Using your loaf when using your lights

UKMotortalk contributor Steve Houlihan vents his spleen..

There seems to be a growing trend for the misuse - or lack of use at all in some cases - of vehicle lights. 

Now that more cars have daytime running lights -or DRLs - drivers seem to think that having these on negates the need for the proper vehicle lights to be on. 

Why on earth would anyone think that?!

Only the other week I was driving along the M4, it was dark - not getting dark, actually properly dark, when I came upon a car, a black car I might add, without lights on. 
So naturally I politely flashed the driver to hopefully prompt him into putting his lights on. 

No response. 

I flashed again - I always flash vehicles who don't have lights on in dark conditions or bad weather (more on bad weather later).

Still no response from the black car in front, in the dark. So, as he was driving at 50 mph in fast moving traffic, and I didn't fancy hanging around, I did the obligatory mirror, signal and manoeuvred around the black car (in the dark) to pass him. 

As I got alongside him I could see a faint glow from the front of his car which meant his DRLs were on. 

So, I gave him a couple of toots on the horn, hoping he'd look at me, so I could wind down my nearside window and tell him he didn't have his lights on. Instead he just turned his lights on, then back off again a second later, all in one movement. 

Bemused, I shook my head and carried on, I'd done my best to tell him but seemingly he wasn't listening.

Since this event I've given his actions and reasons a bit of thought. Did the sudden glow in front of his car tell him he'd put his full beam on? Does he not know the controls of his car? 

Or were his dashboard instruments lit?

This last, it seems to me, is a bad idea that car makers and designers have incorporated into their machinery. 

You don't need instruments lit during the day. If you go through a tunnel, where it's less bright even if lit internally, you're supposed to put your lights on, which will illuminate the instruments too. I think that drivers honestly forget their lights aren't on, 'cause the instruments are lit!

My company has a new van, which I'm the sole driver of. 

It's a Mercedes Sprinter. It has DRLs. The previous one didn't. In fact this is the first vehicle I've driven a lot that has had them. We've only had the van a week at time of writing. My instruments aren't lit all the time.

But. I still switch my lights on in dim light or bad weather (no, later still for the bad weather thing!) because I use my EYES to see whether lights should be on or not.
As a rough, very rough, guide, if I cannot see my instruments easily, as in if the panel looks a bit dark, lights go on. I don't believe in sidelights. Mine are either on or off.

Now, with mention of sidelights we can at last move onto bad weather.

Sidelights are not enough when driving along a motorway, or any road really, in heavy rain or snow, or thick fog (more on fog later). 

It's not about seeing where you're going, it's about being seen by vehicles you're approaching or passing. This applies especially on motorways. 

And, if your car is dirty, the front usually gets especially dirty in spells of cold, damp weather when salt has been spread on the motorways. 

So, a point to note at this, er, point, is that lights should be cleaned if they become dirty. Most vehicles still don't have headlamp wash systems. But who does that really? It's a bad habit we have that we don't do things we should, or we do things we shouldn't (more on bad habits later!).

In heavy rain/snow or fog, if you look in your mirror, it's virtually impossible to see a car with only its sidelights on. And actually impossible to see a car with no lights on at all. It's just downright dangerous.

And, as a bit of a sideline to the sidelights issue (see what I did there?), if it's raining heavily enough to have your wipers on, surely it's raining heavily enough to have your lights on.

I should point out, but I really shouldn't need to, that by "lights" I mean dipped headlights, not full beam. 

Just to clarify..

Car makers are seemingly taking more driver input away from actually driving a car - auto lights, auto wipers, anti collision... Surely they can make it so that if the wipers are on constant mode the lights come on too? That would make perfect sense and is a no-brainer to me.

And, whilst we're on the subject of bad weather, a little bit of fog... 

Foglights to be precise. And rear ones to be even more precise. If it's a bit misty, with patches here and there, you do not need foglights on. 

The Highway Code states that foglights should be used if visibility is down to less than 100 metres. As a rough guide, very rough, again, I use this; if the car in front of me is hard to see, the car behind me - if it's a similar distance away - will find it hard to see me. So, on go the rear fogs. 

When the car behind gets nearer, off go the fogs. Unless you have a classic with small rear lights, such as a Triumph Spitfire Mk1 for example, most cars' normal rear lights are easily seen from quite a distance even in fairly heavy mist. Mist and fog are the same thing, by the way. Water droplets in the air.

These points about lights and wipers bring me onto my final point. 

Bad habits.

We all have them. All of us. Except possibly those drivers who have passed the IAM advanced driving course, which I haven't. 

Yet.

I firmly believe if you put any driver into a proper driving test situation, we'd all fail - due to bad habits. 

We can all drive, we can control the car safely, we know our Highway Code, or should do. But we all have bad habits. 

