The law, the Highway Code and common sense all dictate that in reduced visibility drivers should use dipped headlights, so that other road users become aware of their vehicles' presence as soon as possible.
I can understand that some people are too stupid to follow this rule, but I've never understood when so many switch on their sidelights.
Do they want to be seen, but not too clearly?
Yesterday, I was driving into Scarborough in bucketing rain when someone in an old blue Audi (no lights of course) started tailgating me. It's a 30mph zone, and I was driving up to the limit, which was certainly the fastest advisable speed given the conditions.
Suddenly, he overtook me, in the face of oncoming traffic. All he achieved, of course, was to move one space further ahead in the line of traffic, and he turned right into The Green only half a mile further.
What is the point of this sort of aggression?
I read once that the impulse to overtake is fuelled by a driver's feeling that another car has entered his own personal space, and that the psychological imperative to escape from the intruder could be satisfied just as easily by easing off the throttle and falling back, as by overtaking.
I tried it, and it does actually work. Saves stress and fuel as well.
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- Yet more high drama in Scarborough
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2 comments:
Very few motorists fail to use headlights when they should use them. The problem is the many who use them when they shouldn't. Sidelights are, for instance, all that common sense and the law requires in the half hour after sunset or half hour before sunrise yet thousands of motorists seem to think its safe and clever to switch their headlights on even two or three hours before sunset! The net effect is that they are SO easy to spot that the glare actually impairs safe and proper observation of the road and other hazards (such as pedestrians and cyclists who do not have such or any intense headlights). Its no accident the law says what it says and its a great shame people don't follow it. Many cars these days have electronic automatically dimming rear view mirrors - which are typical beautifully balanced to dim when they detect the glare of the headlights behind AND the general natural light intensity is about that of a typical half-hour-after-sunset level. However, they do not dim before that sort of time in the day. That means that idiots who smugly think they are 'safe' for having their headlights or stupidly intense daylight-running-lights on before the statutory hours or circumstances are in fact inflicting a hazard (of the unnecessary glare) on to those around them. Lastly of course, in light rain, no headlights or only sidelights work better for picking out the vehicle than do full headlights for the same reason as keeping the level of light in proportion to the circumstances so as to avoid undue and vision-impairing glare.
I can only suggest that if you feel you know better, you should campaign for a change in the law.
In the meantime, the Road Traffic Act says:
During conditions of seriously reduced visibility, vehicles on the road, except when parked , must have illuminated:
Obligatory headlamps (main or dipped beam unless fog lamp lit);
Obligatory front and rear position lamps;
And Obligatory rear registration plate lamp.
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