Daytime Running Lights

[Mouldy Punk]

You can tell that some idiots would drive around with their high-beams on and dazzle everyone...that's my only problem with this :p

[Joel]

You can tell that some idiots would drive around with their high-beams on and dazzle everyone...that's my only problem with this :p

Why would DRL suddenly make people capable of this? :blink: You could do this on any car right now, DRL or not.

[Mouldy Punk]

Why would DRL suddenly make people capable of this? :blink: You could do this on any car right now, DRL or not.

Because people have been known to be notoriously dense and the wouldn't understand and think they're meant to have their full beams on all the time.

[Nose Nuggets]

I've been pondering this for a while, since I first saw the thread come up a while back. I've dodged it a bit and made my little funny comment and have now decided to offer my conjecture.

If, according to research done around the world, that DRL's reduce accident rates somewhere between one to ten percent....

How many accidents occur around the world and what would one to ten percent of that number be?

Let's assume every country has 20,000 accidents per year (I know, not accurate but bear with me)...

How many countries are there?

Let's assume there are 120 countries with cars and roads (I think there are more, but I'm being cautious)...

That means there are (at least) 2,400,000 accidents per year around the world.

Let's humor the anti-DRL crowd and say that ONLY 1% of those accidents would have been prevented by DRL's....

That means that 24,000 people (and up to 240,000 people) could have had their accident avoided or maybe even life saved by DRLs...

That is, if you didn't whine and b!tch about them.

You want your social equality and government hand-outs and tax the rich and I could go on... but...

Are you that selfish that you want 24,000 people dead just because you don't want your headlights on during the day...

... or because you want to sneak into your girl/boyfriends neighborhood?

its really hard to take the research at face value though. all the European research is public events over the course of 10 or so years. well, there are so many OTHER safety features and advancements in that span of time that it would be damn neer impossible to isolate DRLS as the cause for reduction in accidents. then you look at all the US testing and see that its all very small fleet testing of a few thousand cars, where these 3-11% differences are negligible. no scientist could stand behind a 10% difference with a pool of 1000 subjects. its way to small to have any real world comparison.

Because people have been known to be notoriously dense and the wouldn't understand and think they're meant to have their full beams on all the time.

well thats just stupidity. are you saying we should create laws and regulations to cater to the stupid? oh wait.... we already do that.

[Mouldy Punk]

its really hard to take the research at face value though. all the European research is public events over the course of 10 or so years. well, there are so many OTHER safety features and advancements in that span of time that it would be damn neer impossible to isolate DRLS as the cause for reduction in accidents. then you look at all the US testing and see that its all very small fleet testing of a few thousand cars, where these 3-11% differences are negligible. no scientist could stand behind a 10% difference with a pool of 1000 subjects. its way to small to have any real world comparison.

well thats just stupidity. are you saying we should create laws and regulations to cater to the stupid? oh wait.... we already do that.

Heh, relax...I used the :p smilie...therefore, there is very little seriousness in my post.

I wasn't saying that they shouldn't make it the law because there are idiots out there, I was just saying that some idiots out there will mess it up.

[Nose Nuggets]

oh im very relaxed hehehe. silly text makes it damn hard to convey sarcasm.

[SoCalledChaos]

i dont see how people can get so worked up about a couple of lights that turn on when your car turns on.. its like the stupidest thing to bitch about.. its obviously there for safety.. if you dont like it.. disconnect them .

[Nose Nuggets]

i dont see how people can get so worked up about a couple of lights that turn on when your car turns on.. its like the stupidest thing to bitch about.. its obviously there for safety.. if you dont like it.. disconnect them .

"You have no frame of reference, Donny. You?re like a child who walks into the middle of a movie?"

-John Goodman

for one thing, no one is 'worked up' we are having a civil conversation.

[xcopmanx]

Why can't all cars have daytime running lights with an override to shut them off if a situation arises when they're not needed? They still would be mandatory, but you could shut them off for situations when you weren't driving on public roads, etc.

[Nose Nuggets]

Why can't all cars have daytime running lights with an override to shut them off if a situation arises when they're not needed? They still would be mandatory, but you could shut them off for situations when you weren't driving on public roads, etc.

we call those headlights.

with the ability to turn them off they serve no purpose.

[moloko]

lights on when it rains does help. When it is raining hard it can be difficult to see cars around you. Everyday I look around when its raining to see people do not put the lights on when it is the law. I do not think installed DRL should be a law but it should be something added on new cars just like airbags or safety glass.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

lights on when it rains does help. When it is raining hard it can be difficult to see cars around you. Everyday I look around when its raining to see people do not put the lights on when it is the law. I do not think installed DRL should be a law but it should be something added on new cars just like airbags or safety glass.

