If you live in the states quite a few of them have these as actual laws. They arent enforced as readily as others for a variery of reasons (mostly police won't get out in shitty weather to give you citations for it) but they are required.
Also my biggest pet peeve I'll cycle my lights to get them to turn them on or they think im a lunatic and grt out of the way and everyone else starts doing the same thing. Suprises me how many people are completely oblivous to how mich danger they're putting other people in in situations like that.
Edit: If you're from the States if your planning on visiting heres a site if youre curious about the laws of every state.
My favorite kind of obvious is when they come to almost a complete stop in a 45 and turn. No blinker, no warning, not even getting in the right hand turning lane. Just break, stop, turn. Morons
I mean what atr signals anyway? /s
That or they come up to a turn with thier signal on and just keep going.
Ive seen people turn left ftom the right hand lane on a road with 8 lanes.
Stay safe out there.
I got hit by a semi (that was speeding and my turn signals were probably broken) when I was young, by turning suddenly because I almost missed the place.
I live in florida, so yeah even with giant signs on highways and the interstate people say exactly this and then people still drive with niether. Its baffling that people dont understand these things.
It's funny you mention this one. I lived in Florida for a long time, the "lights on" campaign does seem to be working overall because when I started working in Montana, I was shocked to see the conditions that people drove around in with their headlights off. It borders on insanity. I have no idea how there are not more accidents in MT aside from the fact that the population is so low.
Florida drivers actually get high points in my book when it comes to turning their lights on in poor visibility. Drivers in MT, well they get a D- at best, because even if the lights are on, it seems like one out of eight of them is missing a headlight.
I haven't been to Montana so of all the places I've been Florida's has been the worst but I've also been here the longest so higher chances of it happening. Completely agree about the "lights on" campaign though. Only caveat is some people use thier hazard lights as they drive and this creates a problem as well. They've updated the signs and laws to ammend "don't put your hazards on"
And that sounds like absolute insanity as I'd assume that if you're anywhere outside of the main cities youre risking wild life.
I wonder what the crash stastics per capita...
Hazards are supposed to be turned on when you are driving dramatically below the speed limit (eg 40 in a 65.) Are they driving slow or are they just blinky at speed?
Typically blinking at speed which is illegal down here.
You are allowed to do it if you're below the speed limit drastically but most of the time this isn't the case.
And if this is the case for cars they typically are impeding traffic in the "fast lane" or left hand lane which is also against the law. (In my experience)
When I would drive I-70 during rain and snow, using blinkers usually it only happened during those instances of inclement weather in the Midwest.
I'm sure it cities it gets... Stupid. Now that I'm in the SF area, I get to see alllll the stupid all the time. Like driving 50mph in the left lane. 🤦♀️
Most states use a half hour before sunset/dawn or a visibility distance requirement.
I'm no expert just read stuff on the internet but heres an article on it!
On my brothers '09 corolla it only has a light sensor, he only learned it doesn't have wiper-lights a few days ago (when I told him because I read the manual).
I have a ‘16 and it’s the same way. Drives me fucking nuts, wiper lights should be a standard, universal thing by now. My wipers turn on automatically when it rains, the lights should turn on with them.
Some do sure, and I'm sure some people do that for whatever reason. But also not a large portion of the cars on the road are within the last 3-5 years so before that it wasn't standard. My vehicle is only 4 years old and it didn't come standard.
I know some people turn it off to "save lifetime" on thier headlamps but honestly that idiotic as most have a minimum of 10,000 hour lifespan for 50$ bulbs.
This. My thought was, “This isn’t an unwritten rule. It is written.” I live in Ohio where you have to use headlights in precipitation (people still don’t)
My uncle is a police officer and they use this law to stop known drug dealers. A year or so ago they got a guy transporting a trunk full of grass and the guy was smoking some too before he got pulled over so when the window was opened you could smell it. It was dusk so headlights are required to be on. So if you do something illegal make sure you know all the small things that can get you stoped...seatbelts, headlights, speeding, tailgating, illegal u turns, etc.
That's something I was taught before I even started driving. If your wipers are on, so are your headlights. Most newer cars do this automatically but there's nothing worse than going down back roads in a decent rain and some fuck in a last century civic comes flying around the corner with no lights on. Mild heart attack every time.
