When the light STARTS to fade, put your lights on - for others to see you - don't wait until you can't see others.

One or two things.

My Volvo 440 had lights that came on whenever the ignition was switched on. I got accustomed to not having to remember to switch the lights on and when I changed cars I left the sidelights on permanently. I'm half way there. Then I usually remember to switch to headlights.

What distressed me was a work-mate assuring me that if he had the sidelights on then that was enough. If he could see then the other guy could see. When it is raining and the roads are wet it's very difficult to distinguish a car running with sidelights only. The sidelights look like street lights some distance away or the reflections on the road.

I would like to substitute LED bulbs for the tungsten bulbs on the sidelights of my car, but the maker's rep. assured me that would be illegal because the bulbs have not been 'homologated'. When I asked about the Daytime Running Lights fitted to new cars he replied that on new cars the LED bulbs are homologated with the model of car. Does anybody have any ideas on this ?

Edited by hillman on 14/10/2015 at 21:08

I very much agree, KB, with you and others. As a small cosolatio I can tell you that it's bvetter than it was when I first learnt to drive in the mid-1960s. It wasn't the custom to tun on headlights in rain, and generally some people were reluctant to light up for fear of flattening their batteries.

Dynamos were a lot less efficient than the modern alternator, especially with those frightful old Fords with a 6-volt electrical system.

I know not everyone agrees, but I'm delighted that new cars now have permanently-lit DRLs.

A few months ago I was in minor 'accident' CAUSED by DRLs, in the daytime!

There is a road which until a few years ago was little more than a dirt track, but was nevertheless quite well-used by the public. It must have been thought a legitimate-enough route, because those few years ago the council gave it a tarmacked surface.

Now, this road is only JUST wide enough for two cars. It goes uphill through quite dense woods for a quarter of a mile, with quite a pointed brow at the top of that hill.

The track/road is CUT into the wooded hillside: There are no verges, just 4-foot-high clay-soil banks on either side.

So I'm driving up the hill at a safe speed. It's dim and shady, but overhead sunlight is filtering through little gaps in the tops of the tall trees, so it's not what you'd call dark enough to require headlights.

As I get about 75 yards from the brow, another car suddenly appears in the opposite direction, over the brow, and going too fast. Not outrageously fast, but too fast for that bit of road.

But the crucial thing was, that this car had DRLs. The DRLs were of such brightness, and in such locations, that I was completely dazzled by them: I wanted to veer as far to my left as possible, but I was utterly unable to make-out where the soil bank was, and was unable to veer quite as far as I probably could have, because I didn't want to risk stuffing the entire front corner and wing of my car into a sturdy soil bank!

As a result, the two cars' door-mirrors clashed, and mine was all-but destroyed.

I stopped, to pick up the shattered pieces of my mirror from back down the road. The other driver did not stop.

It was only as I observed the other car continuing into the distance that I was able to discern that it was a Citroen Cactus.

If you check-out that model, you will see that its DRLs are right at the top edge of the bonnet, an elevation not far-removed from the eye-level of the driver of a saloon.

Those darned things blinded me just as effectively as if the car had had its main-beams on!

The raison d'etre of DRLs is supposed to be just to alert you to the PRESENCE of a vehicle: They could be mounted much lower down - there's no compelling justification for them to be mounted this high up. Stupid stupid stupid!

Then just this last Sunday: 8:30pm, fully dark, encounter an SUV (think it was an Outlander) coming the other way. He has just the DRLs on. The rear of this - charcoal-coloured! - vehicle was completely unlit.

Just two examples of how this pathetic DRL legislation can actually have a counter-productive effect on safety...

I was going to post that as well.

It's all very well having DRL's but there is ZERO light showing at the back.

So if your OK with for example, having a truck plow into you from behind whilst your waiting at a junction...just don't bother to switch on any extra lighting. Your funeral.

I was behind a 63 plate ivory Fiat 500 in Basildon the other night. Gone 9pm so dark. The young blonde woman had no lights on at the back whatsoever. Adequate secondary lights at the front (I believe) but she was quite oblivious to the danger.

Still more speed camera's will fix that right up - won't they?