Are sidelights pointless?

theone8181 said:
I think the reason more cars have DRL's is apparently in europe (i read this but i havent looked into it with much detail) its the law for all new cars to have DRL's on all the time.
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They're a legal requirement for all newly registered passenger vehicles in the UK too, and have been for more than two years.

edit: I just re-read your post and now can't decide whether "in europe" means mainland Europe (as I first thought), or Europe including the UK. Either way works
 
Basically the reason for them is that they do improve safety. The European commission had a revue into it in something like 2006.
However the reason sidelights are used instead of dipped beams is energy usage. Sidelights tend to be very energy efficient (LED now as a lot of people have pointed out).
 
Dis86 said:
Basically the reason for them is that they do improve safety. The European commission had a revue into it in something like 2006.
However the reason sidelights are used instead of dipped beams is energy usage. Sidelights tend to be very energy efficient (LED now as a lot of people have pointed out).
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But is energy efficiency really relevant in a car?
 
Dipped headlights are too bright for the evening when it isn't actually dark yet, its really annoying if you drive around town a lot and get blinded by the lights over time, particularly badly adjusted/aligned ones. Sidelights are perfect for that 6-9pm time (in summer) when darkness hasn't descended just yet but you need lights to make yourself more noticeable.
 
I always use my sidelights, especially when it's dark and I'm going down an unlit country road.

Dipped or main beams are just too bright
 
phil675 said:
Dipped headlights are too bright for the evening when it isn't actually dark yet, its really annoying if you drive around town a lot and get blinded by the lights over time, particularly badly adjusted/aligned ones. Sidelights are perfect for that 6-9pm time (in summer) when darkness hasn't descended just yet but you need lights to make yourself more noticeable.
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I've really never found other people driving with dipped beam to be a problem at any time of the day and certainly never felt 'blinded' by dipped beam, except maybe when it's really dark (when you'd expect people to have their lights on anyway).
 
If your dipped beams are too bright then you have:

A) The wrong bulbs.
And/or
B) The wrong alignment.
 
I changed my ECU to run in European mode so headlights are on all the time. Personally I think all countries should adobt this. Why wouldn't you want to make your car more visable??
 
Irish_Tom said:
I've really never found other people driving with dipped beam to be a problem at any time of the day and certainly never felt 'blinded' by dipped beam, except maybe when it's really dark (when you'd expect people to have their lights on anyway).
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Ditto, and I sit very low too, so I call shens on the mx5 driver...I ALWAYS have my xenons on.
 
phil675 said:
Dipped headlights are too bright for the evening when it isn't actually dark yet, its really annoying if you drive around town a lot and get blinded by the lights over time, particularly badly adjusted/aligned ones. Sidelights are perfect for that 6-9pm time (in summer) when darkness hasn't descended just yet but you need lights to make yourself more noticeable.
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If you're talking about Xenon/HID bulbs, I'd agree. In fact some of the manufacturer fitted LED DRLs are stupidly bright imo and they do dazzle.

But then I've yet to miss a ton of metal hurtling down the road, so putting any light on during daylight hours seems a tad pointless to me.
 
It can also depend on the side lights, i have xenon white sidelights that are 300 times brighter than the standard ones and they make a huge difference in some cases
 
I cant believe there are people here in motors defending and using sidelights for any occasion other than being parked up somewhere.

If you need light, if you think someone else needs your light... GET THE DIPPED BEAMS ON. No excuses.


*Scania excused :D
 
Dipped beams are blinding on modern cars.
If it's raining I put side lights on, if street lighting is on, I put dipped lights on.
It has to be pitch dak before you actually need your own lights on to see what's in front of you, so why annoy people with excess lighting.


I hate those people driving around with all their lights on.
I'm wearing sunglasses because the sun is too bright and these muppets are lit up like Christmas trees. It's only 4pm!!!
 
^ Exactly. It seems like a case of motoring consumers being taken in by the usual babble about somehow having your lights on at all times decreasing your likelihood of being in a crash without questioning it.

Makes you wonder how there are so many older cars still on the roads really, without overly flashy DRLs to shout "LOOK AT ME I'M HERE!" you'd have expected them all to be smashed to pieces because they're invisible to everybody else! :p
 
bitslice said:
Dipped beams are blinding on modern cars.
If it's raining I put side lights on, if street lighting is on, I put dipped lights on.
It has to be pitch dak before you actually need your own lights on to see what's in front of you, so why annoy people with excess lighting.


I hate those people driving around with all their lights on.
I'm wearing sunglasses because the sun is too bright and these muppets are lit up like Christmas trees. It's only 4pm!!!
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Absolute rubbish. Dipped beams are not blinding on any cars unless they're a badly-fitted xenon kit into reflector lenses, or their boot is full of cement and they haven't adjusted them. Even then, it doesn't bother me that much.

Side lights are useless unless you're parked up, there's no point putting them on when driving at all. Put the dipped beams on if it's raining or dark. Simple.
 
let's be objective here....if they're blinding you during the day, when the ambient light far far far outweighs the amount of light output by even the brightest xenons thus your pupils are adjusted and only let in a small amount of light, how on earth do you not crash and burn at the first site of a headlight at night, when your pupils are adjusted to very minimal ambient light thus the exposure is MUCH higher to your retina...
 
It's just a case of some folks complaining about HID lights being bright for the sake of a complaint. As mentioned, botch job HIDs are blinding because they're botch jobs. Misaligned or incorrectly aligned lights due to car weight at the back are also blinding but that doesn't mean a blanket "modern cars have blinding headlights" applies!
 
I just leave my xenon's on all the time. Sidelights do have some uses though as people have described.
 
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