Daytime Running Lights Crisis

[Ivor Windybottom]

Problem I sometimes get is the day running light and indicator are together. In daylight, the DRL LED is so bright I occasionally fail to see the flashing indicator. Guessing it's not just me, because some cars now dim or turn off the DRL when the indicator next to it is flashing.

There are regulations that cover this. Cars that have the DRLs within a certain distance of the indicator have to automatically switch off the DRL on that side while indicating.

DRLs don't include rear lights as they'd need to be bright enough to be seen in daylight so would be about as bright as brake lights, so you wouldn't be able to tell if the car in front was braking.

The energy consumed by LED DRLs is utterly trivial, probably less than is used to power the radio and will make approximately zero difference to fuel economy.

They prevent accidents, by making oncoming cars more visible.

They're just a good thing.

 

[Old Salt]

Drove 180 miles today, mostly in torrential rain. Lots of cars with seemingly no lights on. For gods sake when its p*ssing it down put your headlights on, dont rely on drl’s as those behind you cant see you!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

For gods sake when its p*ssing it down put your headlights on, dont rely on drl’s as those behind you cant see you!

and your rear fogs, if visibility is that poor - but remember to turn them off, when another vehicle closes up behind you, to avoid dazzling them.

 

[Dork Lard]

It has always struck me as rather odd, that no matter how much 'safer' we make our cars, the casualty statistics just seem to keep on rising.

I learned a long time ago that by far the safest thing to do would be to strip out all of these false 'safety' measures & fit a 6" sharpened spike on the steering wheel pointing straight at the drivers throat.

 

[conny]

I'm with @johnny2007 regarding knobs and switches. Nothing so infuriating as having to look quickly at a touch screen to turn up/down the heating/aircon/fan speed, or skip to the next track on a CD. With knobs and switches you can simply reach out and feel for them without taking your eyes off the road.

Also with @securespark regarding having lights on at all times. I too have always used them since passing my test many, many years ago. The number of times I suddenly seen a light-coloured car appear out of the mist on a foggy morning is unbelievable! The same when it's raining. Heavy clouds, driving rain and you get pillocks suddenly coming up behind you, apparently from nowhere because they have no lights on, and then moving out to overtake, but cut in front of someone else who didn't have their lights on.
It should be compulsory to have dipped headlights on at all times. It's been proven in the Nordic countries, such as Sweden, Norway, Scandinavia etc, that when it was introduced the accident rates dropped dramatically.
It's nonsensical to think that driving with your lights on will deplete your battery. It will if you are only doing short trips, or stop-starting doing deliveries perhaps, but if you are doing normal journeys of around 10+ miles the effects are minimal.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I too have always used them since passing my test many, many years ago. The number of times I suddenly seen a light-coloured car appear out of the mist on a foggy morning is unbelievable!

I seem to remember it was once illegal to drive around with dipped headlights, during the daylight hours?

I quite liked the dim/dip, until they became illegal - you put sidelights on, then as soon as you drove, the dipped headlight came on dimly, both lamps in series.

 

[rideforever]

Dazzle-power LEDs make normal cars hard to see, and pedestrians invisible - do the still exist?
Even side lights are hard to see.
It's a virtue signalling light-em-up arms race.
Then you have the android-cyclists with their pulsing Dazzle-LEDS.
etc....
And the whole point of these "technologies" wasn't it about saving the climate energy earth carbon ... something about .... I can'r even remember ... some UN "emergency" ...

Drove past an AA truck today ... they used to have flashing yellow lights ... on ... off ... on ... off.
Now they have a multi-dimensional walzer supernova on top of the van.
I almost creamed myself going past.
Woooo !!!!
So this is the modern world is it ?

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

and your rear fogs, if visibility is that poor - but remember to turn them off, when another vehicle closes up behind you, to avoid dazzling them.

I keep them on if the driver doesn't understand the concept of stopping distance.

 

[Trazor]

The casualty statistics just seem to keep on rising.

More nonsense from the Dork..........

Reported Road Casualties Great Britain - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[JohnD]

The casualty statistics just seem to keep on rising.

You are mistaken.

 

[Mottie]

More civilised nations such as Nordic ones

Civilised you say? Must be why they wouldn’t let you move there.

 

[Mottie]

I learned a long time ago that by far the safest thing to do would be to strip out all of these false 'safety' measures & fit a 6" sharpened spike on the steering wheel pointing straight at the drivers throat.

No, you didn’t learn that a long time ago, you saw the same programme as I did a long time ago about the daily deaths on the roads in America where the safety expert said that all the safety aids such as seat belts, crumple zones, airbags etc made people feel safer and less cautious about accidents and that a spike on the steering wheel would make them think twice.

 

[motorbiking]

You shouldn't rely on KSI or the KSI adjusted. Look at SI and K independently. SI is incompatible with K as data set. If K goes up 50% and SI goes down 10% every cheers when in fact it would be terrible. SI data is also very unreliable as it often doesn't get reported. a Serious Injury is not as it seems. It can be something quite minor most of the time.

Despite massive technological improvements, the rise of speed cameras and slashing of speed limits everywhere road casualty statistics have not changed for over a decade.

Reported road casualties Great Britain, provisional results: 2022

www.gov.uk

 

[JohnD]

Where is your graph of person road miles travelled to give the graphs meaning?

Edit
Which is especially relevant to

road casualty statistics have not changed for over a decade

 

[blup]

These days driving along in the middle of the day, bright sunshine, and cars in long lines with their lights on blazing each other in the face, sometimes so bright hard to see.
Meanwhile on the radio, we are told there's an energy crisis, climate crisis .... the imminent threat of wasting energy, saving every drop.

Do you ever get the feeling someone is laughing in your face, in the face of your whole country?
That you are all being pulled and prodded and your whole way of life turned upside down whilst someone else is having a little party at your expense ?

I remember the volvo's with their permanently on daytime side lights, probably started mid 70's, people use to flash them until the penny dropped. I shouldn't think led headlights take up a huge amount of energy as opposed to say aircon.

Blup