Dipping Headlights Etiquette

Senna

This is annoying and since i'm now spending more time on the roads at night its beginning to bug me. When driving at night and you see the light of a cars highlights coming around a corner or over the top of a hill, do you wait till you see the car and then dip yours, or are you considerate and dip yours when you know they will be in view within a second or so?


You can see my headlights coming, you can see my lights dip as you get closer, why the feck to you wait till you blind me for a few seconds before dipping your lights? morons!

I always dip before i see the car, maybe the dip feature is an added extra in some cars, just like indicators

jasperok

Technicaly this doesnt belong in the motors forum - by rights it should be in the IDIOTS forum but i dont know if any website could afford the bandwidth of such a forum.

I always try and dip before the lights i see get around the corner regardless of wether i see a change of lights by them.

Now and then be it rarely i do forget and thats what i remind myself when its done to me.

Just look at the virge and gently slow up - and try not to let the ould blood pressure rise!

my personal peeve is cars with full lights driving behind me - i find that far harder to forgive!

GTE

I know what you mean, I had a moment like that today but I also had a moment after that where I sympathise with them.

I was driving today and for what ever reason I forgot I had the full beams on and someone had to flash me and I realised. Its so easy to just forget sometmes.

At the same time though, thats the first time its happened to me in months and I see it with others a hell of a lot.

I think the general etiquette on the roads is gone to the dogs.
One thing that bugs me is that when there is a car parked in such a way or there is something blocking your lane on a normal single carriageway you are to wait untill the road is clear before crossing the broken or continuous line and proceeding, just like an overtake.

Most people seem to be of the opinion that the people in the other lane should be moving out of the way so they can get around the obstacle without stopping.

This thread could get very big with a lot of peoples annoyances
Great thread lol

kave2

hellboy99 wrote: »

I always dip before i see the car, maybe the dip feature is an added extra in some cars, just like indicators

i always dip before i see the car too.
and what's up with the fecking fog lights? why people use them in normal conditions?

GTE

kave2 wrote: »

i always dip before i see the car too.
and what's up with the fecking fog lights? why people use them in normal conditions?

Personally I would use them if I had them as day running lights. Im yet to be blinded by a set of front fog lights so I cant really see the problem myself.

kave2

In my country for using fog lights you would get a penalty points and also police is waaaay more strict then here.

Mc Love

These kind of threads usually make me more angrier as i think of all the morons on the roads!

People with misaligned headlights is my pet peeve!

Cosmo K

Guys, read thy motors forum charter regarding fog light threads.....

AugustusMaximus

What I find just as annoying are people who turn their headlights back on before they have even passed you.

Bloody idiots.

TheScribbler

Mc Love wrote: »

These kind of threads usually make me more angrier as i think of all the morons on the roads!

People with misaligned headlights is my pet peeve!

I agree with the anger here. It irritates me too. Another of my pet hates is people who pull over to the wrong side of the road in an urban area to drop someone off or whatever but leave their full headlights on blinding you in the process. I find that taxi drivers to be the worst offenders in that regard. It is also dangerous

Midnight_EG

Cosmo K wrote: »

Guys, read thy motors forum charter regarding fog light threads.....

This is a headlights thread, so stop back seat modding

robbie99

Senna wrote: »

You can see my headlights coming, you can see my lights dip as you get closer, why the feck to you wait till you blind me for a few seconds before dipping your lights? morons!

This I used to find quite annoying too but now I have xenons. Whenever drivers are slow to dip theirs, I switch mine back on. I quite enjoy that now

....

one advantage of waiting until they can see you is that it reminds them to dip

rccaulfield

Found myself flasing at foglight idiots now- turning into victor meldrew!lol! They honestly have no clue why im flashing but i enjoy it all the same!

Bluetonic

robbie99 wrote: »

Whenever drivers are slow to dip theirs, I switch mine back on. I quite enjoy that now

So much better to possibly blind them and cause an accident.

Well done Sherlock.

Mc Love

rccaulfield wrote: »

Found myself flasing at foglight idiots now- turning into victor meldrew!lol! They honestly have no clue why im flashing but i enjoy it all the same!

Yeah i sometimes do that or if they are behind me, i turn on my rear foglight

Bluetonic wrote: »

So much better to possibly blind them and cause an accident.

Well done Sherlock.

As opposed to them blinding you?

Berty

There are a lot of people of the headlight mentality.

Yesterday I noticed a guy driving in the city with his full beam on possibly counteracting the blown headlight bulb he had.

I live rurally so often come across the headlight monsters.

More often that not I am caught with the headlight monster behind me. They assume you dip your headlights when there is oncoming traffic but feel they can have them full beam even if they are 50metres behind you.

If you can see the car then dip your beams, thats what I say.

People on Motorways annoy me. You may be over there on the other carraigeway but your lights are still blinding me. Also curse fancy cars with their auto dipping functions. They cannot allow for trucks on Motorways because their systems cannot see the trucks lights behind the barrier except the driver of the truck can see your full beams. :rolleyes:

RiverWilde

Whatever about the idiots who don't know how dip their lights when necessary, at least they have lights on. Too many times around this town I've seen cars go around town at night with no lights on at all and of course no police around to stop them for a chat.

