Driving in the dark with no lights syndrome

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Oct 8, 2006
Messages
11,520
Location
OH
I am now officially calling it a syndrome. I see so many people driving around in the dark with no lights on it's ridiculous! I don't get it. How can you be driving in your vehicle in the dark and not realize you don't have your lights on? And the cops do absolutely nothing about it. They should be ticketing these idiots! I always flash these people my brights (because my headlights can't be turned off), but most of the time, they don't understand why and they just keep driving with their lights off...how brain dead do you have to be to do this?
 
Agree. A lot of brain dead idiots out there. I spent 3 hours in the car the other night and I saw at least 10 people, on the interstate, at night, without headlights on. As to the police not doing anything, I made it a point when I was a patrol officer to pull these people over. They would have a deer in the headlights look on their face when you asked them why they got pulled over. I would then inform them that it has been customary, for quite some time, to drive at night WITH the head lights on.

I think it has more to do with auto head lights than anything. I once pulled over a guy that had like 30K miles on his 2 year old car, who had no idea that he had been driving around for two years, without head lights/ tail lights, at night. His car had daytime running lights and he just assumed that he had auto head lights. He almost wanted to argue with me, until I told him to get out and look at his tail lights, that were off, and his head lights, that were a lot less bright than they were supposed to be.
 
Didn't you already have a thread on this not that long ago?

If not, we've hashed this one out a few times. Most of it's braindeadness, the rest is due to constantly backlit dashboards. And automatic headlights which don't work so well (incompletely programming).
 
It used to be that LEO's would stop someone without lights in the dark (as well as stopping people that didn't utilize turn signals, had one tail light out) and make sure they weren't drunk or otherwise not fit to drive. A make good ticket to fix the broken tail light or head light was given. People tended to pay attention to those things back in the day that they knew they would get stopped by the first LEO that saw them. Nowdays, the chances of getting stopped for those things is slim.

Now the emphasis for LEO's is tickets that produce $$$$, extreme moving violations (more than 20MPH over posted limit, reckless driving, etc.). Those are the big ticket items that get the LEO's in their bosses good graces because they produce $$$.
 
...and foul weather, my god, 25% are imbeciles with lights out on U.S. 2 lane highway..people traveling trying to pass...should be an increasing heavy fine.
 
I have the opposite issue.
On the way to Florida through the backside of Baltimore the street lights on I95
and the other roads make your headlights useless and its hard to actually see.
A bunch of light but no real vision.

Here they travel with no lights in massive fog. most of the time your auto headlights don't pick this up.
Any fool should know auto headlights do not mean you're covered.
 
You seem to have an unhealthy mental issue with people and their headlights. For example, you posted the same rant here , and complained about headlights here , and ranted about headlights here.

There is also this rant that was locked.

Might I suggest that, if you feel the need to rant and rave about something, you find something truly worthwhile to rant and rave about?
 
Seems it is always a black or dark colored car with no headlights on. When I worked in insurance I remember a few cases of insurance fraud floating around where people with dark colored trucks would purposely pull out in front of unsuspecting drivers. They were caught on dash cam, and after a few times the insurance and police caught on. Very stupid idea considering the damage they caused for the potential gain, and also for the difficulty they now have getting insurance. Once our company found out they notified all the other insurance carriers about these two morons. They get added to a list somewhere and it comes back to bite them when they need insurance, since their company obviously dropped them. Not to mention the jail time.
 
It's a combination of people not paying any attention to driving and cars with the gauge cluster always lit up.

BUt it's always a dark car at night or in the rain.
 
You can thank the US "Big 3" Automakers and the compliant regulators in the US and Canada for this one.

On foreign market vehicles, the dash lights were designed so they do not go on unless the headlights and all other outside lights are on.

US Automakers fought this as a requirement in the safety regulations, and won.

So that means you can have dash lights on and either daytime running lights (and no night rear illumination) or just no lights whatsoever.

People get into their cars ... and this includes models from all makers because regulations allow it ... see the dash and interior lighting is on during a night drive, and in a lit urban environment not realize their outside lighting is off or in a dangerous condition.
 
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
You seem to have an unhealthy mental issue with people and their headlights. For example, you posted the same rant here , and complained about headlights here , and ranted about headlights here.

There is also this rant that was locked.

Might I suggest that, if you feel the need to rant and rave about something, you find something truly worthwhile to rant and rave about?
Good observation....+1
 
Instead of CAFE oils, why not allow folks to turn their lights off. My last car has permanent driving lights.

Has anyone done the math on 100,000,000 sets of headlights and tail lights on all the time and what that means for fuel consumption nation wide ... It's nutz
frown.gif


You want fuel economy, don't generate the electricity in the first place ...
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: grampi
I am now officially calling it a syndrome. I see so many people driving around in the dark with no lights on it's ridiculous! I don't get it. How can you be driving in your vehicle in the dark and not realize you don't have your lights on? And the cops do absolutely nothing about it. They should be ticketing these idiots! I always flash these people my brights (because my headlights can't be turned off), but most of the time, they don't understand why and they just keep driving with their lights off...how brain dead do you have to be to do this?


Lots of cars will lit the DRLs and the dashboard making the driver think their lights are on. Automatic lights feature is a problem too, because people get complacent. The best solution is a switch on e dashboard that can be used for turning lights off and on.
 
That's why I like my C-Max because Ford lets you turn it all off.
And its an option for DRL on many Mitsus..


Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
Instead of CAFE oils, why not allow folks to turn their lights off. My last car has permanent driving lights.

Has anyone done the math on 100,000,000 sets of headlights and tail lights on all the time and what that means for fuel consumption nation wide ... It's nutz
frown.gif


You want fuel economy, don't generate the electricity in the first place ...
 
Originally Posted By: deanm11

Almost as bad is the 'Drive with the brights on all the time' syndrome.


Almost but not quite - I know the bright light boys are there, I just don't stare at their lights.
Glare and obvious presence is easier to see and avoid than no glare, no obvious presence.
 
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
You seem to have an unhealthy mental issue with people and their headlights. For example, you posted the same rant here , and complained about headlights here , and ranted about headlights here.

There is also this rant that was locked.

Might I suggest that, if you feel the need to rant and rave about something, you find something truly worthwhile to rant and rave about?


There are a few rants on 18 wheelers.
 
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
You seem to have an unhealthy mental issue with people and their headlights. For example, you posted the same rant here , and complained about headlights here , and ranted about headlights here.

There is also this rant that was locked.

Might I suggest that, if you feel the need to rant and rave about something, you find something truly worthwhile to rant and rave about?


Might I suggest if you don't like a thread, ignore it, instead of griping about it...
 
Originally Posted By: deanm11

Almost as bad is the 'Drive with the brights on all the time' syndrome.


I encounter these idiots too, and many of them won't turn off their high beams even after flashing my high beams at them several times...isn't this illegal?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top