You're BLINDING ME!

[JLRodgers]

I see people with undimmed headlights on in town a lot... strange thing is it's normally on main street in my town - the only street that's so well lit that people have been given warnings for being on it with headlights off (because, on or off, you can't really tell).

There is one road in my town that the brighter beams are needed -- there's a forest to one side, farm land to the other, and no street lights anywhere on it -- more people have hit deer on that road than other places in the county.

[ADoyle90815]

That seems to happen every time I drive at night, with it being even more annoying when I'm getting on a freeway that is well-lit and trying to merge into traffic that's going at least 65mph.

[PepperElf]

i remember going to a navy base once when the guard had to tell me twice to drive forward
Me: Sorry I couldn't see *shading my eyes from being blinded from behind*
guard: yeah those lights are bright


(and of course um. helloooo guard, you can yell at them duh!)


sometimes when i'm feeling bitchy i swivel my side mirrors out to aim it back at them

if i'm not driving i make shadow puppets

[XCashier]

I swear, vehicles should be made with sensors so that brights cannot be activated unless it's so dark out, and if another vehicle is within x range, they dim themselves, since most people are obviously too stupid to comprehend that you DON'T use them in town or on busy streets and you DIM them when people are coming at you.

I like this idea! The auto manufacturers should hear of it.

The worst hi-beam violators are the idiots in their raised 4 x 4 penis replacements pickup trucks. Those headlights are situated right at the window height in most other vehicles, and there is no escape.

I try not to drive at night, but sometimes it cannot be avoided. My night vision is bad enough, thanks, I don't need to be completely blinded because you're too stupid to see that the pretty blue light on your dash means that you're blinding everyone else on the road!!!

[blas]

Well, in all honesty, most of those drooling idiots think that that pretty blue light means that their headlights are on, not their brights.

[Geek King]

Those safety devices for railways wouldn't work on cars due to the number of variables involved in driving versus rail operation. You might be able to get the airliner option to work, assuming you could get around that pesky ground avoidence system being as cars are on the ground an all. Then you run into price. Even the avoidence systems in those few cars today are expensive for little actual worth. To put in a system functionally similar to the big jetliners, you'd be paying a couple hundred thousand per car. I don't know about you all, but my paycheck won't cover that.

The light sesor sounds like a good idea, but how do you get it to determine if the light levels are natural or another oncomming vehicle? I'm imagining city driving with everyone's headlights blinking on and off like christmas lights.

[Chromatix]

Actually the biggest difference between railways/airlines and cars is that car drivers are, on the whole, not doing it as professionals, they are doing it for themselves.

Apparently, you need a very specific kind of temperament to be a train driver, at least in European countries where rail safety standards are very high. Airline pilots have also universally had many years of training and experience. They *still* have all those safety systems backing them up.

Most car drivers started their driving experience on the road. A quiet one, perhaps, but still a full-blown road. A few tens of hours of experience later, they have a licence and they can drive wherever they want, whenever they want. And they're not supervised (much).

[mattm04]

Supposedly there are cars that won't start if you don't have your seatbelt on as well. Which is odd, because I don't put my seatbelt on until after I've turned the car on, picked my radio station/CD, got my stuff together...then I click it, then go.

We really should suggest this. It would really put an end to a lot of people's eye pains from idiots who think that the bright symbol on the dash means that their headlights themselves are on.

That seems stupid. I alwasy start the car first then put on my seat belt. Also i some situations you may need to not wear a seat belt such as if you are backing a trailer in a tight spot, put on stat belt, start car take of seat belt.

[Bella_Vixen]

because you're too stupid to see that the pretty blue light on your dash means that you're blinding everyone else on the road!!!

Well, in all honesty, most of those drooling idiots think that that pretty blue light means that their headlights are on, not their brights.

In my lovely little Chevy Cav, my regular lights have the blue icon, and my brights have the green one...

[MrSunshineState]

In my lovely little Chevy Cav, my regular lights have the blue icon, and my brights have the green one...

Unless you have one unique car, blue=brights, green=fog lamps

[Stormraven]

Huh? No car I've ever seen has fog lamps as anything other than an aftermarket add or option. You have low beams and high beams, and in some cases, daytime running lights. And that's it.

[MrSunshineState]

Huh? No car I've ever seen has fog lamps as anything other than an aftermarket add or option. You have low beams and high beams, and in some cases, daytime running lights. And that's it.

Perhaps I am mistaken. My IQ is below average when it comes to cars. I have a 2007 Hyundai Azera Limited:



The lights I speak of are the ones on the bottom. They are not parking lights as you are supposed to use them in the fog. They have been the same with every Hyundai I have owned. Anyway, when those bottom lights are on is when that green light comes on my console. And the blue is for brights of course.

[Stormraven]

That may be a Hyundai feature. My Saturn doesn't have them, nor did any of the three Nissans I've owned.

[MrSunshineState]

That's probably it. I have had 3 Hyundais so I kind of figured all cars came like that lol

[Chromatix]

It's a common but not universal feature. The idea of foglights is that fog is usually thinner immediately by the ground, so having lights mounted below the bumper means the light only has to go through one layer of fog to be useful (from the target to your eyes) instead of two (from the light to the target as well).

That's on the front, of course. On the back, a foglight is simply an extra-bright red lamp that has more chance of being seen through the fog by someone approaching you. The same principle initially drove the adoption of electric lamps in railway signals, even before "colour light signals" were introduced - the previously-used oil lamps were a bit pathetic.