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| Thread ID: 112098 | 2010-08-24 00:11:00 | Driving with lights 24/7 | wmoore (6009) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1131102 | 2010-08-24 00:11:00 | From the Herald (www.nzherald.co.nz) First they drag out Mr Clive Matthew-Should-only-buy-a-Toyota-Corolla-Wilson With his words of wisdom.....not. Clive Matthew-Wilson, editor of car buyer's publication The New Zealand Dog and Lemon Guide, has been campaigning for years to make headlight use in the daytime compulsory for all vehicles. "When a car's headlights are on it warns road users where a car is and how fast it's moving. It's the car equivalent of a high visibility vest," says Matthew-Wilson. "While the bureaucrats and politicians sit on their arses, every day countless lives are wrecked unnecessarily. You can't change everything but this is one simple change that we can make and it would have a dramatic effect on the road toll." Like the bit about how fast a car is moving with it's lights on. Then Someone who talks sense. But some are sceptical of the benefits. Hamish Piercy, a Christ-church independent crash investigator, has conducted a literature review of international research on DRL for his post-graduate study on road safety through the Queensland University of Technology. He believes driving with headlights on during the daytime is unlikely to benefit road safety in New Zealand. Most of the research, says Piercy, comes from Scandinavian countries or Canada which have lower levels of ambient lights and, he argues, are not comparable to the New Zealand environment. "When you're driving your eyes should be always moving, scanning the environment for things that might be hazardous," says Piercy. "If you are faced with an oncoming vehicle with its headlights on, some of the research that I've read indicates that your visual scanning stops or slows down. If the light coming towards you is particularly bright, the glare can prevent you looking beyond it, seeing other road users." Piercy, who spent 16 years in the police and has been investigating car crashes for two decades, advocates better driver education. The best road safety tool, he says, is your brain. "If you've got a good driver who is aware of their surroundings, if the conditions are dark or they're in dappled light and they can't see a vehicle 500m ahead of them clearly, then they should turn their lights on. Think ahead." |
wmoore (6009) | ||
| 1131103 | 2010-08-24 01:13:00 | DRLs are mandatory in the states aren't they? I reckon DRLs aren't a bad idea - but not driving with headlights on all the time. New HID lights are too annoying. If they introduced some type of law regarding DRLs, they ought to be reasonably stringent about brightness and type of light - LED strips are perfect, a la Audi R8 style, a lot of courier van drivers and truck drivers are using them now and they are good - not too annoying but you'd never miss the vehicle either. If people were sensible about when to use headlights, as who's your mate in the above article said then it wouldn't be a problem, but the fact of the matter is a lot of people aren't sensible... |
wratterus (105) | ||
| 1131104 | 2010-08-24 01:31:00 | Missed edit. In the article it's mentioned about flat batteries and extra power drain and therefore higher emissions - I call bullshit on that. Firstly if DRLs are set up right they turn off when the key is turned off, and also turn off when the headlights are switched on. Most LED DRLs would draw much less than 1 amp, (12v / 10w ish), or a comparison most car stereos will draw over 10 amps when they are cranked up. |
wratterus (105) | ||
| 1131105 | 2010-08-24 01:32:00 | You can impose al the rules and regulations you want - nothing will stop idiot drivers from causing accidents tho. I read an article a while ago that was very tongue in check, yet had a certain amount of wisdom in it. The author suggested removing all forms of safety protection eg seatbelts, airbags etc in theory that drivers would become so paranoid they would drive a lot slower and more carefully... |
SoniKalien (792) | ||
| 1131106 | 2010-08-24 02:04:00 | From the Herald (www.nzherald.co.nz) First they drag out Mr Clive Matthew-Should-only-buy-a-Toyota-Corolla-Wilson With his words of wisdom.....not. Then Someone who talks sense. "If you've got a good driver who is aware of their surroundings, if the conditions are dark or they're in dappled light and they can't see a vehicle 500m ahead of them clearly, then they should turn their lights on. Think ahead." Big assumption "a good driver". Clive "lights on" Wilson's idea would at least be better than the idiots that switch parking lights on (as if that really makes a difference) and then don't realise that it's dark and they don't have their lights on. |
PaulD (232) | ||
| 1131107 | 2010-08-24 02:57:00 | More wasted non renewable fossil fuel gone for ever for a dumb reason. | prefect (6291) | ||
| 1131108 | 2010-08-24 03:18:00 | You can impose al the rules and regulations you want - nothing will stop idiot drivers from causing accidents tho. I read an article a while ago that was very tongue in check, yet had a certain amount of wisdom in it. The author suggested removing all forms of safety protection eg seatbelts, airbags etc in theory that drivers would become so paranoid they would drive a lot slower and more carefully... +1 Ban seatbelts and fit every car with a 9" metal spike in the middle of the steering wheel! See how carefully you would drive then! :) |
fred_fish (15241) | ||
| 1131109 | 2010-08-24 04:20:00 | I nearly crossed in front of a car that had its headlights on during the day a while back and it had a motorbike in front of it right where the other light was. It looked strange so i hesitated but i couldnt see the motorbike. | Gobe1 (6290) | ||
| 1131110 | 2010-08-24 06:53:00 | I nearly crossed in front of a car that had its headlights on during the day a while back and it had a motorbike in front of it right where the other light was. It looked strange so i hesitated but i couldnt see the motorbike. Which is why compulsory DRL is a dumb idea - motorcyclists have very little else to set them apart from the background, if they're sensible, they're already riding with their lights on. However making it compulsory for manufacturers to supply vehicles that automatically switch the lights on when light conditions fall below a mandated level (dusk or really bad weather, the lux level could be set by the regulation), I would support. |
johcar (6283) | ||
| 1131111 | 2010-08-24 07:17:00 | He never knew what hit him and you know this for sure HOW? Bad idea in general. |
The Error Guy (14052) | ||
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