Dipping Driving Lights

Always try and do the right thing. Big believer in karma. But if you are far enough back is it a real isse for the car in front when they can just dip the rear view mirror?

You are only far enough back if you don't light up the rear of the vehicle in front.
If you are following a vehicle why do you need HID lights on anyway? You would only need to see what is between you & the vehicle in front.

True, but if i am 500 mtrs back there is a lot of unseen road between me and the car in front. Have hit plenty of wombats and possums on my Thursday night drives and one night almost cleaned myself up on a tree across the road out of Yea. Without the lights i would have hit it for sure. I would never consider using the lights if it lit up the rear of a vehicle but even if way back it would still be noticeable in their rear view mirror.

Shaker

What I do, is have a set of Polaroid Sunnies, on my dash, and do not so ceortous people who do not dip their headlights.

Works a treat.

Mind you since I brought the HID light kit, they soon drop their lights if I flick my lights up.

Cheers
Bucky

Sorry about that ... must still be 1/2 asleep, engrish not that good yet

I actually put on the sunnies as quick as a flash, if oncoming traffic does not drop their lights.

Cheers

Ok. Good point. Never considered that.

Same here, as soon as i see the tailights of the vehicle in front i dip my headlights.

Agree on the being dazzled bit. Plenty of oncoming vehicles are slow to dip and many don't dip at all. How do you let a car behind know if their lights are bothering you? Flash brakes?

Yep, flashing brake lights usually gets the desired result.

In my case, if that doesn't work flashing the 2x150w rear facing worklights on the cabrail certainly does.

Disco.

Disco, you better hope that's not a police car behind you!

Moggs, I flash spotties, on and off, and and brake lights as well when someone is either sitting behind or coming up behind me with HBeam or spotties on. Have on occasion switched my lights totally off and on several times to give the driver behind a very subtle hint, although it's a bit dangerous. If that doesn't work, I slow right down so that he/she will pass me, then after they have passed and safely pulled back into the correct lane, I hit them with full high beam but only for a second or so, then go back to LBeam. This generally has the desired effect as the car that has just you overtaken switches down and up to acknowlege, or apologise to you. More often than not, these drivers are overtired, and forget to switch their lights down. Some have very poor night vision, and need the extra light to see by and don't care about you, so definitely should not be on the road at night. Of course there are the other kind of driving lights on the newer/later model cars, which are not really classified as spotlights, although they should be. These driving lights, while situated lower on the vehicle should be hooked up to High Beam as is the law for Spotlights. Quite a few of them are 100watts or more, (as much as spotlights). Drivers use them in well lit city roads, as well as suburban streets when there is absolutely no need for them. They are dangerous in wet weather as the glare from them reflects from the wet road surface making it very hard to concentrate on safe driving. One or two cars coming toward you at night in the rain with these lights is not altogether too bad, but when you have 10-12 cars coming towards you with low beam, PLUS these lights, it can be a nightmare. You effectively have somewhere in the order of 3,500 watts of lighting glaring in your eyes, not counting the refractions from the wet road surface and rain. If this is not a good enough reason to hook them up to high beam, then I don't know what is. Drivers with these lights, please think of others and turn them off in the high traffic areas at night.

A good reply Lyndon and

"If that doesn't work, I slow right down so that he/she will pass me, then after they have passed and safely pulled back into the correct lane, I hit them with full high beam but only for a second or so, then go back to LBeam. This generally has the desired effect as the car that has just you overtaken switches down"

is what i generally do. However these days there is often car after car just as inconsiderate.

Mh

If the light field is reaching the vehicle in front, I dip mine. If way in the distance on a straight road and visible light is not reaching them, i reason full beam should be OK.

Mh

It is also illegal in most states to use roof mounted Driving lights when ON ROAD

There are actually guide lines as to how high they may be mounted on the front of vehicles and from what I have seen the huge searchlights mounted on top of bullbars and higher than the bonnet would contravene these.

Reason is that they intrude into the drivers vision.

If you are not allowed an aerial wider than 75mm how can you mount a 300mm spotlight legally above the bonnet line.

Graham while talking about intrusions to vision like aerials and spotlights.

What about those people who place their GPS in the middle of the windscreen at eye level, effectively cutting out a large section of forward vision....

Anything that obscures your vision is illegal.

Doing that or hanging good???? luck charms can obscure a pedestrian and cause your luck to turn instantly bad.

Crystals that flsh in your eyes are especially bad

Any body who does that, and yes Ive seen them, is an idiot.

Below the bonnet line is fine and I dont actually look at my GPS.
I listen to what it says and follow that.

I used a Nokia phone for a while as a GPS and the map wasnt big enough to read but the spoken instructions were fine.

hmmmm .... bonnet lines and restricted vision.

Back in the day .......... ... people that only looked at the little bit of road just in front of the bumper ...... were regarded as bad drivers/idiots.

Surely the same still holds true for drivers today ..... not looking far enough in front to see an obstacle ????

