Uh, if its not too late, that law would be good to follow at times. Put it this way, last Friday, I was driving down to San Diego to visit my girlfriend. It was raining very hard and there was very low visibility. Seeing that its SoCal, not everyone is used to driving in those conditions and the roads may be oily. Whatever reason anyone can give for the 10+ accidents I saw on Local and Interstate is user error because ALL the cars who rear ended the car in front (badly), had no lights on, before, during, after the collision. The PD here were quite busy on Friday to lightly put it.

Laws a law, in SoCal, where rain is quite rare, its only smart to follow it, or face the consequences other than a policeman with his lights behind you. People who don't follow it are endangering others. There was a reason why it was enacted. I've seen the results of not following it and its not good, not good at all...

 

I'm all for DRL's, in the rain or not . . .

 

In the US, Audi only has DRLs in the front.

 

Doesn't make any difference..........where you live, it's foggy and rainy all the time anyway.

(Just kidding..........I know that's a little exaggeration)

 

No it's not too late. All opinions welcome.

But...are you sure those accidents happen solely because of a lights/no-lights issue? Most of the accidents I've seen that happen in the rain are because of traction problems.....even on vehicles with ABS. People drive too fast for conditions and then have accidents because they end up hydroplaning, skidding, or following other vehicles too closely with rear impacts. Turning on your lights won't improve traction or decrease stopping distances any...only slowing down will accomplish that.

Another rain and moisture-related problem that often causes accidents is that a lot of people don't know how to use their windshield defogger/defrosters correctly. In vehicles that don't have automatic climate systems, when you turn on the defroster, you MUST also switch to outside-sourced fresh air (Check your Owners' Manual....in most cases it will verify it). If you use the "Recirculate" feature with the defrost, you're going to have problems....the same moisture is pumped around the system over and over again, and just builds up on the inside of the windows as fog. If you use the A/C compressor, fresh air, and a little heat with the system, it will work great.....you won't have any problems. In fact, most cars now, when you use the defrost, automatically switch to fresh air intake and turn on the compressor, but don't add heat. If you don't add heat, the cold, dry air from the A/C compressor can make the windshield chill down, and moisture then can condense and build up on the outside, requiring use of the wipers (which you may already be using anyway)

In fact, for a while, before automatic climate systems started getting more popular, Ford actually removed the Fresh Air/Recirculate lever from most of its vehicles, because so many people were screwing up the defrost with it and then unnecessarily bringing the cars back to the dealer and asking why the defrost won't work. The manual climate-control cars came from the factory with fresh-air-intake only.

 

Aren't you walking right into the "headlights on" argument? If a lot of people are driving around with fogged up windows, they are going to have a hard time seeing out those windows, and by you having your headlights on, you help the cause by "driving defensively."

It's similar to what I alluded to before--in the winter, I can't tell you how many times I am behind a car with the entire rear window covered in snow--no attempt made to clear it.

 

Walking into the arguement? Maybe, maybe not. But my point was that using defrosters correctly increases potential safety, whether the lights are on or not.

This, BTW, is a widespread problem. You would be amazed at how many people I've ridden with who can't get the windows to defog, and when all I do is adjust one or two small controls, the difference is like night and day.........and they have an amazed look on their face like "Duh".


As I pointed out in my last post, Ford actually took out the intake-adjust lever on their manual climate-control cars.

Again, lights or no lights, this is just a lack of simple common sense, laziness, or impaitience.....the guy just wants to get going without cleaning the car properly.
And that snow and ice sometimes flies off and hits the car behind it, startling the driver and sometimes doing damage.

One thing that helps with windshield cleaning is the handy feature on my Subaru Outback (just one of many reasons why Outbacks are so good for winter driving) that, with the push of a button, electrically heats the lower portion of the windshield to thaw out the wiper blades and arms when they freeze on. It also comes standard with 4-stage heated front seat cushions.

 

I'm guilty of that this morning, usually I clear the front, rear windshields and roof (the trunk and hood if there's enough built up on it). But this morning I find out my parents didn't leave an ice scraper in the car... So I had to turn the defrosters on and try to clear it with my hands and a folded umbrella...
To top that halfway to work and this little rock star on my windshield started to crack and is now almost completely across the windshield. I'll start a new thread to not pull away from this but I was wondering if anyone knew if it's safe to drive a day without getting the windshield repaired?

 

I agree that it's a good idea to turn on the headlights in the rain so that it's easier for other people to see me. Here in Washington it can get quite dark when it's overcast and rainy and in the rural areas we have a lot of narrow 2 lane tree lined roads that make it even more difficult to see other cars, especially all the dirty silver cars we see on the roads these days. I don't see where a law is necessary that says when your wipers are on your lights have to be on.

 

how much is your life or somebody else's life worth to you? 1 set of headlight bulbs? maybe 2? If you run into somebody because they didnt have their headlights on or vice versa because you didnt have yours on, whose fault is that?

One of the primary reasons I got a white car is that it is inherently more visible at night. (safety reasons and aesthetic reasons - you can see the lines of the car better)

 

Exactly my point Leedogg,, good reiteration. The cost of 1 or 2 sets of bulbs is nowhere close to the cost of a human life. MANY,MANY times, I have had trouble seeing people in bad weather due to lack of headlights, taillights while I am working. It is a scary feeling to not see someone and then have to try to evade them at the last minute. In my line of work, ME running into YOU will only INCREASE the chances that life will be lost by YOU. 80 thousand pounds of truck dont exactly stop on a dime ya know.

PEOPLE,,PLEASE AT ALL COSTS,,,,,, HELP ME TO AVOID YOU BY MAKING YOURSELF VISIBLE IN BAD WEATHER!!!

 

Well, not all of them are because of lights, but most could be avoided. The rain that happened only on Friday(wtf?) was quite heavy that it was 0 visibility at times when it was coming down hard. That was with no lights. With lights, visibility increased a little bit, at least enough to see whats in front of you. So technically, you're right as well since fast+no lights=crash. Many factors are into this topic, but its much safer to drive with lights in my opinion. Of course, theres the idiots who drive w.out them in the rain but you have to admit, if they crash, its their fault . User stupidity at its worst


The people who don't know how to use defrosters shouldn't be driving since the DMV tests you on it(at least here in SoCal they do). The least they can do is have a couple napkins ready for the times that they can't get it to work, or at least open the window to stabilize the temp. Its funny how some people are drivers nowadays =/

 

That's a great feature on the IS as well - one that comes in handy winter mornings - but the best one is the Ford version where the fine wire is embedded in the entire front windscreen and defrosts at the press of a button. Too bad they have the patent on that.

 

wow.. so there's actually a different DRL setup for each country? wow.

 

Yeah, depends on laws. Another law is in the USA, you cannot have your high-beams and your fog lamps on at the same time.