Idiots Without Lights On at Night

[S P]

Ahh yes! It's that time of year again, when it starts getting darker a bit earlier and we drive in dark conditions a bit more, yet soo many people can't seem to figure out how to turn on their lights. They drive around in complete darkness like absolute fools. How do they even see the road? Then they get all pissed off and lay on their horns when someone else pulls out in front of them, but how were they supposed to see you? Are we supposed to have infrared vision or something? My favorite was Idiot #3 in the black Nissan Maxima here, with the double offense. They're lucky the white car saw them! They were almost going to pull out. If they didn't see the black car with no lights going well above the speed limit, there would have been a horrific wreck. So many friggin idiots around here that are so dumb that they can't even handle the basics, like turning on lights at night!

 

[kamkar]

i had the opposite happen to me on my drive home at night 2 days ago, oncomming car had high beams on,,,,,, and his fog lights too,and offcourse there was no fog around for miles / at all.

But lucky for me i had my little 2000 lumen torch on the ready, so i gave him a good burst of the high speed flashing.

 

[Sunny]

What happened to auto headlights?
Do they deliberately turn the knob down to off?

 

[dash riposki]

In some developing countries they like to drive with the lights off at night because they think it saves them gas.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

In some developing countries they like to drive with the lights off at night because they think it saves them gas.

 

[Gibson99]

i guess in a well-lit area, they don't think about it, since so many gauges are back-lit even during the day. but yes, people must be deactivating automatic lights. i know the maxima has them for sure, but not all highlanders do.

wouldn't surprise me if the maxima was trying to be "hard" or gangster or whatever... right up till he plows into someone who didn't see him coming.

 

[S P]

Well here's my take:

#1 older Toyota Highlander - typical oblivious Toyota driver. We have an old Highlander of this body style, and ours has auto on/off headlights and DRLs, but not all models did. Our is a fully loaded Limited.

#2 Toyota Tundra - dumbass redneck, just running lights. I've pulled out from the side road where the Tundra driver was going, and with the shopping center on the other side and every other light, yeah it'd have been impossible for them to see if somebody just had running lights on.

#3 Nissan Maxima - gangsta probably doing it on purpose to be badass. Looked like it might have had custom wheels too, so yeah. Dumb kid thinking they're cool blowing red lights at 80 at night in a black car with no lights. Until they kill somebody that is.

#4 couldn't even see what it was, all you could see in the video were my lights reflecting off of their front plate. I freeze framed and think they did flip their lights on right as they were moving out of frame, so at least one person got a friggin clue.

 

[kamkar]

Here you are allowed to drive with the lights off, if the streetlights are so plentifull they overlap each other with no dark spaces between.

And way back when i got my car licence i was told only one road in Denmark is like that, and that was a road near Copenhagen ( where they dont have to think about saving money as the rest of the country finance that hellhole )

Worst part is the new cars with auto on light, problem is they only come on when its pretty dark, and i dont get it was we have to have the light on here even in daytime, but in the day you can make do with "DRL"
If you have a older car you have to use the low beam.

Here i think we allways had "DRL" as cars here as far as i can recall back allways had some lower then low beam lights, use to be called position lights.

Dunno if its the same, i gave up figuring out the BS the ppl in EU spread.

googled this which i cant read myself, my mood is good right now and i dont want to ruin it.

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/safety/daytime-running-lights.html

 

[S P]

Plenty of cars don't have auto-on headlights here, and DRLs are "allowed" but not required by law. I tried an experiment and switched my DRLs off for a week, and sure enough I had a bunch of people suddenly not see me and pulling out in front of me. I'd felt like they don't do anything, but then again I actually pay attention and look! Apparently way too many people just give a casual glance and that's it, and DRLs will make a difference for those.

 

[kamkar]

Many bicyclists here use a small light with a mercury button battery in it and 1 LED, thank god those have become illigal lately cuz in the dark in a sea of car headlights you just dont see 1 little white LED.

And offcourse with the ignorance of Danes you still often see some idiot with one of those lights on.

And ppl complain when i was young we had a dynamo on the side of the wheel zapping a lot of your pedal power, and we dident complain.

