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| coppice:
--- Quote from: vk6zgo on April 15, 2023, 09:42:26 am --- --- Quote from: SiliconWizard on April 15, 2023, 03:06:03 am ---Whether it's actually useful in full daylight (unless very cloudy) is questionable, but there are some countries where not only it is legal, it is mandatory. --- End quote --- It can be simply tested whilst on a country road during a sunny day. I found no difference in visibility between vehicles with their lights on or off. Whether it is any more effective in heavy traffic I don't know, but I doubt it. The original idea came from Scandinavian countries where it is dark for most winter days. --- End quote --- You don't have bad weather? Running lights are pretty much irrelevant on a bright sunny day out in the open. Even on one of those days you only need to go under a big underpass, and the lights start to be effective. In bad weather they are a real boon. |
| james_s:
--- Quote from: coppice on April 15, 2023, 12:10:25 pm ---You don't have bad weather? Running lights are pretty much irrelevant on a bright sunny day out in the open. Even on one of those days you only need to go under a big underpass, and the lights start to be effective. In bad weather they are a real boon. --- End quote --- I just turn my lights on when it's dark out, whether that's because it's a gloomy cloudy day, because the sun has set or because I've driven into a tunnel doesn't really matter. It feels dark, lights on, sun comes out, lights off. I don't even consciously think about it. I actually think DRL has created a problem that didn't really exist before and that is people driving around at night without their lights on. Many/most newer cars have the instrument cluster illuminated all the time and that's typically what lets you know the headlights are on. I see so many people driving around town at night with nothing but the running lights on, no rear lights at all. In populated areas with streetlights it's not obvious that your headlights aren't on. I see it at least once almost every time I drive at night. |
| tom66:
--- Quote from: james_s on April 15, 2023, 06:04:27 pm ---I actually think DRL has created a problem that didn't really exist before and that is people driving around at night without their lights on. Many/most newer cars have the instrument cluster illuminated all the time and that's typically what lets you know the headlights are on. I see so many people driving around town at night with nothing but the running lights on, no rear lights at all. In populated areas with streetlights it's not obvious that your headlights aren't on. I see it at least once almost every time I drive at night. --- End quote --- I had a Ford without daylight running lights where the cluster was always illuminated when the ignition was on, regardless of headlamp setting. Whereas my Golf with DRL's does not illuminate the cluster at night with the headlights off (though it has auto headlights, so not like it's important anyway.) So I'm not sure you can blame DRL's for this. |
| mendip_discovery:
--- Quote from: tom66 on April 15, 2023, 06:24:36 pm --- --- Quote from: james_s on April 15, 2023, 06:04:27 pm ---I actually think DRL has created a problem that didn't really exist before and that is people driving around at night without their lights on. Many/most newer cars have the instrument cluster illuminated all the time and that's typically what lets you know the headlights are on. I see so many people driving around town at night with nothing but the running lights on, no rear lights at all. In populated areas with streetlights it's not obvious that your headlights aren't on. I see it at least once almost every time I drive at night. --- End quote --- I had a Ford without daylight running lights where the cluster was always illuminated when the ignition was on, regardless of headlamp setting. Whereas my Golf with DRL's does not illuminate the cluster at night with the headlights off (though it has auto headlights, so not like it's important anyway.) So I'm not sure you can blame DRL's for this. --- End quote --- I have witnessed it many times and its DRL 19 times out of 20. I got bored in Oxford one evening. Part of the issue is the DRL light up enough things for city drivers to think that they have lights on. I think that the switch to cars having auto lights at the same time is partly to blame. If only the DRL also had the rears on I would be much happier, at least when it get dark I wouldnt be so worried. There have been moments at night where I haven't noticed straight away a car due to no lights on the rear but as it was moving it took a moment to process what was going on. Motorcycles were made to have the lights on all the time. The old Volvo was known for having the side lights and tail lights on all the time. So its no great challenge. |
| tom66:
But either way, most modern cars have auto headlights and I can't fault how it works on my car or indeed a few others cars I've driven. Even a little bit of light rain gets the auto headlights to come on, but it's clever enough not to flash the lights on for an underpass whilst detecting tunnels quite well. Looking at the diagnostics, it uses the presence of street lighting at a certain beat frequency and the vehicle speed to switch between 'highway' and 'non-highway' modes, presumably on a highway mode it's got different sensitivity and some way to reject street lighting at higher speeds. If people don't use the tools they've got then nothing can save us. I wouldn't blame DRL's, and there's a reasonable body of research out there justifying their use (for instance, TRL report). |
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