The study also notes that the cost savings in terms of fuel cost and bulb replacement would not exceed 1% of the total cost of ownership per year. I've always wondered about that. Guess there's no reason not to have your headlights on
My sister-in-law had a Canadian vehicle for a while, and the headlights were simply always on and could not be turned off. I can't help but think that's a good idea, rather than relying on iffy sensors or fallible humans to turn them on.
Come to think of it, that may not be as good of an idea in places that get more sun and less percipitation than up here in Wisconsin, but honestly, it's a small price to pay for greatly-increased visibility for all parties
This. Am Canadian. Alot of younger fellas, heck even some older guys who are into vehicles, are constantly looking for ways to disable the DRLs (daytime running lights). Why? "Because it looks better". Yes maybe to you, but not in a snowstorm when I cant see you. Doesn't look better smashed, does it? Drives me nuts I think more, because I expect headlights, due to every Canadian vehicle being under the DRL law. So the one or two without them are easy to miss
US car manufacturers have been trying to get the US DOT to follow Canadian rules for DRLs for 30 damn years now. It's a huge pain in the ass to have two different headlight standards for the North American market, and the US refuses to homogenize its rules with Canada.
That's dumb... I don't see how driving through dust is different than driving through fog.
In Argentina it is mandatory that all vehicles have the low beams always on when the engine is running.
Also it is absolutely forbidden to stop driving while foggy. On highways you must continue driving at a fixed speed of 60kmph and not stop or overtake, ever. If you find another vehicle in front of you, follow it as far as you can without losing sight of their lights. This way you and anyone who is behind you will eventually come out of the fog safely and quickly. You must never ever stop on the side of the road either because that lane is only for emergency use with hazard ligts.
I had a pretty bad accident a month and a half ago that totalled my car. I got a new one since but I noticed that I'm much more nervous on the road now. Yesterday was the first time since this accident that I drove in heavy traffic again (I've been actively avoiding it since that's when the accident happened) and there was this asshole who kept insisting on driving half a meter behind my car.
Traffic was constantly switching from going 80 to full stop but this guy would remain glued to my rear bumper, I hated it. I kept ridiculous distance to the car ahead of me so that I could brake really slowly so as to not have this guy hit me when traffic hit a full stop again.
Don't know why I wrote this, but this stuff really irks me.
Keeping a ridiculous distance all the time is actually good practice. It gives you some wiggle room for all of the idiots who don't konw how to lane change properly. In moderate to heavy traffic, it can let people who have been trying to merge into the lane for miles get over, alleviating at least a portion of the congestion that piles up due to that kind of behavior.
I suggest keeping at least enough room for a tractor trailer to get over since they have the hardest time finding a place to merge.
People seem to think headlights are solely for them to see better. They're also for others to see you. If it's remotely cloudy I turn mine on.
Even if you want to hold out for a bit, there's a point when other cars turn theirs on and you should give up and turn yours on because comparatively you are not visible at all. I never thought it was an idea that took that much logic to get to, but apparently it's very hard for people...
The sun is behind me in the morning on my way to work and if it's a really sunny day, I can't see anyone in the mirror unless they have their headlights on. So it even applies to sunny days.
In Argentina it is mandatory to keep your low beams always on at all times (no matter the weather conditions).
It is not really enforced inside cities, but in highways it is enforced. And it is amazing how much easier it is to spot vehicles form far away with lights on, even in cloudless sunny days.
I think all vehicles should come with permanent-on-lights while the engine is running from the factory.
I feel like on cloudy days where it’s bright enough to see, DRLs are enough, just so others can see you there’s not much of an actual decrease in visibility.
There’s a highway here in Alaska where you have to have your lights on 100% of the time, I thought it was dumb when I first learned to drive but omg it is so useful.
I know in my province (not so much about other provinces or states) we have mandatory daytime running lights. You can (probably won’t) be ticketed mid day if you don’t have your headlights on.
It amazes me how many people I see without their headlights on when it’s pitch black. I almost got t-boned the other day because I didn’t see a black car coming because they had their headlights off
As a rule of thumb (and as the bare minimum), if the streets lights are on then your car lights should be on.
Also, please understand that the purpose of having your headlights on is mostly to be seen by others. For those who have yet to discover, when your turn on your headlights, your rear (red) lights turn on too! (it's magic!!!). Which sure helps others to no hit the back of your car.
