TOT: Modern car lights: reasoning?

[Nightjar]

I used to do motor rallies in those days and everybody who rallied fitted halogen lights. They all also used to be very careful about light settings; the cars had to pass scrutineering and the Police would do random safety stops on rally cars. Nevertheless, being flashed by people objecting to the halogen lights was something everybody who had them experienced.

The bottom line is that you are convinced that the problem was badly set lights, while I am convinced that there is more than enough evidence that it was simply the brightness of the lights. It is not something that can be resolved half a century after the event, so there really isn't any point in continuing like a couple of Panto performers, repeating oh yes it is, oh no it isn't.

[Adrian]

On Sat, 20 Sep 2014 15:46:04 +0100, Nightjar >> What rules require me to use a parking brake when not parked?

The other reason is in case you get hit from behind. If you're only on the footbrake, your foot may easily be jolted off, bouncing you into the car in front. If you're relying on the autobox's park pawl, add a gearbox to the damage.

[Nightjar]

I rather doubt the parking brake will be more effective at preventing that from happening.

In the case of my car, also add in four radar modules, one at each corner, at £550 each. However, in the situation you describe, it will come out of somebody else's insurance.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Yes, and I'll tell you why I know this... I was acquainted with a few nobbers who used to deliberately set them too high; higher than I did, because they couldn't give a s**te about other road users. Guess who got flashed? Not me. I am fully aware of the difference in light output, don't need any instructions from you on that score, tyvm. I'm also aware of the usually better reflector and lens design that came in with halogen-matched lights (unlike some of the aftermarket conversion bulbs) and am fully aware that some of the other road users would see an apparently badly-adjusted set of lights, when all they were seeing was the more concentrated light beam below the cut-off point. I know all that. It still doesn't alter the fact that a lot of users quite deliberately fiddled with their lights to suit themselves and pissed others off. I also know for a fact that many garage employees would set the lights for customers who asked them to point them up a bit - so much for being 'qualified technicians'.

The situation repeated itself with the HID conversion kits that were pouring out of China, that many clueless nobbers fitted to their halogen reflectors, quite unsuitable for the task, causing huge amounts of uncontrolled light spill to dazzle others. As mainstream HID lighting has come down in price and become more standard, we will eventually see those conversions die away. Now, there's also the idiots with badly-controlled LED arrays to get pissed off at. What kind of nobber buys a cheap Chinese worklamp and thinks it's ok to use it as a dipped headlight? I have two of them as auxiliary lights on the front of my bike and it's driving lamp duty only for them, no way in hell could they be considered controlled enough to used as dipped beams, yet there are people out there doing this.

[Richard]

Wow! Your car sounds wonderful. Is there anything else you own which is that much 'this century'?

[dennis]

On 20/09/2014 18:47, "Nightjar

[Tim+]

[Ian Jackson]

Are they "brake lights" ("Look at me - sitting stationary with my foot on the footbrake") or "braking lights" ("Take care - I'm slowing down")?

[Adrian]

On Sat, 20 Sep 2014 19:47:07 +0100, Nightjar > The other reason is in case you get hit from behind. If you're only on

Certainly will - assuming, of course, the parking brake _works_.

[The Natural Philosopher]

braking effort to hold a car static is minimal compared with the forces you get from being rear ended...if you have been moved enough to push your foot off the brake you are already in an accident where its unlikely brakes of any sort will make any difference, and its arguable you are better off impacting at the front, where protection is better, anyway.

[Nightjar]

If the foot brake, which works on four wheels, can't hold the car well enough to prevent my foot being jolted off the pedal, which I consider is a fairly improbable event in itself, I seriously doubt that the parking brake, working on only the two less powerful brakes is going to be more effective.

[Nightjar]

[Nightjar]

IOW, because you knew a few people who had badly set lights, everybody who had halogen lights must have had badly set lights.

...

OTOH, those who set them for people who wanted to pass scrutineering at a rally event, would set them properly. With a full set of rally lighting, we didn't need mis-set dipped headlights to see where we were going.

I still get people objecting to my factory fitted HID lights, despite the fact that they are self-levelling and computer controlled, adjusting the light pattern to suit the traffic ahead. As in the days of halogen lights, other drivers see the brighter light and think it means the lights are on main beam.

[polygonum]

On 21/09/2014 11:07, "Nightjar

[charles]

[Nightjar]

[fred]

I have automatic dipping on my car. Its not infallible, sometimes it seems slow to switch to mainbeam, but it does wait until it picks up the oncoming cars light before dipping. I would normally dip before the opposing car ca me around the bend or breasted the hill, but being a lazy sod I just leave it on auto, and it does seem to lower my frazzle level.

Its the bollixes with one light high and one low that get on my t*ts.

I've had Cibie Oscars fitted on a Mitsubishi 4WD as its lights were atroci ous, but turning them on as revenge never made the other driver dip his lig hts so the result was two blind drivers instead of one. Not very clever.

I remember a horrendous accident many years ago when 3 you people were kill ed. Evidence was given by the lone survivor that the driver had been advise d to "Drive straight the bastard, that'll make him dip" Well it certainly e xtinguished his lights but at what a price.

[Nightjar]

...

You should see what my kitchen will look like, when I find the necessary round tuit. :-)

I didn't even know my car had radar units at each corner until a woman reversed hard into the rear of my car and cracked the casing one one, which is how I know how much they cost.

[Capitol]

It is very unlikely that adaptive, ie tilting lights, cannot produce dazzle. Where are the measurements available.

[Ian Jackson]

No matter how clever the designers of such lights may be, if the lights still cause dazzle when dipped, then the designers seem to have failed to design the lights correctly.