Ignorance of the law is no excuse…“Unless you’re a cop”
Nothing gets me more perturbed than to be sitting at an expressway off-ramp waiting patiently for oncoming traffic to clear before entering the highway and some numbnutz coming toward me doesn’t use their signals before veering off onto the on ramp. It’s compounded if I see them talking on the phone and that’s likely the reason why they didn’t signal their intentions so everyone else can know it’s safe to pull out.
Cell-phone has NOTHING to do with it…I had this discussion with my wife…about how people don’t signal…So one day we were waiting at this intersection for a line of traffic to go by…10 vehicles turned right (NOT ONE OF THE USED THEIR SIGNAL)…I could have turned if ONE of them just used their signal. From my observation in MA and NH…less then 50% use their signals when turning…and less then 5% will use them all the time.
MikeNH has a point. My youngest son loves driving my BMW with the fog lights on because “They look cool!”
Not to me. I don’t like any lights on,except on occasion amber lights ,during daylight hours. Alot ot vehicles have mis-aligned lights, and they are an eye sore.
I am not a big fan of DRL, which came about due to studies conducted in the Netherlands.A place that snows 8 months out of the year.I’ve notice vehicle manufactureres have gone to amber DRLs
As a safety inspector, I check the alignment of lights more so than other inspectors.
CSA, the guy was STOOPID!
Perhaps what setzzz is referring to are Daytime Running Lights (DRL). Both of my vehicles have these, one is always on (cannot be shut off) and one is on by choice. DRL’s use the high beams at a lower wattage, 80% of full power if I remember correctly. Due to their aim, which is higher than low beams, there are people who perceive them to be very bright. This of course is the whole idea of DRL’s, to be seen. Some people are just way too sensitive. My car has perfectly adjusted low beams but I occasionally get some oversensitive zealot flashing his/her high beams at me as if I have left mine on.
I will say that the appropriate way to deal with someone shining their high beams in your face is to actually flick your headlights off for a split second, not flash your high beams. It is actually illegal to flash your high beams at an oncoming vehicle in New York State. I was once riding with a friend when he “flashed” an oncoming car (quite vigorously). Needless to say the sheriff in the oncoming vehicle was NOT amused and gave my friend a thorough butt chewing while I sat there trying not to laugh.
Safe driving all…
DRL’s can be disabled in most vehicles
I remember back in 1998 or so the GM Dealer I was at thought that retro-fitting older cars with DRL’s was going to keep us (really me) very busy. The Dealer bought about 100 DRL kits and I ended up installing the kits on 3 different cars. For some reason people did not see any benefit in retro-fitting their older cars with DRL’s. My 2004 F-150 is not even equipped with DRL’s. I remember the Chevrolet full size pickups from 1998 or so on did come with seperate DRL’s (the bulbs were always burning out, I think there was a TSB about early bulb failure). I wonder what happened to the move to get all cars/trucks DRL equipped as there was a big campaign stating all the safety benefits.
If aimed properly fog light should never cause an on coming driver any problem. But I’m also betting a lot of what you are talking about are driving lights, but even then properly aimed lights shouldn’t be giving you any problem. That said most fog and driving lights are low to the ground and can get out of adjustment, so it’s more of improper maintenance than fog and driving light.
As far as turn signals go, that’s been a complaint for many many years, people just assume you know what they are going to do and in most cases they are right. I generally can tell is someone is getting ready to turn.
But I’ll give you a free piece of advice that I got from a very old owners manual,
“Drive like the other driver is trying to kill you.”
It’s the best advice I’ve ever been given.
My opinions are subject to chance with new facts.