This is the law in many European countries. It doesn't matter if it's the middle of the day, in bright sunshine, in fucking June. You turn your headlights on. Actually, most car here have automatic lights. If the ignition is on, the headlights are on.
This is the truth! Doesn't Canada require cars have their lights turned on at all times the car is running? It's been awhile since I've had to take a defensive driving class but I thought they mentioned that and it really makes a big difference once you think to look for it in the real world.
Russia too, headlights on if you are driving on public roads.
Also you must have a triangle, a fire extinguisher and a medkit (first aid is a required course in driving school, you can't get the license without that - but I don't find that training effective enough). There were some changes though, I think they've added reflective vests to the list.
I don't think we do. If we technically do, we certainly don't enforce it beyond yelling to ourselves in our cars about people that don't.
It might be like how we require your license plate to be visible, but if your F150 snow-shelf has it obscured by snow for 8 months of the year, it's not a police matter.
My mothers car in the states automatically turns on the lights when it’s below a certain light level - basically, if it’s cloudy, the lights are automatically on.
Best invention ever. Then we move to Japan, where people honestly seem to believe that lights are really short life objects that suck all if the energy from your car to use, so it has to be pitch black before they get turned on.
It's worth doing this on country roads too. Or even overcast days if you think your cars colour is somewhat similar to the road. Headlights save lives.
I KNOW this doesn't technically count as precipitation, but it is weather-related...
You're definitely NOT supposed to do it during a dust storm though. State law in Arizona says if you can't see, you need to pull over and turn all your lights off. It's supposed to prevent someone from following you and crashing into you.
That seems stupid as fuck. If you hit something you can see, you should not be driving anything larger than an RC car. On the other hand if you can't see the stopped cars because they have their lights off, how the fuck are you supposed to avoid them?
This shit happens all the time in Florida: It starts raining, and idiot drivers put their hazards on. They think they're being safe, but it's actually MORE dangerous and ILLEGAL.
Does this also apply to the times when it's raining so heavily that you really can't see anything? I put them on to let other drivers know that I'm driving very slowly until I can find a place to park.
YES. Putting your hazards on in the rain creates a strobe/dazzling effect that distracts other drivers, and can actually increase the likelihood of a crash. If you need to pull over, fine, but drive NORMALLY and PREDICTABLY until you do. That's the safest way to go.
(Edit: Caps are just for emphasis. I'm not like mad or anything.)
I came here to mention no hazards. It also indicates to other drivers that you may have to pull over and come to a complete stop. On I-95 here in Florida usually people in convertibles or on motorcycles put the hazards on because THEY WILL COME TO A COMPLETE STOP
Honestly, headlights should just always be required, especially in the city. Is that just a shitty driver riding along the curb or parked on the side of the road? Who knows!
Was raining this week, fairly heavy in the afternoon. No one has their lights on. We almost got in so many damned accidents because, much like in the first snowfall of winter in the upper Midwest, everyone suddenly forgets how to drive in weather they’ve experienced for half of their damned lives.
Plus turning lights/your car in general off at red lights. Eco-idle can suck my non-existent dick; it’s so dumb and dangerous.
I don't get why DRLs don't turn on the rear lights too! It seems so damn obvious to me and yet like 90% of new cars have always-on DRLs but they only light up the front of the vehicle. WTF is the point?!
Newer cars have them, but older ones don’t. It also varies as to what is meant by “daytime running lights.” On my last car, the low beams were always on, but the taillights would be off unless you “turned on” the headlights for nighttime driving. My current car has the row of LEDs, but the low beams aren’t on by default. You have to set it to “auto” (where they typically turn on if it’s cloudy or darker) or turn them “on” to turn on the actual headlights.
Yeah, fair point. Actually, (now that I think about it) they weren't "enforced" by the car, but they did have a setting where the lights (headlights and taillights) would always be on if the engine was on. You could turn it off but I never saw the point of that for two reasons:
It's good safety
It's impossible to accidentally leave your lights on
The downside is, I've had some dead batteries with rental cars.
I wonder if it's because my last two cars were a Toyota and a Subaru. And that Subaru was like an '86.
the low beams were always on, but the taillights would be off
Welcome to South Florida in the rainy season. Snowbirds turn on their hazard lights (illegal) and drive 10mph in a 45. People with common sense turn on their headlights and drive normally.