Not indicating, bad lane usage at junctions or roundabouts, excessive speed, yes we all do that. Even if you say you don't you probably do. 

Slow down for speed cameras? Yep, well you wouldn't need to if you were already driving at the correct speed.

These bad habits could be corrected if we had a re-test, say, every 5 years? 

Maybe? 

Not a proper full test, more a refresher course on what we should, and should not be doing behind the wheel. 

It can only be a good thing, as I see it. Better drivers, better road manners, less road rage. More importantly, safer roads. For drivers, cyclists, bikers, and pedestrians.

Food for thought maybe?

Steve Houlihan

Follow Steve on Twitter @bandit4070

Daytime Running Lights - A Bright Idea?

Car manufacturers are fond of their acronyms - even the most basic of cars on the market these days sports ABS, AC and quite possibly EBD..

The majority of the sytems or features to which this cacophony of capital letters refer evolve as the result of legislation - airbags (or SRS in Acrospeak) being pretty much a standard legal fitment to cars and vans these days for example - and on the whole are accepted by the motoring public - enthusiast or not - as A Good Thing, so long, in the eyes of the aforementioned keener driver at least, they don't impinge on the act of driving.

Indeed, it's hard to remember a time when the wearing of seatbelts wasn't a compulsory part of the whole driving experience and one would probably have to go to some lengths to track down a hardcore non-wearer these days as the vast majority of drivers and passengers quite rightly understand the benefits of buckling up.

I think it is safe to say then that we here at Motortalk Towers are keen proponents of non-invasive safety ideas but certainly do not adhere to the nannying approach which some would have us follow (I'm thinking here of the ever-threatened speed limiters which groups such as Brake believe all cars should be fitted) and eye with interest any new ideas which may find their way onto the roads in the name of 'safety'.

Which brings me onto our Acronym Of The Day:

DRL.

For those not familiar with this latest collection of capitals, DRL stands for 'Daytime Running Lights' and while not by any means a new idea, they are seemingly becoming a more regular sight on our roads.

Here in the UK we are probably pretty familiar with Volvos and Saabs driving around with their sidelights & more recently headlights on during the day.

This is as a result of the law in Scandinavian countries requiring all cars to display their lights as soon as the engine is running - a sensible idea on the face of it given the short days and limited amount of ambient light available for a good part of the year at such relative proximity to the Arctic Circle.

Other countries are following suit too - since as long ago as 1990 Canada has required all vehicles registered for use on her roads to feature DRLs and more recently Italy, Hungary and the majority of the European Union's recently-admitted former Eastern Bloc countries have passed legislation requiring their use.

Whilst it is not yet a UK or even EU-wide law that cars have their lights on during the day, it would seem that the feature is likely to become a standard fixture on new cars as they are replaced or even facelifted by the manufacturers as the economies of scale make it simpler to include the functionality on all cars built for that particular market.

And this then, coupled with the explosion in popularity of LED lighting in the automotive world, is why we are seeing more and more cars driving around with what appear to be very bright sidelights during daylight hours - ostensibly glowing as a warning to other road users and pedestrians that the vehicle has its engine running and is thus presenting a potential hazard, but also increasingly I suspect as automotive jewellery; the equivalent of motoring 'bling'.

Probably the most dedicated follower of this particular fashion is Audi whose offerings from A3 right up to the range-topping R8 feature some form of DRLs - whether it be the humble incandescent filament on the family A4 or, more overtly, the oh so glitzy swoop of light-emitting diodes which hug the headlights on the aforementioned R8 & are most certainly attention-grabbers, which, ultimately I suppose is the point..

Opinion is seemingly divided on DRLs - whether as safety equipment or as sparkly addenda - with some seeing them as nothing more than a legitimate way for the fog-light brigade to tool around with the equivalent of a tackily-festooned Christmas tree on the front of their cars (aftermarket LED kits are already on sale in Halfords - expect to see them hastily attached to a Saxo near you sometime very soon) whilst others think that they are a waste of energy and only serve to increase fuel consumption at a time when filling up is already almost prohibitively expensive.

Motorcyclists particularly are concerned about the increasing use of these lights, believing that their own particular safety margin of riding with headlights on in daytime will be negated as they disappear into the glare of light from every other road user.

Those on the pro side say though that having some form of light showing at the front of the car can only be a good thing and point to studies which show that accidents in countries where DRLs have been used for some time are reduced - particularly in territories such as Scandinavia where daylight is at more of a premium.

Whatever your view though, it seems that manufacturers are keen to equip their designs with the latest must-have technology and with everyone from Audi through to Vauxhall fitting DRLs to their cars, whether they be there purely for safety reasons or increasingly as aesthetic features with which designers can enhance the 'face' of their brand it seems that daytime running lights have a bright future..

..sorry, couldn't resist..


Dave Wakefield.