Could you do me a favour please?

Retrogamer

Tilt wrote: »

Surely you mean that it would be dependent on the visibility conditions.

Kind of yeah. It was from a legal standpoint, more than a sensible one.

In a 30mph limit with street lighting, i doubt the rain would ever be dense enough where you can't spot the vehicle driving with it's position lights on.
In fog i'd put headlights on though for sure or for any other reason visibility was reduced massively.

I think the main reason why people dislike sidelights only is lazy driving. It takes maybe a second or two at most more to spot dim sidelights than main beams where it's obvious. It requires more concentration to see them.

When i'm cycling i have a bright always on light on the front of my bike, reflective clothes and a flashing light as well but people often still have problems seeing me. I suspect it's because they're used to, thus only looking for something the size and brightness of a dipped headlight.

Pure speculation though

Tilt

Retrogamer wrote: »

Kind of yeah. It was from a legal standpoint, more than a sensible one.

In a 30mph limit with street lighting, i doubt the rain would ever be dense enough where you can't spot the vehicle driving with it's position lights on.
In fog i'd put headlights on though for sure or for any other reason visibility was reduced massively.

I think the main reason why people dislike sidelights only is lazy driving. It takes maybe a second or two at most more to spot dim sidelights than main beams where it's obvious. It requires more concentration to see them.

When i'm cycling i have a bright always on light on the front of my bike, reflective clothes and a flashing light as well but people often still have problems seeing me. I suspect it's because they're used to, thus only looking for something the size and brightness of a dipped headlight.

Pure speculation though

Whether that is the case or not, rain reduces visibility in a number of ways, for example it can obscure side windows, mirrors and of course can cause the inside of windows to become misted. Side lights by themselves are simply inadequate in persistent rain and the rule of thumb is that if you need your wipers on a constant setting (rather than intermittent) then you need dipped head lights on. As I said, a competent driver will know this.

facade

I thought this thread is about drivers not using dipped headlights when they don't legally have to, it has been 12 months since we dredged out the same arguments.

Like I said, we fall into 2 camps, and neither can see the others point of view

I do agree with posters above though, that as standards of driving continue to fall, because cars pretty much drive themselves, drivers observation is getting worse, and if you don't have badly adjusted HIDs they won't even see you, which is not too bad if you have airbags and seatbelt pretensioners, but if all you have is a cycle helmet you are in trouble :eek:

Retrogamer

Tilt wrote: »

Whether that is the case or not, rain reduces visibility in a number of ways, for example it can obscure side windows, mirrors and of course can cause the inside of windows to become misted. Side lights by themselves are simply inadequate in persistent rain and the rule of thumb is that if you need your wipers on a constant setting (rather than intermittent) then you need dipped head lights on. As I said, a competent driver will know this.

I don't dispute headlights make a car more visible, merely that if everyone uses them at night / rain it becomes the norm. That makes anything that isn't conforming to that less visible as people will pay less attention.

If someone struggles to see the 2 sidelights on a car on a lit street at 30mph if it's raining at night, then a cyclist with a less bright single front mounted light will have next to no chance. (as i've found from experience)

When my windows get misted up, i fire on the air con. A lot of people just use it for the summer, but if set to hot with it on it demists the interior windows of most cars rapidly.

Iceweasel

AFAIK it's only in the UK these corner 'marker lights' are referred to as side-lights.

In every other country - certainly in Europe and in he USA & Canada they are called 'parking-lights'.

It is illegal to drive at night with only parking-lights - except in the UK.

Who's out of step? Them or us?

How does the rest of the world manage - they must be daft?

pd52

No lights or headlights that's my rule.

photome

pd52 wrote: »

No lights or headlights that's my rule.

As it should be

konark

No lights or headlights that's my rule.

Exactly ..and if people can't see you they should get their eyes tested!

Zandoni

Personally I never drive with sidelights on, it's dipped or off.

I only put my fog lights on when it's very foggy, I turn them off as soon as I can and I don't leave them on when in a queue.

I also use my handbrake when stationary to avoid blinding the person behind.

I also avoid using my windscreen washer when travelling at speed with a car behind.

I also don't throw rubbish out of the window.

gilbert_and_sullivan

How heartening to see some read posts from people who haven't joined the light wars, millions now trying to outdo each other with ever higher power headlights and umpteen million lumen LED's with enough brake lights to sear your eyeballs and blind you which is really safe , and don't get me started on the too camp by far fashion fad for DRLs.

Turn the clock back 30 years or more and driving in London at night was a pleasure, everyone happily driving on sidelight which kept your night vision intact and much safer for everyone when unlit pedestrians cyclists and inanimate objects didn't disappear behind a wall of blinding unecessarily bright light.

Some interesting comments about driving in dipped beam up to a set speed, when and who decided what this speed should be, surely the competent driver uses an appropriate amount of light, using main beam when its of benefit, can't see the point of main beam being fitted at all if its not allowed below 60 seeing as the speed limit is 60 on single carriageways.

It is very difficult to overtake someone who doesn't know how to drive and sticks rigidly on dipped headlight on an unlit road for no reason, though i suspect part of the reason is that they don't want to be overtaken because when you do they then soon find the headlight flasher to tell you off, the irony presumably being lost on them that if they had used appropriate main beam they too could have made better progress than a milk float.

When i'm in my lorry i use main beam in the dark whatever speed i'm doing when no one is approaching, be stupid beyond all reason not to, this also helps people behind who want to overtake and i keep the main beam on and the road ahead lit up till they draw just past when the better ones put their main beam on, better for everyone involved.

The finer points of driving have been dumbed down just like so much else in this country to the lowest common denominator.
Driving at night is now hellish compared to years ago, too much light and far too many LED's with their constant flicker effect.