Daylight Driving Lights

firefox1956

Driving on a rainy motorway with poor visibility I sensibly had my dipped headlights on.
I was obviously aware of other vehicles that stupidly only has their daylight driving sidelights on.
I then became aware of something rather strange.........
Some makes & models of cars that had their daylight driving sidelights on did not have any rear red lights showing........
Very strange.......never noticed it before !!
I then started to take more notice & it became obvious that the drivers of these vehicles were probably not aware that when the daylight driving front lights were on no rear lights were showing.
New Kia Sportage was one of them although there were several others.

wymondham

I've never known a car with daylight saving lights on the front to also have them on the back..... certainly no Ford or Seat I've had have them on both? assumed this was normal??

pappa_golf

"Driving Lights"

neilmcl

firefox1956 wrote: »

Driving on a rainy motorway with poor visibility I sensibly had my dipped headlights on.
I was obviously aware of other vehicles that stupidly only has their daylight driving sidelights on.
I then became aware of something rather strange.........
Some makes & models of cars that had their daylight driving sidelights on did not have any rear red lights showing........
Very strange.......never noticed it before !!
I then started to take more notice & it became obvious that the drivers of these vehicles were probably not aware that when the daylight driving front lights were on no rear lights were showing.
New Kia Sportage was one of them although there were several others.

They're called Daytime Running Lights (DRLs) and they are completely separate to the main headlight system so no car with just DRLs lit will have their rear lights on. Which is why in poor visibility it is advised to put your main lights on too. A lot of cars now are also coming fitted with auto headlights so this should be less of a problem.

Having said that the sensors on automatic headlights are not always great in certain circumstances, for example in fog during the daytime.

firefox1956

neilmcl wrote: »

They're called Daytime Running Lights (DRLs) and they are completely separate to the main headlight system so no car with just DRLs lit will have their rear lights on. Which is why in poor visibility it is advised to put your main lights on too. A lot of cars now are also coming fitted with auto headlights so this should be less of a problem.

OK so Daytime Running Lights.........
But I am afraid you are wrong.......some do have DRLs on with no rear red lights & some makes of car DO have rear red lights on with DRLs.

stator

Yes, it does seem many drivers are not aware of how DRLs work

DoaM

firefox1956 wrote: »

OK so Daytime Running Lights.........
But I am afraid you are wrong.......some do have DRLs on with no rear red lights & some makes of car DO have rear red lights on with DRLs.

All I can say from my own experience and observations is that any vehicle I've used or seen with DRLs on has not had rear lights also on.

My Golf doesn't illuminate the rear with DRLs on.

neilmcl

firefox1956 wrote: »

OK so Daytime Running Lights.........
But I am afraid you are wrong.......some do have DRLs on with no rear red lights & some makes of car DO have rear red lights on with DRLs.

How do you know that the cars with their rear lights on didn't just have their side lights on pretending to be DRLs. Please name these makes of car that DO have DRLs that activate rear lights as well.

In fact it actually states in the DOTs safety standard guidelines that in general all other lights should remain off when DRLs are active.

neilmcl

There is also a very good safety reason why DRLs and rear lights should not be combined, as stated in the original EU report for the implementation of DRLs for all new vehicles. Running with rear lights during the daytime can "mask" the effect of brake lights and thus can potentially increase rear shunt accidents.

So again I ask which vehicles have proper DRLs fitted that also activate rear lights because I've not come across any as they're probably in contravention of the relevant legislation.

Hermione_Granger

neilmcl wrote: »

In fact it actually states in the DOTs safety standard guidelines that in general all other lights should remain off when DRLs are active.

In general all other lights should remain off when the DRL are on but for a limited period some vehicles may be available which automatically activate the rear position lamps at the same time as the DRL.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/daytime-running-lights/daytime-running-lights

So it's possible that there are some pre 2011 vehicles that have rear lights illuminated with DRL's on.

chrisw

Hermione_Granger wrote: »

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/daytime-running-lights/daytime-running-lights

So it's possible that there are some pre 2011 vehicles that have rear lights illuminated with DRL's on.

That's odd. My 2016 Volvo V60 has the rear lights illuminated with the front DRL leds on.