When DRL were first made mandatory in Ontario there were exemptions made for existing vehicles. These days, it is pretty hard to find a car old enough to still be exempted.

People who want DRL to be made mandatory mean to suggest that they should be made mandatory on all future models.

[xcopmanx]

we call those headlights.

with the ability to turn them off they serve no purpose.

They're not the same thing... they'd always be on automatically, but you could shut them off with a press of a button if necessary for certain situations. They could also automatically reset to on when the car is turned on. They're not the same power as headlights. They're not as bright as regular headlights. How is what I said the same thing?

[SadJoker]

I really don't see a need to make it mandatory.

Yeah, I'd have to agree. There's really no use to keep them running.

[Joel]

Yeah, I'd have to agree. There's really no use to keep them running.

Except for the safety factor.

Seatbelts are much more invasive than DRLs are. Does everyone think they're useless also? :blink:

[Darksoft]

what safety factor?

If you need lights you turn them on. Those lights are not even visible if it's raining a lot or there's fog. You still need your main light. Driving with your lights on in a hot as hell florida summer is just silly..

[Joel]

what safety factor?

If you need lights you turn them on. Those lights are not even visible if it's raining a lot or there's fog. You still need your main light. Driving with your lights on in a hot as hell florida summer is just silly..

Nothing you just said is actually true regarding DRLs though. The lights ARE visible in rain AND fog. They make the car more visible in sunlight even.

What does the temperature of Florida have to do with this?

[Mouldy Punk]

Nothing you just said is actually true regarding DRLs though. The lights ARE visible in rain AND fog. They make the car more visible in sunlight even.

What does the temperature of Florida have to do with this?

I think the point he was getting at was that the sun is so bright in the summer there that the lights will just be out-shone and won't make any difference whatsoever, it'll just be wearing out the bulbs.

[bayrider]

They are dimmer than the regular bulbs. They barely consume much energy. The motor that rolls your window up and down consumes more energy. The energy consumed by those lightbulbs (which is refilled by the alternator) is negligible at best, like listening to the radio,,, maybe even less.

During the day, they probably don't help, but if you're noticing cars with lights on during the day vs those that don't, then they're already making a difference. They're on all the time, so what's the big deal to the owner of the car? You don't even see them.

They are super helpful at dawn/night when people FORGET to turn on their regular headlights, or haven't made the adjustment to do so yet. At least DRL give other drivers some indication that a car is on the road. You can't use the argument that "drivers should have their lights on in bad weather or in the dark anyways" because humans are just that... humans. They are imperfect, they are prone to making mistakes, they get distracted, they forget, and some just don't know any better. This is a safeguard against human error. Like I said, DRL are unnoticeable to the car owner but can be useful to other cars on the road.

Even if in most cases it won't make a significant impact, those few people somewhere in the world that had their lives spared because a current of electricity flowed through a filament is worth the difference to me, and I'm sure it was worth the difference to someone somewhere.

Edited June 29, 2007 by bayrider

[mluu510]

DRL are great during sunsets. the glare makes it hard to see cars but with DRL, it's much easier. besides, DRL looks good. look at the audi r8, man.

[Brandon Live Veteran]

Actually I think they're quite useful. They make it easy to distinquish cars that are moving (or about to move) versus cars that are parked on the side of the road. Have you never been startled when a car you thought was parked suddenly sprung to life or cut in front of you?

Not saying it happens often, but I'm sure it's happened. I certainly don't see any disadvantage to them, and according to Top Gear the engineers at Saab said that the impact on fuel economy was imperceptible (still doesn't stop companies like Audi from trying to cut the imperceptible power usage in half with LEDs, lol).

[Beastage]

You can do it the Audi S6 way, have 2 stripes of LED lights on the front and rear bumpers that are always on

There is really nothing against having those lights on all the time, from exprience sometimes cars on the horizon are nearly invisible and especially around dawn and dusk times.

[Lexcyn]

Even if it's just the yellow lights on at the front, it's still better than no lights at all. I've had numerous experiences on highways with people who fail to turn any lights on at all on older vehicles, and it makes it almost impossible to see them, especially at dusk or night time. Having DRL's would force these people who 'forget' to turn their lights on at least be visible on the road.

It's also safer on the highway if you have your lights on so that other drivers can see you coming from far distances so that they know if they can pass, etc.

[Nose Nuggets]

i dont think anyone here has said that having DRLS is less safe then not having them. The argument is there are times when you need to have no lights at all.

[SoCalledChaos]

yeah, if you're sneaking around.. but who cares