what is wrong with people

[sorrento205]

<friday rant>

driving home from work today, its been raining for a while and visability is poor, yet i estimate as little as 10% of drivers on the road have got their headlamps on. A few more have sidelights on but these have limited effect in todays conditions.

Personally, when driving my car in poor conditions i want to see other cars and make sure i'm seen by everyone else too. So what the hell is wrong with people?!?!

Pulling onto the a4232 from cardiff bay, i genuinly had to best guess it was safe to pull out as the majority of traffic was not visable through steamy windows, cloudy wing mirrors and general miserable weather.

</friday rant>

[gopher]

So you've had a half day then?

[Handbag]

Did you have your fog lights on too just to be sure

[Antonio 82]

Totally agree. I was driving home on the St Brides coast road and it would have been so much easier to judge my overtaking opportunities if everyone had lights on.

In my opinion there needs to be a law to use lights in the rain like there is on the continent.

And I also hate seeing sidelights being used on the road. They are also known as parking lights, a clue to their use is in the name!

[S2]

Agree with you there Ben, went to Renowheel in Bridgend today and the M4 was full of people in invisible silver cars without any lights on. Sat in inside lane doing 50 in the end 'cos I couldn't risk overtaking in case there was a car coming up behind.
While we're having a rant that reminds me, I must get one of those X5's or ML Mercs 'cos they must be invincible to always be able to go at massive speeds in terrible conditions.

Oh and gopher I think he's in work before most of us are out of bed so we'll have to give him that one.

[anonymous-user]

S2 said:

went to Renowheel in Bridgend today and the M4 was full of people in invisible silver cars without any lights on

Aye, heading back from Wrexham today the A449 south, M4 West and A48(M) all had pretty poor visability due to spray. Despite that, only about 50% of people had headlights on, making a lot of them nearly invisible until they're almost touching you.

Come ON FFS! It's not difficult: if you can't see very well, switch 'em on

[dougalAgain]

I Hate to stir things up especially as I don't know the exact conditions, but maybe they could see fine.

I know on many occasions I have been cruising along just before sunset and the number of cars who have their lights on has made it MORE difficult to see because all i can see in my rear view is their lights. this is especially bad when it's wet and the glare exacerbates the situation

I'd also like to say that on occasion I have felt it best to only use my side lights (usually on the motorway) This is usually when the visibility is such that I feel people would benefit from being able to see the back of my car through the spray but I don't want to dazzle the cars in front and I can see just fine.

I'm sure someone will lay into me for this behavior but it seems reasonable to me.

dougal

[anonymous-user]

dougalAgain said:

I'd also like to say that on occasion I have felt it best to only use my side lights (usually on the motorway) This is usually when the visibility is such that I feel people would benefit from being able to see the back of my car through the spray but I don't want to dazzle the cars in front and I can see just fine.

It's not about seeing others though, it's about being seen. I can see perfectly well around town at night without headlights on, but I still use them because otherwise I'd be pretty hard to see. I notice you drive a silver FTO (very nice, BTW), silver cars being driven on motorways in heavy rain/spray with only sidelights on are almost completely invisible in peoples mirrors.

[fastcaterham]

We've got rain sensitive wipers, why not lights?

[Mikey G]

fastcaterham said:

We've got rain sensitive wipers, why not lights?

I prefer to make the decisions to switch things on in my car.

[Antonio 82]

dougalAgain said:

I'd also like to say that on occasion I have felt it best to only use my side lights (usually on the motorway) This is usually when the visibility is such that I feel people would benefit from being able to see the back of my car through the spray but I don't want to dazzle the cars in front and I can see just fine.

You might change your mind when someone pulls out in front of you and you rear-end them. It doesn't matter if they didn't see you, the police and insurance will put the blame on you.

My car and most cars on the road are fitted with a headlight height adjustment on the dashboard. I keep mine on low (position 2 or 3) and only turn it up to 0 (highest) when I'm driving on unlit roads. I don't 'bedazzle' anyone

Just turn yours down and put your bloody lights on!

[fastcaterham]

I wish my headlights were bright enough to dazzle people, they barely dazzle people on full beam let alone the normal settings. I can understand people with xenon headlights etc just using sidelights as they are quite bright but I'll be honest personally when driving in the wet on the motorway etc out of hundreds of cars with their main headlights on I can count on one hand the number that dazzle me and when they do I just switch my rear view mirror to its tinted setting(had a mind blank on what its really called!) and I've never found it a problem. Besides I'd rather be dazzled and at least see somebody than not see them at all because they've only got their sidelights on then pull out on them or something like that!