...of sidelights?
I just don't think there's any need for them. If you want to have your lights on, why not have them on dipped - sidelights are just a waste of time.
The main problem with them is that people often forget to put their dipped lights on when they've been driving around with their sidelights on.
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They're quite handy for leaving on if you're parked on a dark/quiet road at night. Can't imagine why you'd ever use them while driving. If the conditions are anything less than clear I always have dipped headlights on. And at night I have my front fogs on as well*
(*joke)
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Well, technically they are called parking lights, which says it all.
In really, really, thick choking fog I have however turned the dipped headlights off and driven on parking lights and front fog lights on a couple of occasions in my 24 years of driving. This technique reduces reflected glare in such conditions.
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Oh, I forgot; I also switch off dipped beam and just use the parking lights as a courtesy if at night I'm going to wait behind another stationary car for an appreciable length of time.
I just wish more drivers of automatics would extend the same courtesy and use the parking brake and neutral rather than holding the car in gear on the foot break; The new Merecedes SLK in front of me the other night was blinding in the extreme with its dazzling array of LED brake lights.
Some new cars (Mercs again?) now have "usage sensitive" brake lights where the intensity varies according to the degree of braking but I have yet to see one and feel that the same comment as above is likely to still apply; after all, if the brake light isn't going to attract attention (i.e. brightness) it has little point.
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I thought the idea was that you turned on only your sidelights and then switched on the front fog/driving lamps and then you look really cool.
Well, you actually don't look at all cool but you do look like good company for the truckies with their cute purple disco lights.
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Blue lights Mark. Blue lights. ;-)
--
Adam
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I just bought a Chrysler Pacifica. It turned out to have real sidelights - they illuminate the kerb as you drive. Don't know who thought they'd be a good idea.
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Tell that to the NSM instructor who taught someone I know to drive:-
"When it gets a bit dark or it's poor visibility, use your sidelights, and then when it gets properly dark or really foggy switch on your headlights."
Moron.
Blue
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Tell that to the NSM instructor who taught someone I know to drive:-
That should of course be "BSM"
ALthough I'm sure everyone guessed anyway!
Blue
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They may just warn someone that it's not a motor bike coming, but a car with one headlamp blown. There used to be sidelamps like a miniature Lucas headlamp which were very effective, and might with advantage be revived.
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They may just warn someone that it's not a motor bike coming, but a car with one headlamp blown.
Indeed; a loose acquaintance of my brother died during an overtaking manoeuvre at night when the vehicle coming the other way wasn't a car half a mile away but a tractor rather closer; Verdict after interviewing the surviving passenger was that the closely spaced tractor headlights gave a false impression of distance and lead to an assumption they they were fitted to a car much further away.
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Sorry, but at night, if I see headlights (that I can identify as headlights) I don't overtake regardless of how far away they look or how many there are. I like a nice straight that's well lit from the guy in front's main beams so I can see there are no hidden dips too.
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Our tractor has an extra set of lights in the roof the normal distance apart for precisely that reason. They're not bright enough to illuminate the road, they just give an idea of scale to oncoming drivers.
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Up until the '70s or '80s everyone in British cities drove on their sidelights, although Continental drivers always used dipped headlights in cities. In 1966 I was waved down by two policemen in Greenwich, London, and told to turn off my dipped headlights and drive on my sidelights.
The only problem was that many cars (certain Jaguar models particularly) had sidelights that were no brighter than two lighted cigarettes. I've seen many a pedestrian jump for their lives when two tiny sidelights got lost in the background lighting.
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Actually you've just reminded me of a very old newspaper article that I read.
It's from the 70's and was in the local paper, the gist of it was that the writer was moaning about recent moves towards using dipped headlights during poor visibility in daylight hours and in well lit areas after dark. They claimed it was totally unnecessary, I wish I could find the clip now and I would post as much of it as I could.
Obviously their opinion wasn't taken notice of as on the whole, people tend to use headlights these days.
Except those taught by BSM of course :-)
Blue
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From Highway Code:
All vehicles MUST display parking lights when parked on a road or a lay-by on a road with a speed limit greater than 30 mph.
I also use them in dense traffic queues in towns, out of courtesy.
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