And i complain cuz if i run one of those mofos down its my fault

 

[S P]

I actually think those little lights on bicycles are great, and make a difference. If I see one light light bouncing around over the pavement, I see it and know there's a bicyclist there. Why would they make them illegal?? I remember the little generator things that hooked up to your wheel!

 

[kamkar]

Too little light from them i assume, i assume there is a minimun of lumen for a bicycle light now.
Personally i would prefer 800 - 1000 lumen, then i would also be able to see where i am going even in a pitch black forrest.

But i have not been pushing any pedals since 1989/90, im too old for that .....

 

[mel]

Many bicyclists here use a small light with a mercury button battery in it and 1 LED, thank god those have become illigal lately cuz in the dark in a sea of car headlights you just dont see 1 little white LED.

I have one on my cycle, uses a 3 volt lithium button cell, although it's not my main light, I use it on flash to make the bike more noticeable. I think it actually gives out more light than any of the approved road legal filament bulb Eveready 'D' celled, or those joined double cell bike lamps (which also used to flicker all the time because the vibration from the road would damage the cells) I used when I was a kid cycling home from school in the dark wearing my black uniform under a black school coat.

 

[Module 79L]

I tried an experiment and switched my DRLs off for a week, and sure enough I had a bunch of people suddenly not see me and pulling out in front of me. I'd felt like they don't do anything, but then again I actually pay attention and look! Apparently way too many people just give a casual glance and that's it, and DRLs will make a difference for those.

There you have it, the reason why I never drove again during the day with the headlights off since 2007!

 

[erkme73]

My complaint about the day-time running lights is that if they're not paired with automatic headlights, drivers will think their headlights are on at night. The dash is lit up, and they have some light ahead of them from the DRLs. But there are NO tail lights.

I've pulled up to drivers at a red light to let them know their headlights are off. They adamantly point to the street ahead of them and their dash, saying, "Yes, they're on, see!" It's only after I tell them that they have no lighting at the rear of the car that they start to fumble with the light switches. Rental cars are the worst, since their drivers are likely unfamiliar with the controls.

 

[balakov100]

A lot of the times the cars with Daytime running lights.
The headlights come on but aren't as bright as normal when you turn the switch. (Had a Suzuki car that did that).
Also the Rear Lights won't come on then.

So when you see someone driving with headlights on but no rear lights that's why.

 

[Sunny]

My complaint about the day-time running lights is that if they're not paired with automatic headlights, drivers will think their headlights are on at night. The dash is lit up, and they have some light ahead of them from the DRLs. But there are NO tail lights.

I've pulled up to drivers at a red light to let them know their headlights are off. They adamantly point to the street ahead of them and their dash, saying, "Yes, they're on, see!" It's only after I tell them that they have no lighting at the rear of the car that they start to fumble with the light switches. Rental cars are the worst, since their drivers are likely unfamiliar with the controls.

I've seen those as well but I don't think auto has anything to do with it.
They must have manually switched to DRL position.
I leave it in auto and it automatically turns headlights on when it's dark and turns DRL off.
It even turns them on when I'm under a bridge in heavy traffic.

 

[erkme73]

It depends. Newer cars come with several more options. My '07 has "Off/On/Auto". In the OFF position, my parking lights (front only) stay on 100% of the time. That's actually illegal in FL, since parking/marker lights w/o headlights indicates you are parked. But, given that every Toyota Tundra I've seen drives with them on, I assume the local po-po overlook it.

My '15 Highlander has DRL OFF/OFF/ON/AUTO. In the "OFF" position, the DRL's are on 100% of the time. And the headlights will NOT come on when it gets dark. In the AUTO, it functions as you described - DRL during bright periods, and headlights when it gets dark (including tunnels and under bridges).

The problem is with the newer cars is that drivers are faced with new and unfamiliar options. If they put the selector in the "off" position, then when they see the dash lit up and the road ahead of them with some light, they forget (or don't realize) they're actually just the DRL's. It really is the worst possible scenario, because passing motorists have no effective way of letting them know what the problem is... Short of rolling down the window and hollering at them.