2nd Gripe of the Week

A personal favourite of mine as well. The other one I find annoying is the way people will load the back of the car to the gunnels or hitch up the van/trailer with all manner of crap in it, then not bother to adjust their lights. Even on low beam, they can be blinding.

You're right, where are the funnies?

What about the ones that persist in illegally driving with their fog (read wanker) lights on?
A lot of these lights are as bright as driving lights, also it seems most of them have been adjusted up.

As far as dipping lights goes, the law is quite specific, you must dip your your lights at 300 metres, OR .... when the other vehicle dips it's lights, no matter what the distance.

Dipped mine last night for someone....wasn't quick enough as they flased me one millisecond after dipping theirs and I thought I dipped fast after that! You can't win either way.

Leroy

this is one of my biggest gripes with night driving, people who don't dip their lights when you can quite clearly see another car is around the corner or on the other side of the hill. We also have quite a few people who seem to think it is necessary to drive around our suburb with high beams on lighting up everyones houses whilst they sleep.

I agree as a generalization.

However particularly on country roads you often come across a big sweeping bend, which might be a fair way off. With the leadlights of each vehicle shining from opposing ends of the bend, neither will cop the glare, but I often find the car coming my way will dip its lights as soon as it's aware of me. It you dip too early, you might not see a roo or other hazzard early enough. I tend to keep the beam up longer in these conditions...doesn't cause any distress, and it's safer for me.

I do a lot of country driving at night. Must say trucks are pretty good at dipping, but my biggest issue is with some newers cars where the low beam is super bright, and you don't know if they are hi or low beam. Don't want to flash the driver in case they were low, and get a blast a daylight from their high beams.

Also, absolutley hate the driver with one headlight out of alignment. Don't know why, but they always seem to be directed rigth into your eyes. You know that they are on low beam (surburban streets or similar), but one light always manages to blind you.

Where are the traffic patrols when you need them !!

I know I was told to dip as soon as you see the headlight from the oncoming car, not wait until "you can see the whtes of their eyes" like some drivers.

Bit of a gripe, but now I am happy !!

RD

As well as these gripes (which have been around for a long long time unfortunately), I have discovered a relatively new one. People slipping through red lights ! Quite on purpose. They look to see if there's anything coming, or a policeman around, and then they're gone, leaving the rest of us with our mouths open.

I remember once travelling with a semi in front and a buzz box behind me loaded with skis onto head for the snow, and he had his high beams on behind me for a good 20 minutes. Suddenly the truck in front of me start to slow significantly and of couse so do I. The buzz box zooms around both of us, then next thing I know it's like daylight, the semi switched on everything he had!

Now I know some will say how dangerous and irresponsible it was to do because it could have caused the other guy to have an accident but there was a bit off me that had that "haha" feeling.

Sandy

What about the ones that dont even turn there head lights on at night until they think........duuuh why is it so dark ? Why are they flashing me ? Why are they yelling at me ? whats wrong ?

Annoys the bleep outa me on night drives. I have reverted to ensuring that the driver 'pays the penalty' just before we pass each other.

I recall doing a trip around WA and doing most of the Nullabor at night - was absolutely sick and tired of inconsiderate high beamers. Was about 300km from Pt Aguta when I finally had enough and said to the missus "The next car will have to dip before me, I am not going to dip until he does". Soon enough a set of (paricularly bright) lights appeared some way off and I thought, right this is it - Showdown Time. He didnt dip. I wasnt about to dip first. My eyes were killing as I thought "Good set of lights on that bugger". We passed each other with all lights blazing and all retinas burning! I reckon he won though as he was in a long nose Kenworth with a few more lights on the bullbar than me.

Another thing that irks me is people that drive with parkers on. What is the point of this? Are they saving money on their electricity account? Before too long it's full dark and they stil havent gone to low beam.

This seems pretty lame bitching guys! On a recent trip to and from Sydney at night I had the displeasure of late dippers, no dippers, no tail lights (on a trailer), no brake lights, morons overtaking on double lines, some wanting to go fater than me (doing the obligatory 10 over), useless women drivers (that was the wife on her turn to drive), unbelievably slow traffic that finds the accelerator at every overtaking lane, roadwork signs in the middle of the night - and guess what, no one working, fixed cameras in every town along the New England and these things were strategically set up to catch not save AND finally to arrive in Sydney to find that petrol was at an all time high of $1.44/litre.

I feel better now, thanks.

Kind regards