Riv

Stingray

hellboy99 wrote: »

I always dip before i see the car, maybe the dip feature is an added extra in some cars, just like indicators

And the Off button for front fog lights

Alanstrainor

Stingray wrote: »

And the Off button for front fog lights

Oy, let's not have this turn into a fog lights thread. This is a "Dipping Headlights" thread/

robbie99

Bluetonic wrote: »

Well done Sherlock.

ooh, a personal attack :rolleyes:. it's moron posters like that who get these threads closed.

Mossy Monk

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

What I find just as annoying are people who turn their headlights back on before they have even passed you.

Bloody idiots.

I was going to post this very thing. Can some drivers not wait another second to put on their full beams. Arseclowns.

Cabaal

ah people not dipping headlights drives me bloody insane.

I take the time to make sure
- I have all my lights working
- They are alligned correctly
- I dip them with oncoming traffic

Yet Saturday I drove 40miles and in that 40miles more then 50% of the cars had a bulb gone or had full beams on!

On the way home on Saturday I had some tool behind me for 20miles with full beams on, what a ****en idiot!

-Chris-

robbie99 wrote: »

ooh, a personal attack :rolleyes:. it's moron posters like that who get these threads closed.

Infraction given for personal attack.

Please use the report button if you feel like another poster's getting personal.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

I sometimes wait to dip my light untill I am sure the oncoming drive can see that I am dipped. With Xenon lights sometimes the self rightious oncoming drivers decide to flash me even and blind me even when dipped cause they have never seen blue coloured lights and assume I am on fulls.

Mena

This annoys me terribly as well (and more so as I age!). However, on the bright side ( ), at least they have their damn lights on!

Tea 1000

Snub wrote: »

This is annoying and since i'm now spending more time on the roads at night its beginning to bug me. When driving at night and you see the light of a cars highlights coming around a corner or over the top of a hill, do you wait till you see the car and then dip yours, or are you considerate and dip yours when you know they will be in view within a second or so?


You can see my headlights coming, you can see my lights dip as you get closer, why the feck to you wait till you blind me for a few seconds before dipping your lights? morons!

I dip when the car comes into view, within bearly half a second of seeing it. Any decent driver will know that you need to illuminate the road as much as possible for as long as possible to make sure there are no pedestrians on the hard shoulder that you might not be able to see clearly. The same decent drivers will be able to dip within half a second of seeing the other car, cause the hand will be on the lever, and no inconvenience is caused.
Morans however dip 2 minutes before meeting the on-coming car because they are too busy worrying about being inconvenienced than actually concentrating on observing everything on the road. Morans also are the ones who start flashing their lights at the other end of a 2 mile straight just because you didn't dip yet, too caught up in giving out to actually worry about seeing what might be on the road. Normal decent drivers however realise there is a point where you don't need to dip on a really long straight, and then there is usually a mutual dipping point where each driver has got the picture in their heads and the lights are becoming dazzling.

no1beemerfan

Front fog lights/Dipped lights.....I don't care if people have these on all the time as long as they are ALIGNED correctly. Its unreal the amount of cars with mis-aligned lights.

Oh and I dip my headlights before I see the on coming car unless I forget!

Bluetonic

Mc Love wrote: »

As opposed to them blinding you?

Regardless of if you blind him or not, chances are if they ignored your earlier flash your still going to be blinded.

Whats better, two blinded people on the road or one blinded person on the road?

I suppose thats what I get for thinking two wrongs don't make a right.

cpoh1

Tea 1000 wrote: »

I dip when the car comes into view, within bearly half a second of seeing it. Any decent driver will know that you need to illuminate the road as much as possible for as long as possible to make sure there are no pedestrians on the hard shoulder that you might not be able to see clearly. The same decent drivers will be able to dip within half a second of seeing the other car, cause the hand will be on the lever, and no inconvenience is caused.
Morans however dip 2 minutes before meeting the on-coming car because they are too busy worrying about being inconvenienced than actually concentrating on observing everything on the road. Morans also are the ones who start flashing their lights at the other end of a 2 mile straight just because you didn't dip yet, too caught up in giving out to actually worry about seeing what might be on the road. Normal decent drivers however realise there is a point where you don't need to dip on a really long straight, and then there is usually a mutual dipping point where each driver has got the picture in their heads and the lights are becoming dazzling.

So what you are saying is that everyone else on the road is a "moran" and you are a "decent" driver because you DONT dip your light prior to dazzling an on-coming driver? That split second is enough to inconvenience and distract a driver and is exactly the type of discurteous behaviour typical of a minority of irish drivers. You wouldnt long get away with that "decent" driving on the continent.

Tea 1000

cpoh1 wrote: »

So what you are saying is that everyone else on the road is a "moran" and you are a "decent" driver because you DONT dip your light prior to dazzling an on-coming driver? That split second is enough to inconvenience and distract a driver and is exactly the type of discurteous behaviour typical of a minority of irish drivers. You wouldnt long get away with that "decent" driving on the continent.

