Driving standards

[njee20]

I drive a Golf on 62 plates. When I switch the ignition on, the front lights are on. In Auto, all lights come on when it gets a bit dark, and it doesn't need to be all that dark either. So I'm driving along with all lights on when those with a choice have no lights on. So far so good, I trust my automatic lights to be on when they need to be.

Same, but in the MFD I can (and indeed have) turn off my DRLs, as well as adjusting really useful things like the brightness of the footwell lighting!

[Jol Wilkinson]

For the legal situation regarding DRL's, see;

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/daytime-running-lights

 

Regarding automatic lights, I have had those on cars going back to the late 1990s. They have always had the facility on the light/indicator stalk to select  Auto -  Off - Side - Head. I am sure that most makes do, as the systems used by (European, at least) car manufacturers tend to come from OE manufacturers such as Bosch, Magenti Marellii, Valeo, etc.

[Guest]

Surely that's wrong.  Fog lights are not allowed to be used except when driving in fog.  If they come on automatically when cornering ......... 

 

Presumably they count as different lights for a different purpose.

On the Leaf the DRLs and front fog lights are one and the same.

[Happy Hippo]

For that reason I use hand signals as well as indicators

I sincerely hope you do not use hand signals!

 

These are generally signs used by the lower order of driver to indicate frustration, anger or just being rude!

 

I suspect you use arm signals, which are a very sensible way of backing up signals.

 

The best example for showing how an arm signal can be used is when driving down a road and seeing a horse and rider approaching in the opposite direction.

 

A well timed arm signal to indicate 'I am slowing down', advises the rider that you have seen them and are taking appropriate action. (They cannot see your brake lights).

 

It also alerts drivers behind you, who may not have seen the horse and rider, that you are slowing down have identified something unusual happening ahead.

[Unicorn1]

Mmm, hand signals.

 

As someone who regularly drives a 1948 motor equipped with trafficators I used to use the correct hand (arm?) signals a lot to inform other road users of my intentions.

 

However hardly any one knows what these signals mean any more, which can lead to some potentially dangerous situations. When signalling that I intend to turn left I often find the driver coming in the opposite direction will see this as an instruction for him to turn right across my path! This has happened so many times that I now don't do it if there is oncoming traffic. 

 

In fact I find that people who don't see the trafficators, or my outstretched limb probably aren't worried about signalling in general!

 

Les 

[MJI]

I drive a Golf on 62 plates. When I switch the ignition on, the front lights are on. In Auto, all lights come on when it gets a bit dark, and it doesn't need to be all that dark either. So I'm driving along with all lights on when those with a choice have no lights on. So far so good, I trust my automatic lights to be on when they need to be.

 

The thing that gets my goat is that some twonk decided that I need illumination when I go round corners, so the fog lights illuminate when I turn the wheel, no matter what speed I'm doing. So there I am going round a roundabout and the fog lights are illuminating in turn and if I was to see where they were illuminating, I would not be looking far enough ahead to be driving safely.

 

Why bother illuminating fog lights and calling them 'cornering lights' when you are travelling at anything greater than walking speed?

 

 

Bloody fog lights.......... don't get me started. 

 

I managed to get someone to get his car checked over because he was following me and his lights were messing around something bad.

 

Found out later it was a design flaw.

 

Another thing, worst car to follow at night is a Peugeot tin top convertable.  2 thin lights, they flicker so bad they give me a headache. I either stop to let someone out, or on my last car out power them with main beam.

 

Don't see them any more, perhaps they have been recalled and scrapped!

[Guest]

Another thing, worst car to follow at night is a Peugeot tin top convertable.  2 thin lights, they flicker so bad they give me a headache. I either stop to let someone out, or on my last car out power them with main beam.

 

I'm sorry, what?

You don't like someone's tail lights so you go round the place with your main beams on everywhere?

[MJI]

I'm sorry, what?

You don't like someone's tail lights so you go round the place with your main beams on everywhere?

 

 

They were dangerous, really bad flicker, after images, Had trouble working out where the car was. There is one other car with similarly dangerous lights, one of the Korean brands, most are OK.

 

Usually I can find a victim to let out, but it was main beam or not see the road in this case.

 

My vision is fine, had plenty of eye tests (myopia so regularly checked).

 

Lights should be on or off, not pulsed at a visibly pulsing speed.

 

If a following driver has trouble may be the car design should be recalled and dealt with.

 

I am not the only person to have problems with bad light designs

[njee20]

Some are very bright these days, but mitigating it with your high beams is utterly ridiculous and very dangerous.

 

I can't say I've ever noticed flashing rear lights, although of course LEDs do pulse at a very high frequency.

[peanuts]

whoooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaa !

 

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[PhilJ W]

whoooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaa !

 

https://www.facebook.com/captn.jack.37/videos/1617843694910920/

Clean underwear needed.

[Kickstart]

I can't say I've ever noticed flashing rear lights, although of course LEDs do pulse at a very high frequency.

Visible pulsing on some. Buses tend to be the most noticable

 

All the best

 

Katy

[Baby Deltic]

Some are very bright these days, but mitigating it with your high beams is utterly ridiculous and very dangerous.