Lets face it .... If a driver takes no action and hits something that darted in front of the vehicle ... from the roadside ....

.........Then the driver was obviously fixated on a point in front and not using their peripheral vision to see the threat from the side.

Driving lights mounted above a bonnet line have no effect in that case. neither do they have an effect worthy of legislation for moving vehicles either .....

.......... because the tiny little bit of road obscured by the lights ... Was visible only seconds before.

Hi Grahm H

You may be correct about roof mounted lights in mopst states, of that I am not sure.

I do not use my roof mounted lights on bitumen, I do not use them often, but on the Tanami or CSR when we go out to locate a broken down vehicle, we use them, and they are quite legal.

Of course we have magnets for the car doors "Lead Search Vehicle", but only really use those during the day if we must.

Just thought I would point thaty out.

Cheers

And of course that would be quite sensible.

By On road I meant on tarseal as in general roads Not theTanami etc


Cheers G

On roads, roof mounted lights are meant to have covers on them.

Thereby being rendered unusable .

Unless some smeaky p..... puts clear covers on them LOL

So which part of the school curriculum would you drop in order to fit these driving lessons?

Maths, science, English or history? Maybe they should include it as part of sport.

A large part of driving is attitude, and by the time kids go for their licence they've had 17 years of learning how the roads and other drivers should be treated.

R

Which part of the school curriculum ???

I'd go with Tuesdays & Fridays theory classes ... and every second Wednesdays practical class.

And if the education dept actually managed to provide functional and commonsense lessons related to real driving and not fictional fantasys .....

Maybe, there might be some "attitude" development for the better .... that even got taken home after school ....

"One flash left & one flash right"

Wouldn't that be illegal use of indicators?

Oztroopy,

I asked, which subjects would you delete from the school curriculum to fit in these driving lessons?

Perhaps comprehension should be axed, since it's clearly not taught properly anywway, or maybe punctuation?

R.

Spot-on LexM,
It is an illegal use of indicators and if you get a cop on a bad day you'll get booked for it.(talking from experience)

I also have a problem with this idiotic use of a RIGHT indicator to show OK to pass.

I'm going to pass a vehicle that's just indicated a RIGHT TURN? Not likely.

(A left indicator and move to the left makes more sense.)

I agree. I do not act on OK to pass flash unless I am very confident that the road ahead is clear. I suppose we are getting off topic some what, my only suggestion about indicator useage was after passing another vehicle & to acknowledge a kind gesture from that driver a "one flash left & one flash right" was a signal to say thanks for the courtesy extended to the other driver. I wouldn't believe in anyway that it is illegal although it was taught as part of our road craft education when I was taught to drive by Victorian Ambulance service. Just noticed prior to posting this, that Police situated on a roadway were intercepting vehicles for head light flashing!!!! Checking vehicles for roadworthiness. Seems motorists were flashing to warn others of a speed trap!! I spoke to my neighbour who stated she was stopped by a Police officer & her car looked at for roadworthiness. She was asked why was she flashing her lights on & off H/beam she said she wasn't (told me she lied) Police officer stated well there must be something wrong with your lights then....checked that all lights were functioning & had a good look over her vehicle too..Made her 10 minutes late to pick up kids!!

"I wouldn't believe in anyway that it is illegal"


From a quick google for road rules.



"51. When use of direction indicator lights permitted

The driver of a vehicle must not operate a direction indicator light except¾

(a) to give a change of direction signal when the driver is required to
give the signal under these Rules; or

(b) as part of the vehicle's hazard warning lights.

Penalty: 3 penalty units. Note Rule 221 deals with the use of hazard warning
lights."

I agree with you Lex, although i can't un-train my husband on that one. When i was Europe many years ago, truck drivers regularly used the flick of the right indicator to say it was OK to pass (although onus is of course up to us to be sure it is safe). The equivalent here is the left indicator, and yes, if i see a right indicator start, i pull back thinking he's going to turn. Left makes sense but for some reason, right is the norm here.

Mh

In the ACT, kids must pass a course in school, before they are allowed to apply for their learners.

In agree with you Oz Troopy I havent been here long enough to know what used to be.

It does work back home still and if the road is lit why do you need hi beam.

As far as above vision line intrusions Sometimes when turning you can actually follow around so that someone walking across the road can be obscured by things on the windscreen or bonnet.

EG try to read a sign that has a pole in front of it. Sometimes as you go past the pole appears to move to stay in front of what you want to see.

An illusion I know but same with GPS at eye level.

Can block out a Pedestrian quite easily.

I dont make the rules just promoting them .

As far as sillhouettes go I really agree.

Was coming back to Dunedin from Invercargill in a Mini 45 years ago in the dark Could see the white line in first part of a long dip then nothin then the white line.

Thought woops why and slowed down just as a big black cow turned and I could see its eyes. Would have taken the top off the Mini and killed the 4 of us if I hadnt been aware.