DRL - safety?

JustAnotherSaver

Could go in the rant forum this i suppose but since it's about motoring. No doubt has already been discussed but anyway.

With the way the world has gone OTT with health & safety, these DRLights seem to be way off the mark in my view.

The basis of them seem to be a decent enough idea. Like your sidelights on during the daytime. Bright LEDs (i don't know if they're all LEDs) so you stand out that 'bit more'.

But what a god awful idea come night time.


I have a 2001 plated Astra. My speedometer lights only come on if my sidelights as a minimum are on so if i'm driving at night & my speedometer is not lit up then i know my lights aren't on.

Some would say you'd know if it was dark in front of you but not so. Depending where you drive, if it's a well lit up area i find the headlight light output can be pretty poor & you don't notice a noticeable difference. If you're on the back lanes with no lighting then fair enough you'd notice.

My sister has an 05 plated Astra. Her speedometer lights up regardless of whether her headlights/sidelights are on or not. Not such a good idea i'd say.

But these DRLights - you get people who clearly just have them on all the time & so when night time hits & their speedometer must be all lit up, they often forget that they haven't actually put their headlights on & as a result there's no lights on the rear of their car.

What sort of stupid design idea is that? Surely they're supposed to improve safety, not make it worse?

I was behind a car the other night. Not so much street lighting & i didn't see it for a while until i was fairly close to it. I'm not going to exaggerate & say i nearly hit it because i didn't, i wasn't going that fast, but they had no lights on the rear at all & i later saw they only had their DRLs on.

I gave them a few flashes as an attempt to get them to turn their lights on but either they couldn't work out why i was flashing or i don't know what. They never turned their lights on.

I've seen a few like that in the dark. They think they only need to be seen from the front. Yes legally you need some sort of reflective on the rear but it's not the best of ideas now is it!?

Just seems a terrible design to me. I'm sure many will disagree, i'd be curious as to the argument against it also turning the rear lights on though.

GTE_Boy

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Could go in the rant forum this i suppose but since it's about motoring. No doubt has already been discussed but anyway.

With the way the world has gone OTT with health & safety, these DRLights seem to be way off the mark in my view.

The basis of them seem to be a decent enough idea. Like your sidelights on during the daytime. Bright LEDs (i don't know if they're all LEDs) so you stand out that 'bit more'.

But what a god awful idea come night time.


I have a 2001 plated Astra. My speedometer lights only come on if my sidelights as a minimum are on so if i'm driving at night & my speedometer is not lit up then i know my lights aren't on.

Some would say you'd know if it was dark in front of you but not so. Depending where you drive, if it's a well lit up area i find the headlight light output can be pretty poor & you don't notice a noticeable difference. If you're on the back lanes with no lighting then fair enough you'd notice.

My sister has an 05 plated Astra. Her speedometer lights up regardless of whether her headlights/sidelights are on or not. Not such a good idea i'd say.

But these DRLights - you get people who clearly just have them on all the time & so when night time hits & their speedometer must be all lit up, they often forget that they haven't actually put their headlights on & as a result there's no lights on the rear of their car.

What sort of stupid design idea is that? *Surely they're supposed to improve safety, not make it worse?

I was behind a car the other night. Not so much street lighting & i didn't see it for a while until i was fairly close to it. I'm not going to exaggerate & say i nearly hit it because i didn't, i wasn't going that fast, but they had no lights on the rear at all & i later saw they only had their DRLs on.

I gave them a few flashes as an attempt to get them to turn their lights on but either they couldn't work out why i was flashing or i don't know what. They never turned their lights on.

I've seen a few like that in the dark. They think they only need to be seen from the front. Yes legally you need some sort of reflective on the rear but it's not the best of ideas now is it!?

Just seems a terrible design to me. I'm sure many will disagree, i'd be curious as to the argument against it also turning the rear lights on though.

Given part of your rant it's a good idea. At least they have some lights on at night.

neilmcl

Most cockpit lights wont come on unless the main lights are on even with DRLs, so I don't really see your argument there. I see plenty of drivers driving with zero lights in the early evening so I don't thing DRLs are any worse for this. The only one thing that's an issue are cars being driven in fog with just DRLs on.

GTE_Boy

neilmcl wrote: »

Most cockpit lights wont come on unless the main lights are on even with DRLs, so I don't really see your argument there. I see plenty of drivers driving with zero lights in the early evening so I don't thing DRLs are any worse for this. The only one thing that's an issue are cars being driven in fog with just DRLs on.

There are a lot of cars that do. The first one to catch me out was a Volvo, Sod's law because at one time you couldn't drive without lights.

EssexExile

My Honda dashboard lights are on all the time, if you turn the lights on they go dimmer.
DRLs on my old Volvo were just the dipped headlights so I just left the normal headlights on all the time, nothing to remember.

patman99

A lot of cars have digital dashboards with LED readouts, so do not have night illumination.

As for DLRs being a good safety measure. In a large number of countries where they are a legal requirement, they have actually seen an increase in the accident rates rather than a decrease.
This being down to drivers not spotting non-DLR fitted vehicles until it was too late.

Strider590

You see I think DRLs were a simple way to tackle bad drivers who don't use their lights in adverse weather (fog/snow/etc).
In the same way they reduce speed limits to 40 or 50 instead of doing something about the drivers who do 40 everywhere.

BeenThroughItAll

Strider590 wrote: »

You see I think DRLs were a simple way to tackle bad drivers who don't use their lights in adverse weather (fog/snow/etc).
In the same way they reduce speed limits to 40 or 50 instead of doing something about the drivers who do 40 everywhere.

For Christmas, can we have a new record?

forgotmyname

Shame they didnt think the DRL issue properly before allowing them.

Boy racers used to have their fog lights on all the time and got a ticket for it, now you just say they are DRL and are legal?

DRL should have been part of the headlight unit and disabled at night, instead of allowing them to be fitted almost anywhere.

Same way the some bulbs were rated on watts consumed. So an 11Watt tungsten bulb can be replaced by an 11Watt LED which can be like a searchlight.

pd52

My 2015 golf gti's dash light will only come on in low light levels if the headlights are on, switch the lights off/drls or to side light and the speedo etc is dark, I believe this is actually a feature to stop what you mention OP

neilmcl

patman99 wrote: »

A lot of cars have digital dashboards with LED readouts, so do not have night illumination.

As for DLRs being a good safety measure. In a large number of countries where they are a legal requirement, they have actually seen an increase in the accident rates rather than a decrease.
This being down to drivers not spotting non-DLR fitted vehicles until it was too late.

Evidence please?