Sidelights

[TripleS]

I came to appreciate the added protection it afforded them so it became OK in my mind. It is also possible that - as Jon reports - the drivers of certain cars may find they also are not being seen readily enough, in which case they too will rightly seek added protection.

The added protection due the headlight visibility for bikes will be wiped out if other vehicles do the same.
Put a bike with a headlight on amongst loads without and the bike will stand out.
Put a bike with a headlight on amongst loads with and the bike will be lost amongst them.

Yes, I agree with that. I do not want to see all cars running around with headlights or DRL on all the time.

Best wishes all,
Dave.

[kfae8959]

Parking lights (in the UK) seem to be a thing of the past. Ideally parking lights should only show on the offside of the vehicle (if the vehicle is parked facing the right way on the right side of the road). I have come across a system that sets the offside sidelights to act as parking lights if the indicator switch is set to the nearside, and vice-versa for use on the continent - but the only example of this system I can remember was fitted to a Scania truck I think.

As far as I know, VAG still uses this system for passenger cars, although the parking light appears on the same side as the direction signal. I notice it most commonly when the driver doesn't know that the car does it, and has signalled to pull in and park, left the indicator on, turned the ignition off, and got out of the car, leaving a handy warning for passing pedestrians!

HC rule 113 took me by surprise the last time I was revising for a test. It says, "[y]ou MUST [...] use headlights at night, except on a road which has lit street lighting". Am I right to interpret that as meaning that the law is satisfied for me not to show any lights as long as the street lights are on?

David

[Gareth]

HC rule 113 took me by surprise the last time I was revising for a test. It says, "[y]ou MUST [...] use headlights at night, except on a road which has lit street lighting". Am I right to interpret that as meaning that the law is satisfied for me not to show any lights as long as the street lights are on?

I always interpreted that to mean that sidelights alone was OK.

[Gareth]

See the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations, section 24.

[PeterE]

I'm sure I remember using sidelights alone when the system of street lighting was suitable, as still may be found in many town centres, but these days I would tend not to do so.

Going back to the 1960s it was the norm to drive on sidelights only on lit roads in built-up areas. However, if the vast majority of other drivers are using headlights you put yourself at a disadvantage by only using sidelights.

Dim-dip lights were a reasonable compromise but unfortunately the EU forced the UK to drop them in the interests of standardisation

[PeterE]

I do not want to see all cars running around with headlights or DRL on all the time.

Well, before long you will, as DRLs will soon become standard on all new cars - and are already seen on new VW Golfs and Polos

[Smiling Assassin]

See the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations, section 24.

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz No wonder motorists (or anyone else for that matter) gets confused.

[Gareth]

It's fairly clear. Section 24 says that sidelights must be used at night. Section 25 says you must also use dipped headlights or front foglamps at night unless you're in a built-up area with street lighting.

[TripleS]

I do not want to see all cars running around with headlights or DRL on all the time.

Well, before long you will, as DRLs will soon become standard on all new cars - and are already seen on new VW Golfs and Polos

Assuming you are right, and that all manufacturers will incorporate that infernal system into their cars, I can only hope that a lot of owners will be doing some wire snipping, or will stop buying new cars - at least for a period of a year or two, until the manufacturers get the message that we don't want all this crap. The vast majority of people could easily do this were they to be so minded.

The majority of people will accept the principle that governments tell the manufacturers what technical rules they have to comply with, and the people then have no alternative but to accept the products that result from this process if they want a new vehicle; but it need not be this way. Very few people need to buy a new vehicle now, or in the immediate future, so this could be done, and it would bring some of these pests into line PDQ.

On a completely different subject on PH recently, somebody referred to the critical mass phenomenon whereby a level of support for, or opposition to, something suddenly reaches a point when a great many people get behind it and unstoppable forces get deployed. The way governments and some large businesses are now operating I think we need to see some of that.

Best wishes all,
Dave.