No-lights drivers

I saw two no-lights drivers tonight. One of them was an SUV driver that
Slothfully pulled out of a parking lot. A mobile phone was stuck to its
left ear, and it seemed to be having problems steering around the
corner. It went a couple of blocks before I quit waiting to see if the
oblivious driver was going to notice that it had no lights on, while
driving on a dark street.

The other no-lights driver was a CLB. A sudden traffic jam happened on
my drive out of the city, and it was being caused by a CLB that was
going about 60 below the speed of traffic. This driver had no
headlamps, and its parking lamps were illegal "white" instead of amber.
Maybe this is a "feature" that is bundled with the illegal parking
lamps, or maybe the CLB wanted to use the headlamps of the drivers
passing it on both sides. At least this no-lights driver had taillamps,
but KRETP!

> This driver had no headlamps, and its parking lamps were illegal "white"
> instead of amber.

Are you sure about that? The factory parking lights on my car are
white/clear.

- B



"Alexander Rogge" > wrote in message
...
>I saw two no-lights drivers tonight. One of them was an SUV driver that
>Slothfully pulled out of a parking lot. A mobile phone was stuck to its
>left ear, and it seemed to be having problems steering around the corner.
>It went a couple of blocks before I quit waiting to see if the oblivious
>driver was going to notice that it had no lights on, while driving on a
>dark street.
>
> The other no-lights driver was a CLB. A sudden traffic jam happened on my
> drive out of the city, and it was being caused by a CLB that was going
> about 60 below the speed of traffic. This driver had no headlamps, and
> its parking lamps were illegal "white" instead of amber. Maybe this is a
> "feature" that is bundled with the illegal parking lamps, or maybe the CLB
> wanted to use the headlamps of the drivers passing it on both sides. At
> least this no-lights driver had taillamps, but KRETP!

Bill wrote:
>>This driver had no headlamps, and its parking lamps were illegal "white"
>>instead of amber.
>
>
> Are you sure about that? The factory parking lights on my car are
> white/clear.

Parking lights may be white or amber. *turn signals* must be amber.
Pre-1963, all front lights were white.

nate

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>> This driver had no headlamps, and its parking lamps were illegal "white"
>> instead of amber.
>
> The factory parking lights on my car are white/clear.

These didn't look like normal parking lamps. They were like a mix of
yellows and what was probably a cheap cover to make them look like a dim
"white". They weren't very visible. The only way to notice the CLB was
to assume that the missing headlamps of the cars behind the obstruction
were being blocked by a CLB.

"Alexander Rogge" > wrote in message
...
>I saw two no-lights drivers tonight. One of them was an SUV driver that
>Slothfully pulled out of a parking lot. A mobile phone was stuck to its
>left ear, and it seemed to be having problems steering around the corner.
>It went a couple of blocks before I quit waiting to see if the oblivious
>driver was going to notice that it had no lights on, while driving on a
>dark street.
>
>

Blame it on DRLs and digital dashboards with backlights. Basically, from
the driver's seat, the car looks the same whether the headlights are on or
not. Not an excuse for bad driving. Just makes matters worse, as drivers
who are inattentive to begin with now get more easily distracted.

Older vehicles? Without the headlights on, you couldn't see anything in
front of the vehicle and couldn't see the gauges, either. Now you can see
in front of the vehicle (that is THE ONLY AREA most drivers watch,
unfortunately) because of the DRLs, and digital dashboards are lit up day
and night. -Dave

> Blame it on DRLs and digital dashboards with backlights. Basically,
> from the driver's seat, the car looks the same whether the headlights
> are on or not.

I have noticed a bunch of those DRL-only drivers lately. They look like
they're driving around in the dark with high-beams on, but no taillamps.
Then I notice that they're only DRLs. Some of those DRLs are
burned-out from overuse.

Although the digital dashboards might be lit whether the headlamps are
on or not, what I don't understand is how some drivers are able to see
the road without headlamps on. These drivers don't have DRLs or any
other lights on at night, and they're driving on dark streets.

Alexander Rogge wrote:
>> Blame it on DRLs and digital dashboards with backlights. Basically,
>> from the driver's seat, the car looks the same whether the headlights
>> are on or not.
>
>
> I have noticed a bunch of those DRL-only drivers lately. They look like
> they're driving around in the dark with high-beams on, but no taillamps.
> Then I notice that they're only DRLs. Some of those DRLs are
> burned-out from overuse.
>
> Although the digital dashboards might be lit whether the headlamps are
> on or not, what I don't understand is how some drivers are able to see
> the road without headlamps on. These drivers don't have DRLs or any
> other lights on at night, and they're driving on dark streets.

I've found, in the Impala, the difference between headlamps off and on
in pretty small. A couple of times I have turned the lights to the
parking light setting while sitting in the Metro parking lot waiting for
someone (you can't turn them "off," the "off" setting enables the
automatic headlights and they come right back on again) to avoid
blinding pedestrians, etc. and have forgotten that I did upon leaving.
If there's no traffic coming the other way to flash you, you really
can't immediately tell your headlights are off because the parking
lights provide a surprising amount of foreground light, and the
headlights providesurprisingly little, so you're not expecting a whole lot.

You'd never do that in the Porsche (with E-codes) though...

nate

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