I have always switched on or off to side-light when I enter a tunnel both during day-time and night-time. Is this a good practice? (I have been doing so since I passed my test back in 98) My theory is that I sometimes get glare if on-coming traffic used dipped headlight, especially if the road is wet.
The tunnel I used all the time are Limehouse link, M25 between A1(M) and M11, crossing River Thames, etc.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Garrison
|
Garrison,
Properly set up headlights shouldn't dazzle, even in the wet. Side lights should be banned - headlights can and should do the same job.
You will find other threads on this and the moronic use of fog lights if you have a quick search - these subjects have had a good thrashing recently.
|
Sorry, I should have clarified that I get glare from other cars, not from my own headlights. My headlights are properly adjusted. I guess if others can dizzle me, I should not do the same to others. I find it particularly problematic to see clearly at night in single lane tunnel like Rotherhithe Tunnel.
Garrison
|
Why is it wet in the tunnels you use? Leaks?
- seriously though, my advice re "dazzling" is to look down and left (like where your dip shows on the kerb) just as you meeet oncoming.
Do NOT think about turning to "parking lights" - this will make your car invisible.
|
Headlights have only one intensity and are designed to illuminate the way ahead on unlit roads.
They are not necessary on well-lit roads (most large towns) and can actually be of detriment because they eliminate the contrast, making the view around on-coming vehicles difficult to define.
They are certainly not needed in queues of traffic, especially as most headlights seem to be mal-adjusted.
Headlights are useful at dawn and dusk where glare is not a problem and the contrast between lighted vehicle and surroundings is not great.
|
|
|
Dipped headlights every time. Sidelights should ONLY ever be used as parking lights.
Terry
|
Switch your lights off :-) Curiously, it is just as light in the tunnel at midnight as mid-day.
|
Depends on the tunnel lighting,headlights certainly not necessary in the Mersey tunnel.
|
Parking lights should only be used when parked.
What happened to dim-dip headlights? These would seem to be the ideal answer for those reuluctant to use proper dipped headlights.
At a tangent, the bus company Arriva has just implemented a policy of its buses using dipped headlights, AT ALL TIMES.
|
What happened to dim-dip headlights? These would seem to be the ideal answer for those reuluctant to use proper dipped headlights.
Personally I thought dim-dip were a really good idea, just right for well lit streets and meant you couldn't drive on parking lights. However I think you will find they fell victim to European harmonisation and were sacrificed in favour of adjustable level headlights. Not necessarily an improvement I would suggest.
Incidentally I wonder how many people out there ever adjust the level of their lights to the loading of their vehicle as per their manual??
Perhaps that's why so many cars appear to be so much brighter and dazzling than others.
Cockle
|
Incidentally I wonder how many people out there ever adjust the level of their lights to the loading of their vehicle as per their manual?? Perhaps that's why so many cars appear to be so much brighter and dazzling than others.
Yet another great tip that I learned on this site, and am now fully aware of it and will do the necessary when fully/partially/whatever loaded.
HF
|
|
|
|
Some tunnels have instructions saying "Sidelights Only" - they may be poor advice but it is what they say.
|
If the Mersey tunnel is so well lit - how come dipped headlights are a problem? The brighter the day the less you notice lights. Unless they are misaligned in some way.
|
They are well lit but not to the standard of broad daylight and as you have mentioned a lot of cars do indeed have badly aligned lights. There is also a degree of reflection from the tunnel walls. The bottom line is that you simply do not need dipped lights to see where you are going. There are ruddy great messages saying 'sidelights only ' on the tunnel walls and the regulars do not have a lot of patience with drivers who seem incapable of following simple instructions. Clearly, there are a lot of people about for whom this is all too much, as the number of rear foglights that are to be seen for days after we have a bit of fog testify.
|
Since people run around with rear fogs on, weeks after the last murky weather, expecting them to switch dip off for the tunnel is a bit optimistic. The Mersey tunnel gets very reflective in the wet, as the rainwater dripping from vehicles goes downhill to the lowest point, and you get a shiny tube effect.
Happy Xmas
|
|
|
|
|