Parking Lights

SWMBO hates it because I often stop to ask cyclists where their lights are.  Amazing how many can't see the point.  What bothers me is that if I did manage to injure one of these fools due to their stupidity, then it would be MY fault.

Oh come on.

Everyone has cars with automated light systems nowdays.

Don't they?

Not all of us drive the latest models, and I'm keeping my current car till it falls to bits.  I drive a Volvo S60 (bought new 7 years ago).  I actually PAID to have the "lights on all the time" bit disabled.

Yep. I live near Cambridge, and drivers have to give cyclists a very wide berth. As do pedestrians. Or face the wrath of what seems to be a University sponsored police service. Mind you, in summer it can be a pleasure driving along behind a billowing summer dress on a bike. Tiny

Both my girls are Cambridge grads, and my eldest still lives in Cherry HInton, so I'm well familiar with Cambridge suicidal/selfish cyclists.  Oxford is just as bad.  What I always find disconcerting is when you stop at traffic lights and find that you have at least 2 (if not more) cyclists on either side of you.  Do the outside ones really think they are getting away from the lights faster than me?

Before any of our cycling fraternity decide I hate them, I would just like to point out that it's just the stupid/selfish ones I detest -  the same applies to other drivers.

I thought the funny four headlamped car syndrome was more to do with absent-minded drivers leaving on the fog lamps.(?)

Which being technically illegal the police can stop and impose fines for if they want to,

...especially when it's not foggy : )

imo unnecessary additional lights on cars more than often will only serve to add to an increasing amount of distraction/annoyance to other road users which can lower the general standards of road safety.

Debs

Rear fogs on in clear weather are illegal. They look like brake lights on M-Ways and dual carriage ways as they show when the traffic goes round bends, bloody frustrating.

Then you sir, are an idiot.

http://www.carpages.co.uk/moto...slation-07-02-11.asp

No, the only idiocy i can see is the people allowing this to happen

The findings of the research goes by totally flawed reasoning by assuming pedestrians and cyclists have difficulty seeing cars and vans!

In the real world it’s more like the other way around, the drivers of cars and vans should drive with a greater awareness of pedestrians and cyclists and drive extra careful when near them.

The irony is that LED type lights are a great benefit to cyclists, and maybe pedestrians and motorcyclists could benefit from using them too, but completely pointless to claim safety reasoning for pimping up cars and vans that; in juxtaposition are a very big four wheeled thing and highly visible already... yes really!

Obviously corruption somewhere in the all powerful car manufacturing lobby/industry who bribe the law makers into having the next silly fashion trinket to make their products look more technically sophisticated.

In fact they may become yet another driver distraction and cause even more deaths, especially among cyclists who will lose out on LED display brightness... by these new road legal cars that may look like Christmas Trees on four wheels.

Debs

Tony,

we country-folk must have better night vision than townies,

perhaps cos of all the carrots we crunch

Debs

Agree most of all the above, for sure the christmas tree light strings on cars, I recently refused to buy a model because it had a horrible S shaped row. Salesman thought I was bonkers to object to such desirable bling.

These are daylight running lights (DRL) & are in these weird looking strings to enable the as yet still small LED bulbs to emit sufficient lumen's.  The upside is that they are a daytime light so at least we are making a move to daytime lighting, hopefully soon it will be mandatory. 

Pet motoring lighting hates

Low level front fog lights 

- the only time to legally use them is when its falling snow or fog

Ditto rear fog lamps

Driving with parking lights

- the clue stoopid is in the name

Driving with no lights in semi darkness

- the driver will have 20/20 vision & eats lots of carrots

Parking in dark streets with no lights just because its allowed

Parking the wrong way round (front to the rear) because its allowed

Pet cyclist lighting hates

I live close to Oxford so have a fantastic selection of idiots riding bikes

No lights any time,

- bikers claim its OK as we have excellent city lights so its the car drivers that need to wake up

Minute little flashing things that might be a light - maybe

- is it ?- no - oops - that was an ex-cyclist

Students with all the above lighting errors & cannot see traffic lights or drive on the right side of the road or pavement

Hoodies with all the above & can't see anything, cars, pedestrians, even people shopping inside a shop.   