I can't say I've ever noticed flashing rear lights, although of course LEDs do pulse at a very high frequency.

He needs the main beams because the grass on some verges is very high making visibility very poor without them.

[ianwales]

Some are very bright these days, but mitigating it with your high beams is utterly ridiculous and very dangerous.

 

 

So its OK for some twerp to blind the cars behind using the rear high intensity fog lamps, but, ridiculous to use your main beam if your following someone, double standards me thinks!

 

Ian

[Wolseley]

I have a 1962 Wolseley 15/60.  The headlamps have the old style bulbs in them, rather than being sealed beams, and they are, by comparison, rather dim compared to a modern car's lights.  One night I started the car and there was hardly any light at all.  The filament for the low beam light had gone in one of the bulbs.  I put the lights on high beam so I could see and be seen and no-one flashed their lights at me - but then the lights are on high beam they are only just approaching the intensity of a modern low beam light.

Edited April 8, 2017 by Wolseley

[Guest]

So its OK for some twerp to blind the cars behind using the rear high intensity fog lamps, but, ridiculous to use your main beam if your following someone, double standards me thinks!

 

Nobody mentioned fog lamps.

[96701]

Nobody mentioned fog lamps.

I told you not to talk to me about fog lamps.

[njee20]

So its OK for some twerp to blind the cars behind using the rear high intensity fog lamps, but, ridiculous to use your main beam if your following someone, double standards me thinks!

1) no one mentioned fog lamps

 

2) of course it's not double standards, the correct response is to drop back or overtake, not turn your bloody main beams on.

 

Mental.

[Enterprisingwestern]

Nobody mentioned fog lamps.

 

 

I told you not to talk to me about fog lamps.

 

I think you got away with it!

 

Mike.

[jjb1970]

So its OK for some twerp to blind the cars behind using the rear high intensity fog lamps, but, ridiculous to use your main beam if your following someone, double standards me thinks!

 

Ian

 

I believe the comment was related to rear lights pulsing, not to the use of rear fog lights, i.e. if there is an issue it is a problem with the car itself and not the driver. So no double standards at all.

[Gwiwer]

The weather has been foul here today.  Winds up to storm force at times.  Heavy driving rain for hours on end.  Extremely poor driving conditions.  And I have had to endure a rail-replacement bus owing to the construction of a new station on my line.

 

So may I offer my compliments, nay congratulations, to the cockwomble driver of what appeared to be a VW Golf tonight?  In these atrocious conditions, and at night with every vehicle putting up its own shroud of rear-end spray, this driver decides our bus (travelling at the permitted speed limit) was not going fast enough.  Cockwomble overtook at a very much higher speed than was permitted, then swung sharply beck from the right lane across our middle-lane path to the left.  Maybe the driver misjudged something or maybe it was a momentary rear-wheel skid but the back-end just clipped the kerb and caused the car to fish-tail as it disappeared into the murk up ahead.

 

The driver must have had a brief memory lapse as surely no-one would think to apply the brakes on a wet road when fishtailing?  That is a very, very bad idea indeed.  It resulted in the car spinning multiple times across all three lanes as we, and other vehicles braked sharply to avoid the pantomime in front. The car driver then appeared to regain control and composure as the last we saw of the thing it came out of a spin and simply drove off as though nothing had happened.

 

Dear driver.  You are either extremely lucky or most uncommonly skilful.  I would hazard the former at a guess.  You almost took out a bus-load of passengers and several other cars.  You almost eliminated yourself from the gene pool on several occasions.  Next time you get the urge to drive like a complete turd-monger in the wet please do so on a country road where no-one else is involved.  And, for the record, if you do lose control in the wet you do NOT jam on the brakes hoping to stop.  You release all pedals and lightly - LIGHTLY - pump the brake as the car slows of its own accord.  

[Danemouth]

Rick,

 

Doubtless this cockwomble had to change his/her underwear on arrival at their destination and probably fumigate the car as well.

 

Serves them right - let's hope a valuable lesson was learned. The trouble with this type of incident is it's usually the innocent passers by that cop a packet!

 

Regards,

 

Dave

[ianwales]

 

2) of course it's not double standards, the correct response is to drop back or overtake, not turn your bloody main beams on.

 

Mental.

 

Not an option when said twerp is in the outside lane of a 2 lane motorway doing 50 and hasn't noticed or chosen to ignore a faster car coming up behind.

 

I

[njee20]

Well that's getting tenuous, but it's always possible to drop back. You may want to go faster, but of course it's an option to slow down.

 

Imagine it was two lorries passing, rather than a vehicle with curiously bright rear lights. Is your same response to whack your main beam on?

Edited April 9, 2017 by njee20

[uax6]

On the subject of rear lights, (I'm not getting onto the subject of fogs, which I think should be removed from all vehicles, front or rear) has anyone had the misfortune to follow an Ambulance at night recently?

 

Nows there's a vehicle that actually makes following it dangerous, retina burning bright Blue LED lights... Totally stupid whoever designed them.

 

Andy G