Driving with Headlights on

Lum

jase1 wrote: »

To be honest I may have been a little harsh toward Lum... she always talks a lot of sense IMO and I can see the opposite side of the argument. I guess a lot depends on the individual circumstance -- it's not really constructive to make blanket judgement calls regardless of the situation.

Eh? I don't care. People have said far worse things to me on the internet.

All I know - and I realise it's a second hand experience, but I heard about it in enough detail that evening - is that being trapped in your car on the HS with cars and lorries zooming past (and there always seems to be at least one lorry that can't stay in it's lane) is a bloody scary experience. TBH being a lone woman on the embankment isn't exactly great either.

I don't really see a problem with using 30mph limp mode on the hard shoulder just to get yourself off the motorway.

I guess I'm lucky, the one time the Mondeo went into limp mode it generously allowed me to do 60, so I just sat behind a lorry and matched speeds (because doing 60 past the 56 mph lorries is a really obnoxious thing to do that drops the motorway down to one lane). Since I wasn't causing any form of obstruction I skipped the exit and pulled into Michael Wood Services and waited for the AA while enjoying a nice overpriced cup of tea and a bowl of soup on expenses. I didn't actually want to do any on-site work on a Friday anyway!

jase1

Lum wrote: »

I don't really see a problem with using 30mph limp mode on the hard shoulder just to get yourself off the motorway.

Ah! Yes -- 30mph on the h/s, whilst illegal, I would say is a far better idea than doing it on the highway itself.

I think we may have crossed wires here.

Chickabiddybex

Personally I find it more difficult to see someone's indicators if they have their lights on during the day. Doesn't stand out as much. Especially those real lights shaped like circles with the indicator inside.

Lum

Chickabiddybex wrote: »

Personally I find it more difficult to see someone's indicators if they have their lights on during the day. Doesn't stand out as much. Especially those real lights shaped like circles with the indicator inside.

To be fair, that's less an issue with headlights/DRLs and more to do with crappy indicator placement on modern cars.

Here's a picture of a car the same model as mine: http://i.imgur.com/RaVzWWxl.jpg
It's a 1988 design. See where the indicators are. No way the headlights would detract from those.

knightstyle

Sorry GolfBravo but you are wrong!
I parked the Polo facing a wall last night and there is no difference in brightness or beam pattern when on DRL or dipped beam. It looks like a single filament bulb. Perhaps higher spec models are different, this one was a 1.2 base model.

Paradigm

Dunno about the Polo but the VW Caddy vans at work use a standard 21w/5w stop /tail light bulb.

The 21w filament comes on with the ignition but is replaced by the 5w when dipped headlights are on.

almillar

Joe Horner - absolutely - we're all responsible for our own driving. We have always been dealing with hypothetical examples, he's never said what vehicle he drives or anything, so I've no idea whether he ever drives like that or not.
What I am saying is that 30 on a motorway is unsafe. That would be GIVING all the other drivers a hazard to cope with. It's their responsibility to cope with it, sure, and the should be driving so that they can cope, but my argument is that the hazard shouldn't be there in the first place.
We've discussed in this thread that there are legitimate reasons why a vehicle would be on a m'way at 30, but simply doing by choice unnecessarily, is, in my opinion, bad driving and selfish.

Joe_Horner

almillar wrote: »

We've discussed in this thread that there are legitimate reasons why a vehicle would be on a m'way at 30, but simply doing by choice unnecessarily, is, in my opinion, bad driving and selfish.

I don't think anyone on here could seriously argue with that, depending on the situation, of course. Doing 30 in a fog or snowstorm where you can only see 50 yards ahead is probably sensible - assuming you really need to be moving at all in those conditions!

Equally, it can be turned round and said that someone trying to force through congested traffic at the speed limit is also bad driving and selfish, but those of us who do slow down when appropriate also have to take responsibility for compensation for those bad drivers.

My reading of alastair's posts was that's the point he was trying to make, and no doubt a big part of what he tries to convey when training people. A good and alert driver should be able to cope with anything, whether slow traffic or the 120mph nut in the roadworks, without allowing a potential danger to develop into an actual one first.

You won't always be successful in that, but should always be striving to do so. If you make that a matter of personal pride when you're behind the wheel then the slow driver ceases to be an irritation and becomes an opportunity to use your skills.