Of course the thing to fix it is effective law enforcement

But as they can't seem to prevent hand held cell phone use in cars, street crime, drug dealers or whatever,  I guess we can't do much but feel sorry for them with such limited resources.

Sorry to advise you all, but the law was made in 2008. Please see below: -

In 2008 a new law was passed by the European Commission that meant all new cars and small vans purchased after February 2011 had to have daytime running lights, and lorries will follow suit from August 2012. The new vehicles will have the daytime running lights (DRL) that come on automatically when the engine is started. This law will not affect cars bought before this period and DRL´s will not have to be retro fitted.

Daytime running lights are not new to the UK. Volvo´s were the first vehicles that came with these as standard, although the driver did have the option to turn them off. Volvo´s were fitted with DRL´s due to the laws in Sweden and have always been seen as a safety feature. The European Commission had introduced this law on advice that there could be a significant reduction in road deaths and serious injuries.

Cars used to be fitted with "side lights" (one each side front and rear),, "head lights" (which could be selected "dipped" or "main bam"), front fogs lamps and rear fog lights (or quite often a single rear fog light on the off-side only).

I lived in Sweden in 1967 and Volvos (and probably Saabs and all other vehicles - but I don't clearly recall) used to automatically switch on their side lights when the engine was started and thus ran with their side lights permanently illuminated. It was considered this made travelling vehicles easier to be seen and thus improved safety for all.

This practise of always running on side lights regardless of the weather and visibility, seemed to gradually spread beyond Sweden with progressively more people opting to switch their side lights on whenever they used their vehicle. I think it improves road safety, but I know a lot of people who don't agree. I'm not sure how strong the research evidence is either way. Looks like the evidence is in favour of "side lights" if new vehicles now have to be fitted with DRLs. Are DRLs the same Wattage as side lights (or candella ?)

If visibility drops, it has always seemed to me to make sense to switch on headlights in addition to side lights, primarily to improve your visibility to other road users and pedestrians. Its always seemed a bit subjective to me as to how "poor visibility" is defined and whether the use of headlights under such circumstances could be legally enforced. Mrs D's Merc has an "automatic" light setting, so her headlights come on when vis drops, but I find myself inclined to switch them on sooner than the automatic system.

As for fog lights, well I think fog is defined as when vis drops below 200m (or 220 yards in old money). No doubt the police could therefore enforce the rule of "no fog lights" if vis is better than 200m. But the poor old driver has to "guess" this distance, which on side roads is near on impossible. On motorways of course, the 100m edge markers make this estimation a bit easier.

I admit to using my front fog lights on country roads at night in poor weather in order to better see the verge, but I often switch them off when i see on-comming traffic. I also admit that the principal reason I use main beam on country roads at night is to let on-comming drivers see when I actually dip my lights and expect them to do the same.

As for suggetions of collusion within the motor industry and with all the governments of the world to enforce "fancy" lighting requirements so as to boost their ill-gotten gains...............phuh?...just Debs on her usual rant.

Cheers

Don

I agree, the auto light setting on the last few cars we've owned tended to come on a bit too late IMO.

I stopped using the auto setting following an incident when I was travelling along the M62 in the middle lane & the chap on the inside lane suddenly pulled out in front of me. It took me a moment or two to realise he'd done so because the auto lights had decided to switch on at that moment & he obviously thought I'd flashed him out.

I spend a week or so a month in Cumbria & I've noticed the folk up there are extremely reluctant to turn on their headlights (or indeed any lights) in adverse weather (of which there's rather a lot in the Lake District), yet the couple of times there's been a police patrol car on the road that I've either followed or seen on the other carriageway, they ignore the drivers of said cars.

I've come to the conclusion that people don't turn on their lights in such conditions because they just don't think to do so. 

Thanks, that's almost exactly what I was going to say.