Which is good, but there are still thousands of vehicles not yet equipped with them. Also, DRLs are only on the front (from what I've seen) and it's often just as important to have your tail lights illuminated.
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Which is good, but there are still thousands of vehicles not yet equipped with them. Also, DRLs are only on the front (from what I've seen) and it's often just as important to have your tail lights illuminated.
I like the auto lights on the golf too. Set and forget. Plus they do that handy courtesy light thing which is a lifesaver as the side of my house has no lighting
I put my lights on (dipped) when it's a bit cloudy and grim, let alone when it's raining and/or dark. If it means people have a slightly higher chance of seeing me then I'm all for it.
I think the sidelights in most cars are useless other than as parking lights, but the new crop of fairly-bright DRLs are ideal for the 'see and be seen' situations so these are a good thing, but there should be rear DRLs, or they should illuminate the tail lights too in my opinion.
I think the sidelights in most cars are useless other than as parking lights, but the new crop of fairly-bright DRLs are ideal for the 'see and be seen' situations so these are a good thing, but there should be rear DRLs, or they should illuminate the tail lights too in my opinion.
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Soldato
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I have the running lights on the bimmer all the time, but because most of its miles are commuting in traffic it does run the battery down.
I use them because I mainly cycle and for a cyclist looking over their shoulder to see if there is anything coming running lights make a massive difference.
I use them because I mainly cycle and for a cyclist looking over their shoulder to see if there is anything coming running lights make a massive difference.
Was going to say this also, even if its only raining enough to have the wipers on the intermittent setting the law says you have to have your headlights on also.
I just leave headlights on auto setting and let the computer decide when to turn them on. Except when it's foggy in the day time of course.
One thing that really annoys me is people who put their rear fog lights on when it's not foggy. "Oh it's a bit misty, visibility is down to half a mile, better put my fogs on"
And even if it is foggy switch the damn things off when you're in a traffic jam. I've never been in such fog that I can't see three metres in front of me
One thing that really annoys me is people who put their rear fog lights on when it's not foggy. "Oh it's a bit misty, visibility is down to half a mile, better put my fogs on"
And even if it is foggy switch the damn things off when you're in a traffic jam. I've never been in such fog that I can't see three metres in front of me 
I find this with night cyclists.
There seems to be this idea that if you put a Star Wars directed energy weapon on the front of your bike you will be safer.
The trouble is, these ultra bight LEDs are (More or less) point sources. They are also not of a standard brightness.
The result, it is difficult to tell if that cyclist coming towards you is quarter of a mile away or right on top of you!
So is it safe to pull out of that side road or isnt it??
(I dont know what the final analysis was, but I have always suspected that something like this happened with this incident. Night time, Wiggins probabally had an LED headlamp and since he was training, probabally riding a lot faster than most other road users are used too!)
Soldato
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It's all very short distances, stop start. It's not terrible, but since we started leaving them on three years ago I've had to charge the batter more.
Soldato
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I don't want this to be another cycling thread but......
Most cyclists find themselves getting bigger and bigger lights because people simply don't see the small ones. Same reason for using flashing lights. I now use a pulsing 800ln light on the bike and a pulsing 400ln light on my helmet and the number of people pulling out in front of me in a dangerous fashion has dropped off significantly.
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Well i get in my car start it up and have dipped beam on all the time, switches itself off with the ignition as well!! It's a volvo though!!!!
I've recently been doing motorway miles again, after 3 years of hardly using them, and there seem to be more people without a full set of functioning lights, normally I find it's the offside headlight not working, which can cause you to think it's a bike until you can see it a bit clearer.
I'd be in favour of having light on all the time, one downside is my volvo seems to eat bulbs, on my 3rd set of front dipped bulbs in 18 months. Austria also require dipped beam all the time.
I've recently been doing motorway miles again, after 3 years of hardly using them, and there seem to be more people without a full set of functioning lights, normally I find it's the offside headlight not working, which can cause you to think it's a bike until you can see it a bit clearer.
I'd be in favour of having light on all the time, one downside is my volvo seems to eat bulbs, on my 3rd set of front dipped bulbs in 18 months. Austria also require dipped beam all the time.
Rear fogs, yes. If you mean front fogs, then no. You don't need front fogs to make your vehicle more visible to others, the headlights will achieve that.
Completely agree with this, if it's dark enough that you feel the need to turn on sidelights, then headlights are obviously the better solution. I see far too many cars up here running on just sidelights during dusk hours, it's frustrating especially because you don't always notice them amongst the other vehicles that are using their lights appropriately.
I have auto lights on my Mazda but I do find when it's rather overcast or the lights is fading I'll switch on the headlights myself. It's rather scary to think that we're going to soon have a generation of young people driving who are used to having the car decide wipers, lights, temperature etc so won't have the capacity to decide when they need these things themselves.
I really think we need to make dipped beams mandatory at all times.
With DRLs becoming more and more common, any car that doesn't have them will just disappear as far as observation is concerned. People will instinctively start looking for lights rather than the cars.
If we make dipped beams or DRLs mandatory for all cars (not just cars built from 2011 onwards), this won't be so much of an issue.
With DRLs becoming more and more common, any car that doesn't have them will just disappear as far as observation is concerned. People will instinctively start looking for lights rather than the cars.
If we make dipped beams or DRLs mandatory for all cars (not just cars built from 2011 onwards), this won't be so much of an issue.
Soldato
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Or just ban those that don't turn their headlights on when they should!
Hungary is only September-April IIRC.
I'd much rather have dipped beams on 24/7 than these stupid DRL LEDZZZZZ M8 INNIT.
Mainly because there are tards out there who think these LEDZZZ INNIT are awesome in fog and rain and dusk. Even though there are no lights on at the back.
Don
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I agree with you there, if im going to put some sort of lights on because, the visibility has dropped due to weather conditions for example, I stick lights on dipped position, I find sidelights are too dim
I cannot turn on my rear fogs without also turning on the front fogs. Golf MkIV.