What is the legal requirement ?

I had a friend who was convinced that he was legally able to run on sidelights in areas lit by street lights because he could see quite well to drive that way.

It's only on rare occasions that I see a car with only siselights lit. When it's raining it's quite difficult to distinguish sidelights from distant streetlights.

When I first took an interest in driving it was the practice to use parking lights at night. Now anyone parks anywhere unlit, even facing the wrong way.

Personally I think the problem with leaving them on all day is that if the warning sound telling you that you've left the lights on fails to work (or is not a feature) when you open the doors, then you (I've seen many people do this) could leave your lights on (if you don't spot it) all day whilst at work, etc, which could severely drain the battery.

I'm very much "old school" regarding having certain automatic functions on cars, such as "rain-sensing wipers" or auto-lights (any reason why you can't use your eyes and your own judgement?) - too much these days is done by computers (e.g. basic maths replaced by everyone using calculators) where our brains are just as good, and keep us mentally sharp. I'm not a fan of daylight-running lights as well, though I can understand why people leave them on all day.

There was at one time a rule regarding 'lighting up time'. My brother checked the times every day so that the local bobby would not catrch him out without his his bike lights on.

There still is a rule - lighting-up time is defined as 30 minutes after astronomical sunset until 30 minutes before astronomical sunrise.

Sunrise/sunset varies daily and varies by location as longitude and latitude affect it - your local library and/or local paper will have details available.

I work on a simpler basis - if visibility is impaired in any way I use dipped headlights - I use parking lights when I'm parking outside a lit built-up area.

I don't understand why the Highway Code is so difficult for the majority of drivers to follow.

Edited by RT on 08/12/2012 at 19:10

Does anybody ever consider how visible their car is to everyone else?

Does anyone consider how the visibility of their car affects the visinility of surrounding objects? Clearly, the more brightly illuminated your vehicle is, the more visible-and noticeable-it is. Bully for you. The problem is that a dimly illuminated object is less visible when adjacent to a bright one. This is why I apply the rule of using the minimum illumination necessary. It's a judgement call: I'm late to switch on my lights and early to switch them off. Sometimes I probably don't get it right.

But cyclists and pedestrians have a greater need to be noticed than I do encapsulated as I am in a ton of metal.

Edited by unthrottled on 09/12/2012 at 18:49

The argument that it's OK to drive on sidelights/parking lights just because the driver can see where (s)he's going is ridiculous.

When I passed my driving test, use of side lights in streetlit areas was fairly common. I did it, and I saw police cars doing the same. One could see more as objects outside what a headlight would light were also seen and observed.You got a better view of the whole picture in my opinion.

What ever the rights and wrongs though the use of headlights at all times was held to be safer, and a campaign was waged in the late 70s and early 80s to do this. I'm not totally convinced of the argument even now, but since Mr/Mrs InattentiveDriver only sees what they are spoon fed, would not dream of driving only on sidelights now. I don't want to give them any excuse for 'not seeing' me.