Stealth Drivers

sionisais

Mrs Sioni is the household driver and she is pretty good. She’s not a dithery driver, I’d say she’s assertive but far from aggressive.
There’s just one thing that gets her goat on the road, and that is drivers who do not use their lights. This evening, a dingy overcast, light rain but there were still cars with no lights on. None, not even side lights. Worse still, they were all black, grey or silver, the very colours that are hardest to see against wet tarmac in half-light. And my wife has decent, legal, eyesight (she’s diabetic and has annual checks).
What is it with these people? Are they saving energy?

Lamb Chopped

Do you have a lot of cars where this sort of thing is even possible? (Dumb question I guess, but how? The legally required ones (which include daylight running lights) are not left up to the will of the driver on most cars here; and the others tend to be automatic in low light situations, unless you have a very old car. Is it different there?.

Nick Tamen

Most American cars I’m familiar with, except some older ones, have an automatic setting for the headlights, but you can turn it to a different setting (off, on, parking lights). The only time a cars’ lights come on automatically regardless of where the switch is set is when the windshield wipers are on.

I was driving just after dark recently and didn’t realize I didn’t have my lights on. I keep the switch at automatic, but my daughter had used my car the night before and had turned the lights off when she got home, and I didn’t realize that.

When I see people without their lights on, I assume they don’t realize it.

sionisais

Many newer cars in Britain have automatic lights but a) these can often be overridden and b) in some types only the front lights are automatic.
This evening’s journey was a quiet one of about seven miles. We saw eight cars coming towards us, seven black and one silver. Make of car withheld, but three are associated with faulty direction indicators.

Lamb Chopped

Now that my brain is awake, of course people can turn those things off accidentally. My husband does it all the time on my car (his own requires manual on-off changes, which means he has a habit of turning the knob in just such a way that my automatic settings go off!). I've learned to check the car lights visually (against a tree or wall or something) before I drive very far.