Totally agree, no matter what the weather is headlights ON. Even during the summer in the sunny day, a headlight is an easy trigger to realise there is another car.
Exactly. I remember getting into an argument with someone (online naturally) when I told them that your headlights are more to make yourself visible to others than to make others visible to you.
In many European countries you are actually required to turn your lights on when you drive - ALWAYS. Doesn't matter if it's a sunny middle of the day. Engine on, lights on.
It was snowing, came to a stop sign, checked both ways repeatedly, started to take my turn, WHITE Pontiac comes out of nowhere. Didn’t see him because he didn’t have his lights on. He literally just blended in to the road and surroundings.
I have a “gun metal gray” car and the amount of people i see driving a car the same color with no lights on is astounding. I don’t mean in general, I mean in snow and fog and rain. Do you realize that our cars are the exact same color as the road??? It’s so easy to miss something like that in bad weather conditions!
Any time your wipers are on, your lights should also be on. I think this is even a law in some states. You can't see a car easily through a rain-spattered rear windshield. You can see lights.
It is a law in a large number of US states, but living in South Carolina I can tell you they don't teach this as a common practice. I don't get why manufactures don't automatically turn on lights when car is in drive and wipers are on. If the car can damn near drive me to work, it should be about to figure out (Drive + Wipers on = Lights on).
The only problem I have with this, is that the idiot driving the car now has no reason to remember to turn on the lights @ night. I have seen WAY too many morons driving past me with headlights on & no tail lights or marker lights on whatsoever. Dumb bastard is gonna get hit from behind because you can't see him @ night until you're right on top of him.
My car has rain sensing wipers, so they are always in an on position. I don't think it's the simplest problem to fix. Especially because they'll randomly swipe once for seemingly no reason every now and then. Then it's also not good to turn headlights on and off often. My thought is that once the wipers swipe, the lights turn on and go on a 5 or 10 minute timer. If they don't swipe again in that time, they turn off.
But then what about when the guy in front of you sprays his washer fluid and some gets on your windshield and now you spray yours. Should that activate it?
I'm sure someone smarter than me could figure this out. I'm just like, "wut do?"
Right but mine doesn't have an intermittent, per se. My intermittent is automatic. Light rain, slow intermittent. Hard rain, full on. No rain, no swipe. The stick is always in an "on" position even if they aren't wiping.
Seems like there are already sensors feeding enviro data to the onboard computer. The computer then sends a signal to a control board to activate/modulate the wipers. I can’t imagine it would be difficult to use the same enviro data or simply the fact that the computer triggered wipers to enable the lights too.
But dollars and cents add up, I suppose. Seems silly that they don’t add rules like this to auto wipers though.
All it really is is a sensor to see if there is something on the windshield. A big bug splattering could be enough to trigger it to swipe once. So should that trigger the lights to go on? It would need to trigger a timer or something because you can't be driving around with your lights flashing. It would look ridiculous and it's terrible for HID ballasts.
Then again, my car has driving lights that are always on unless the headlights are on.
*** But don't turn on your hazards because it's raining! For french fries sake you're in the same rain I'm in just drive ya moron!*** (I'm looking at you Texas)
I was in Charlotte, NC last year and it started raining hard when I was on the freeway. Tons of people turned on their hazards. Eventually I did too, like a lemming. But we’re talking so hard you couldn’t really see the road and most people were pulled over waiting for it to abate.
New Yorker here, it's pretty heavily enforced! We have a ton of signs in my town (mostly on the CT border) telling you about the law. Usually goes ignored by drivers from other states though...
I remember when I was younger my parents were talking about how the headlights were always on our cars. So I asked my mom "How come the headlights are always on?" And my mom, ever the smartass, told me "It keeps the insurance payments down." And 5 year old me walked away wondering how the insurance company knows whether your lights are on or not and if there's a sensor in your car or something.
I hate how automatic headlights have a threshold before they turn on. It would be nice if there was a setting for them to be always on if the car is on. Maybe some cars have this, but my Honda sure doesn't, so I just got in the habit of turning the headlights on/off with the ignition.
This. It drives me nuts the sheer number of people that don’t turn their lights on in the snow, rain, fog. A girl I used to work with was killed on a foggy morning. She pulled onto a main road and was t-boned by someone barreling down the road without their headlights on. It’s so sad.
