careless driving and the driver almost certainly would be pulled if the traffic police were around.

knightstyle

Iceweasel, the car I have just hired, a VW Polo uses headlights as DRL, so yes I have experience and can see what I said happening very easily!
interstellaflyer when you get in and start up the headlights are on so you think your lights are on and drive away.

interstellaflyer

knightstyle wrote: »

Iceweasel, the car I have just hired, a VW Polo uses headlights as DRL, so yes I have experience and can see what I said happening very easily!
interstellaflyer when you get in and start up the headlights are on so you think your lights are on and drive away.

They are built in to the headlight unit they won't give the same beam as the headlight it's self so will probably do very little to light up the road ahead of you.

Iceweasel

interstellaflyer wrote: »

They are built in to the headlight unit they won't give the same beam as the headlight it's self so will probably do very little to light up the road ahead of you.

knightstyle: That is exactly what I meant - you can tell immediately that there is not enough light on the road in front.

No way could I set off with DRLs only thinking that that they were my headlights on low beam.

There is a huge difference in light output.

almillar

Joe - yes, agreed. They always say, expect the unexpected, but your meteorite example is an excellent one. Maybe you could have avoided the accident if it was 50 yrds in front. What if it was 40? What if we did 30 all the time just in case it happened? If you take 'expect the unexpected' to the extreme, you would end up cowering in your bedroom afraid to move, never mind getting into a car!

'That BMW in limp mode you've just come across, is acting legally and correctly.'

You're not getting it are you alistairq? I'm talking about people CHOOSING to drive at 30 on a motorway.
That guy going up a hill in a big heavy vehicle, the broken BMW (going off at the next exit I hope!), the fish tank in the boot, whatever, they have a reason to be going so slowly, other than 'just because'. They ALL cause hazards, because they're not keeping up with the flow of traffic.

As I keep saying, it isn't what other are doing, in whatever shape of vehicle, that matters...it's how you as individuals cope with that other road user that is so important.

I'll cope just fine, thanks, but these people are causing an inconvenience to me and lots of other road users in the example.

There's never a time whilst driving that lights shouldn't be on, but there are plenty of times when they must be on. If you do see someone without their lights on when they should, perhaps you should consider flashing your lights at them, I've often found it works.

jase1

almillar wrote: »

You're not getting it are you alistairq? I'm talking about people CHOOSING to drive at 30 on a motorway.
That guy going up a hill in a big heavy vehicle, the broken BMW (going off at the next exit I hope!), the fish tank in the boot, whatever, they have a reason to be going so slowly, other than 'just because'. They ALL cause hazards, because they're not keeping up with the flow of traffic.

None of those are adequate reasons to be doing 30mph on a motorway. Ordinary roads yes.

Driving a broken car at all, but especially on a motorway is thoroughly unacceptable. As I previously said, they should be calling the RAC and getting their broken vehicle recovered.

The others are acceptable on, say, an A-road -- but they need to be driving well to the left and making it as easy as they can for other vehicles to pass.

With this attitude that 30mph is acceptable on the motorway, we'll be seeing tractors driving on them next :mad:

Lum

If the tractor is capable of doing 25mph then it is legally allowed to drive on the motorway.

Also seriously calling out the RAC for a BMW in limp home mode which usually means something stupid like the emissions are bad, which is more dangerous? (based on my last experience of a breakdown in a car new enough to have a limp home mode)

1) Proceeding to the next exit and getting off the motorway, typically 5-15 minutes of driving.

2) Wait on the hard shoulder for an hour, RAC van turns up, realises they can't fix it, realises they can't tow it because it's RWD and automatic so a flatbed is needed, call the control centre, van sods off, an hour later a slightly bigger van with a towing dolly turns up, realises they can't tow it because the car is RWD and automatic so a flatbed is needed, call the control centre, van sods off, two hours later a flatbed turns up and finally you're off the motorway after 4 hours of being sat on the hard shoulder hoping nobody hits you.

Bonus points if, as in the case of my partner who drives a RWD automatic, you're disabled and so can't exit the vehicle. The RAC person in the van decided it was sufficiently dangerous for her to be there that he topped up the coolant and had her drive off the motorway, stopping every time the temperatures got too high in order to refill the coolant, eventually leaving her in a services while they sorted out a flatbed.

jase1

Putting others in danger to avoid personal inconvenience is contemptible, and to be honest you disappoint me Lum making the above post.

Several years ago my wipers failed in pouring rain on the A1, and I waited at the hard shoulder for two hours.

I could have trundled along the motorway at 25-30mph. But that would have made me a selfish, inconsiderate piece of filth who should have my licence taken away.

Lum

Simply being on the hard shoulder is dangerous. Thanks to wonderful things like target bias people have this amazing tendency to randomly crash into a car that is stopped on the HS.

I gave the most extreme example here, a disabled person who will be forced to sit in that car while waiting for a tow, waiting for someone to hit her, and it being a non-simple tow that takes hours to arrange. The RAC driver agreed that it was too dangerous for her to remain there and you'd hope they're trained about how to deal with situations like this.

If it's a FWD manual car and you're able to safely exit and climb onto the embankment then things would be different.

TBH in a limp home situation where it isn't safe to stop due to one or more of the reasons I describe, I'd probably go with limping at 30 in the HS with hazards on. Probably not legal but the safest option and I'll deal with any fine later.

adouglasmhor

Lum wrote: »

If the tractor is capable of doing 25mph then it is legally allowed to drive on the motorway.

No it's not, not ever.

HighwayCode_and_it_says_MUST_NOT wrote:

253
Prohibited vehicles. Motorways MUST NOT be used by pedestrians, holders of provisional motorcycle or car licences, riders of motorcycles under 50 cc, cyclists, horse riders, certain slow-moving vehicles and those carrying oversized loads (except by special permission), agricultural vehicles, and powered wheelchairs/powered mobility scooters (see Rules 36 to 46 inclusive)
Laws HA 1980 sects 16, 17 & sch 4, MT(E&W)R regs 3(d), 4 & 11, MT(E&W)(A)R, R(S)A sects 7, 8 & sch 3, RTRA sects 17(2) & (3), & MT(S)R reg 10