A presumed safety item that isn't safe - daytime running lights

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.
My Austin Healey had side curtains!
I just checked my manual...it says "Open/Close" the windows. Who knew?

So does your cousin say "dial a phone number," or is it just "call" (which could be just a shout out the rolled-down window)?
 
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.
 
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.

Yeah, the high center mounted light (or 3rd brake light as I like to call it) is incredibly useful. I've come across quite a few older cars that have the standard incandescent brake light bulbs with the LED 3rd brake light, and a lot of the time the 3rd brake light is the only one that's working because the incandescent bulbs have burned out. This light is similar to DRLs in that an inattentive driver may not notice that their brake lights are out, because they aren't having any issues in traffic. If you remove the 3rd brake light, the fact that the brake lights are out will be made known to the driver in one way or another, but this comes at a highly increased risk of collision due to a complete lack of brake lights.
 
1660040506953.png

I've been driving with the lights on since I was allowed to drive a car on the public roads. Automatic lights or not, I always set my car's lights switch to this position which means I'll have the tail lights on. And of course the DRL turns on once the car start moving. I know for sure I am seen by others in low visibility conditions. And I turn on the low beams once the sun sets. It works for me.
 
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?

You can't fix stupid.
 
We have multiple drivers of one of our cars (not my MX5, of course) and no one even thinks about turning off the headlights. So for 17 years, that's never been an issue for us.
 
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.

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.
 
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? ;)
 
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? ;)

No one has statistics because it's probably never happened. On the other hand, there are numerous studies that have shown that DRLs make vehicles safer.

Also, DRLs are not mandated in the US, but they are in Canada and many other countries, dating back to the 1970s. It's not a one-size-fits-all solution on it's own, it's a lighting technology that contributes to overall safety.

Finally, note that "the act of intentionally posting inflammatory threads or replies for no other purpose than inciting or provoking others, also known as "trolling", is strictly prohibited." This is with regard to the bolded part of your reply above.
 
Last edited:
Back