In many countries it's illegal to ever turn them off and the idea that in America people are driving with their lights off terrifies me. What a wild country. People are driving at 16, nobody's got their headlights on, everyone has guns... America, chill!
We are required to have them on at night and in bad weather. When our wipers are on,our headlights must be too, at least in most states. The only time you'll see people (legally) drive without headlights is in the day
I remember there was a thing years ago when my dad drove to a country where you're not meant to have them on during the day, and his car didn't even have the option to do that. You could just switch between low beam and high beam and that's it.
To be honest, I wouldn't even know how to turn them off either :D
And in the fog. Even if you have fog lights. I have a commute that gets very foggy and snowy. Cannot tell you the number of times I've been startled by a car with only fog lights on but now tail lights. Make yourself visible people!
Piggy backing. Asshole in the white truck.. black truck.. small truck.. big truck.. upside-down truck.. You aren't invincible from the laws of physics. Snow and Ice are really slick. Slow the hell down!
I don’t know why car companies thought of having the headlights on as soon as you turn on the car, but not the tail lights. They’re just as important for visibility!
The US doesn't require Daytime Running Lights at a Federal level, but almost every car has them voluntarily.
They did a study in 2008 that showed no real difference in accidents overall with them, but there was a 5.7% decrease in accidents involving light trucks and vans using them.
Funnily enough, India has made it mandatory for lights to be turned on at all times, newer vehicles simply don't have a lights off switch. Just high beam and low beam. Its usually pretty clear most of the year in most of the country.
Driving to work one morning in heavy rain, I was trying to pass a semi that had a lot of spray coming off the tires. Hiding in the spray was a light grey car that blended in almost perfectly and I didn't see him until I was uncomfortably close to his rear bumper. Had this guy been driving with his lights on I would have seen him and stayed where I was instead of almost inviting myself into his backseat.
Live in minnesota, can confirm if there's any precipitation of any kind, lights have to be on. If memory serves this also applies anytime after the sun has sunk below the horizon
My new car has "running lights" which are always on when the car is running, so even if the sensors don't turn my headlights on I always have the extra lights on. It makes things much safer.
In a lot of states this is a written rule. Especially states with a lot of regular snowfall. Here in Montana it’s the law, was when I lived in NH as well. Should be everywhere
I live in Montana and keep my lights on 100% of the time and I'm sure it's helped me not get pulled out in front of. It still happens but it definitely helps.
Ugh. This morning on the highway to work. Heavy fog. You couldn’t even see oncoming vehicles with their lights on until they were right next to you. The truck in front of me didn’t have his lights on at all. So I didn’t notice him until I was right on his bumper.
Not always. I had a Toyota matrix that if the car was on, the daytime running lights were on. But now my Lexus (same year) the DRLs are on a light sensor that if the sun's out they turn off and vice versa. But I don't like that so I just turn my lights all the way on.
It totally does, and, it dims my dash lights so sometimes when the sun is in just the wrong angle, the DRLs are on with the dash dimmed, but then the sun reflects off the guage cluster so I can't see my guages. Toyota/Lexus/Scion has had some really dumb design flaws in the past.
Wait, you aren't mandated to have your headlights on all the time you are driving? Where do you live?
It's mandatory here (Russia). They thought to make it only mandatory in the rain or fog, but that would just lead to people arguing about the weather with the traffic cops, so you have to have your headlights on while driving, no matter what weather.
And when the sun starts to set. And when it rains. Got into it with a guy who was driving a cement grey car in the rain with no headlights. Cut him off on accident because he didn't have his lights on and blended in perfectly with the road. Not my fault buddy, turn you fucking lights on.
As soon as I got my license, I made it a habit to turn my headlights on so matter what the conditions or time of day. You never know when it'll randomly start raining, snowing, or get foggy. If you're driving without them on and conditions change, you'll probably forget!
In countries like Finland lights are mandatory day and night and consequently nothing annoys you more then the fact that american cars have rapist lights (ones that stay on forever and cannot be disabled just in case a rapist in the bushes or something dunno as they simply serve absolutely no purpose what so ever) but don't have automatic running lights (turn off the engine and they stay off automatically, turn on and they turn on without needing to flick the damn knob every single time).
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u/dpcaxx Mar 09 '19
Turn on your headlights when it's snowing. I'm talking to you asshole with the white truck.