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- 2009 Mazda CX-9 GT
Fixed that for ya.People mistake DRLs for headlights because they are inattentive or impaired or just plain old stupid.
Fixed that for ya.People mistake DRLs for headlights because they are inattentive or impaired or just plain old stupid.
My Austin Healey had side curtains!Roll down window? Don't you all have convertibles???
And BTW I said roll down window to a younger cousin recently. Blank stare. No idea what i meant.
Last roll down i had was mid 90s Cavalier! 2 door. Manual, had no guts but I loved that car.
Personally, I wouldn't come to such a conclusion after one instance of a driver "not seeing you". That driver could have been an asshole who knew exactly what they were doing, or they may have been oblivious enough to not realize you were there even if you had your low beams on and you were laying on the horn.
Having DRLs on when driving is always slightly better than not having any lights at all. A car with lights on will always be more visible (however slight) than a car without.
Agree. I'm positive the advent of the high center mounted stoplight was key to the reduced number of rear end collisions. Simply get behind an older car (or one which the CMSL is out) and it's immediately evident how much easier it has become to note when the vehicle ahead is braking.
A pet peeve of mine is to be driving at night only to come up on a person that doesn't have their lights on. And, I'm sure it's because they believe they have their lights on - when in fact the lighting they are seeing is that cast by their DRLs. They have no clue that the rear of the car is completely dark. Definitely an unsafe condition.
Rewind to last night as I'm leaving an adult education session I'd just attended. As I'm driving away, I get a call from one of my fellow attendees letting me know that as I drove off, my rear lights were off. Duh, I'm my own pet peeve!! Yes, I was driving with just DRLs illuminated. I quickly switched my headlights to the on position - and barely noticed a difference. Did it again - and it was hard to tell the difference between DRLs only and full on headlights. If that's the same with other makes and models of cars - no wonder so many are driving around with just DRLs at night.
I know, for those of us with AUTO headlights, we could just leave the headlights in that position. But, I have other drivers of my car and they tend to turn the switch to off. And, I'm not sure all makes/models of cars have AUTO position. But, many of them do have DRLs and some are driving around at night without proper rear illumination.
I see this too often - and it's dangerous.
So, as a way to avoid this situation, I'm highly considering disabling my DRLs so that I'll not make that mistake again. I wished there was a more obvious way to know that only DRLs are illuminated - so that drivers would know that they were under-illuminated in the evening. My prior car had DRLs and I never had the problem. Why? Because the dashboard lights were dark if you didn't have the headlights in the on position. You noticed a dark dashboard right away!! My CX-5 dash is always illuminated - so no clear way to know I'm just with DRLs. Am I missing an indicator somewhere?
So, have you folks also noticed this happening - and how often?
To add another facet to the discussion, DRL's can, under some lighting conditions actually make a vehicle harder to see. Ref: Yehudi Lights
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehudi_lights
A real world military camouflage technique, no less.
Good thing there are no aircraft(s) on the roads, around here anyways.To add another facet to the discussion, DRL's can, under some lighting conditions actually make a vehicle harder to see. Ref: Yehudi Lights
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehudi_lights
A real world military camouflage technique, no less.
Applicable, maybe, if an oncoming vehicle is silhouetted against a light background like concrete, or a reflective glass building. Not the dominant scenario, certainly, but the point is that DRL's are a mandated one-size-fits-all solution that doesn't fit all. I doubt if anyone has statistics on how many people have been killed by not seeing an oncoming vehicle with DRL's, but if there's a chance of saving even one life, isn't it worth banning them altogether? Notice the typical "progressive" logic there?Interesting, but not applicable to road vehicles at all. Yehudi lights are meant to help an aircraft appear "less dark" in the sky. DRLs don't do that on roadways because our roads aren't the same colour temp as the DRLs.
Applicable, maybe, if an oncoming vehicle is silhouetted against a light background like concrete, or a reflective glass building. Not the dominant scenario, certainly, but the point is that DRL's are a mandated one-size-fits-all solution that doesn't fit all. I doubt if anyone has statistics on how many people have been killed by not seeing an oncoming vehicle with DRL's, but if there's a chance of saving even one life, isn't it worth banning them altogether? Notice the typical "progressive" logic there?