Some of the hardest stuff with learning to drive involves getting used to exactly how firm to press a pedal, or exactly how much to guide the steering wheel. You take all this for granted when you have been driving for a while, but can be quite difficult when you first start learning. Some controls, however, are much more straightforward..... Or so you would think.....
Lights. They are either on, or off. That's it. You don't have to get just the correct amount of brightness. You just have to decide when to use them. It shouldn't be difficult. I have had mini-rants previously, concerning indicators, but the correct use of lights has been my bugbear of late.
Firstly, lights on your car are not just there to help you see, but also to help you be seen. The choice then, is to select the light that gives you the best visibility, makes you visible to others, but doesn't blind others.
Side-lights: In the US they refer to these as parking lights, which gives you a good idea of when you should use them - when parked at night in a speed limit over 30mph (and when you want to make your car more visible when parked). Of course, they can be used whilst driving, but it should only be when the speed limit is 30mph or less. A lot of people seem to think, at dusk and dawn, 'it's only a bit dark.... I'll only put on a bit of light' and put sidelights on. Wrong. At faster speeds sidelights will have little effect on making you more visible, especially if there is a vehicle behind you with headlights on. Admittedly, some sidelights are brighter than others, but if you decide that it is dark/gloomy/wet enough to reach for your light switch, why not just turn it that extra little click and put your dipped headlights on?
Headlights: If you think it is getting fractionally harder to see ahead, then others are finding it harder to see you. So put your dipped headlights on. You don't have to wait until everyone else has done so.
Full-beam: Firstly, you don't need them when there are streetlights. You need them when there are no streetlights and you can't clearly see what is happening ahead (or where the road is going). So, in my opinion, you don't need them at dusk. The other day, after sunset, it was dark enough to require dipped headlights, but I could clearly see what was happening ahead without needing full-beam. Despite this, I lost count of the number of oncoming cars heading towards me with full-beam. And that brings me on to the next thing.... If you can see the arc of headlights swinging round a corner ahead, don't wait until the car is in front of you before dipping your lights. And THEN.... have the courtesy to wait until the oncoming car has completely passed before whacking the full-beam back on.
Fog lights: This crops up as one of the 'show me/tell me' questions, and the answer required is 'when visibility is less than 100m' (or words to that effect). Usually this means fog, but snowfall can reduce visibility to this distance. Rain can reduce vision below this distance, but it would have to be very heavy rain. Putting your rear foglights on during normal rain is unnecessary and can be irritating to following vehicles. Front foglights I don't really have a problem with (unless they are incorrectly aligned). I sometimes hear people moaning about people using front foglights unnecessarily, but I don't see that it causes a problem. Sometimes I am bemused when drivers have front foglights and sidelights on, or, even more bizarrely, front foglights and no other lights - I struggle to understand their thought process - but it is rarely a problem. I read a post from someone claiming that, in very thick fog, front foglights are obviously helpful (not all cars have them), but he claimed that dipped headlights can cause too much of a glare, making sidelights preferable. Maybe, but I would still use dipped headlights - mainly to make me more visible to others - and drive at a reduced speed if the glare was making vision that bad.
Roll on midsummer, when this becomes far less of an issue. I can already feel my next mini-rant brewing - roundabouts (especially lane discipline)... You have been warned!
Lights. They are either on, or off. That's it. You don't have to get just the correct amount of brightness. You just have to decide when to use them. It shouldn't be difficult. I have had mini-rants previously, concerning indicators, but the correct use of lights has been my bugbear of late.
Firstly, lights on your car are not just there to help you see, but also to help you be seen. The choice then, is to select the light that gives you the best visibility, makes you visible to others, but doesn't blind others.
Side-lights: In the US they refer to these as parking lights, which gives you a good idea of when you should use them - when parked at night in a speed limit over 30mph (and when you want to make your car more visible when parked). Of course, they can be used whilst driving, but it should only be when the speed limit is 30mph or less. A lot of people seem to think, at dusk and dawn, 'it's only a bit dark.... I'll only put on a bit of light' and put sidelights on. Wrong. At faster speeds sidelights will have little effect on making you more visible, especially if there is a vehicle behind you with headlights on. Admittedly, some sidelights are brighter than others, but if you decide that it is dark/gloomy/wet enough to reach for your light switch, why not just turn it that extra little click and put your dipped headlights on?
Headlights: If you think it is getting fractionally harder to see ahead, then others are finding it harder to see you. So put your dipped headlights on. You don't have to wait until everyone else has done so.
Full-beam: Firstly, you don't need them when there are streetlights. You need them when there are no streetlights and you can't clearly see what is happening ahead (or where the road is going). So, in my opinion, you don't need them at dusk. The other day, after sunset, it was dark enough to require dipped headlights, but I could clearly see what was happening ahead without needing full-beam. Despite this, I lost count of the number of oncoming cars heading towards me with full-beam. And that brings me on to the next thing.... If you can see the arc of headlights swinging round a corner ahead, don't wait until the car is in front of you before dipping your lights. And THEN.... have the courtesy to wait until the oncoming car has completely passed before whacking the full-beam back on.
Fog lights: This crops up as one of the 'show me/tell me' questions, and the answer required is 'when visibility is less than 100m' (or words to that effect). Usually this means fog, but snowfall can reduce visibility to this distance. Rain can reduce vision below this distance, but it would have to be very heavy rain. Putting your rear foglights on during normal rain is unnecessary and can be irritating to following vehicles. Front foglights I don't really have a problem with (unless they are incorrectly aligned). I sometimes hear people moaning about people using front foglights unnecessarily, but I don't see that it causes a problem. Sometimes I am bemused when drivers have front foglights and sidelights on, or, even more bizarrely, front foglights and no other lights - I struggle to understand their thought process - but it is rarely a problem. I read a post from someone claiming that, in very thick fog, front foglights are obviously helpful (not all cars have them), but he claimed that dipped headlights can cause too much of a glare, making sidelights preferable. Maybe, but I would still use dipped headlights - mainly to make me more visible to others - and drive at a reduced speed if the glare was making vision that bad.
Roll on midsummer, when this becomes far less of an issue. I can already feel my next mini-rant brewing - roundabouts (especially lane discipline)... You have been warned!
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