No, that's not what I'm saying.

cpoh1

Tea 1000 wrote: »

No, that's not what I'm saying.

That is EXACTLY what you said. You dip your lights "when the car comes into view, within bearly half a second of seeing it". That half a second is enough to blind a driver coming around a bend in the opposite direction and is exactly what a decent driver does NOT do. You should be dipping your lights before the car comes into view.

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Handbags at dawn is the only way to settle this

-Chris-

Reece Powerful Newcomer wrote: »

Handbags at dawn is the only way to settle this

NO HANDBAGS!!

Mc Love

I have philips extreme bulbs on my car and always get flashed! They must be pretty good bulbs so!

langdang

I have the osram nightbreakers and very very rarely get flashed with them, but the focus/alignment of my headlights just seems to be very good compared to some other cars.

I actually adjust the rolly switch that angles your lights down if I'm stuck in a convoy - travelling in front of someone with xtreme power or nightbreakers is very annoying otherwise, as I know from being in front of friends with those bulbs even in properly aligned lights...

Tea 1000

cpoh1 wrote: »

That is EXACTLY what you said. You dip your lights "when the car comes into view, within bearly half a second of seeing it". That half a second is enough to blind a driver coming around a bend in the opposite direction and is exactly what a decent driver does NOT do. You should be dipping your lights before the car comes into view.

Relax a little, too much stress will kill you! Who'll drive your GTR then?
OK, so maybe I should have included "depending on the bend and length of straight leading up to it". If the bend is half a mile away, that's at least a third of a mile in darkness the minute you dip, so last minute is best. Obviously if you're in a series of bends you can dip before you meet them, with different timing depending on whether it's a right hand or left hand bend.
Here's a tip: Don't look into the lights!

fullstop

Tea 1000 wrote: »

Morans however dip 2 minutes before meeting the on-coming car because they are too busy worrying about being inconvenienced than actually concentrating on observing everything on the road. Morans also are the ones who start flashing their lights at the other end of a 2 mile straight just because you didn't dip yet, too caught up in giving out to actually worry about seeing what might be on the road. Normal decent drivers however realise there is a point where you don't need to dip on a really long straight, and then there is usually a mutual dipping point where each driver has got the picture in their heads and the lights are becoming dazzling.

Why do you keep referring to the Moran family?

You

Reece Powerful Newcomer wrote: »

I sometimes wait to dip my light untill I am sure the oncoming drive can see that I am dipped. With Xenon lights sometimes the self rightious oncoming drivers decide to flash me even and blind me even when dipped cause they have never seen blue coloured lights and assume I am on fulls.

Question about the auto-dip feature on cars fitted with HIDs. My car is parked out side the house on a very slight (nose down) incline. When I start the car, the lights do their down-up auto dip feature. Is the fact that my car is leveling it's lights on an inline, mean that when traveling on a level grade, my lights are inclined upwards?, as the above seems to be happening me alot lately.

_Kaiser_

I recently got a 6000k xenon kit fitted (complete with matching LED sidelights as of last week ) and never get flashed because I made sure they were aligned properly. They make a big difference though in visibility, especially at the sides of the road. Well worth the money.

The amount of mis-aligned lights out there though, or the new fad of putting on your full beams because you can't be arsed getting your other light fixed, drives me mad though. At least 50% of cars (rough guesstimate) I pass have SOMETHING wrong with their lights! :mad:

As far as full beams at night goes, I find people in the country are very slow to dip for oncoming traffic and will light back up again behind you even though they're only 50 metres further back. Personally I dip the lights when I first see a car appear, then if they haven't dipped their own lights within a few seconds I'll give them a long flash to get the point across.

Then there's the idiots driving around with no lights on at all at night. I mean, how can you get into a car, start it up and drive off without realising you can't see the dashboard??

Fighting Irish

AugustusMaximus wrote: »

What I find just as annoying are people who turn their headlights back on before they have even passed you.

Bloody idiots.

I always do that, if they don't dip on time when we first meet.

Berty

I was given a loaner of a 2005 Mondeo today and as soon as I got home I did a full check of ALL the lights. Surprise Surprise Im missing one tail light, sidelight and an indicator bulb, one dash board light and the boot light.

I only have the car for 3 days but if EVERYONE was as pedantic as me then everything would be ok.

Fighting Irish

oh yeah, and fuck people who think it's alright to half full beams on because one of their lights is out

bazzachazza

You wrote: »

Question about the auto-dip feature on cars fitted with HIDs. My car is parked out side the house on a very slight (nose down) incline. When I start the car, the lights do their down-up auto dip feature. Is the fact that my car is leveling it's lights on an inline, mean that when traveling on a level grade, my lights are inclined upwards?, as the above seems to be happening me alot lately.

Your car should have an auto leveller. So when you accelerate they will lower the beam and raise the beam under braking. When you get to level ground it should level them out automatically.

I try where possible to dip my lights before I see the whites of there lights come over the hill or around the bend. I say try because of the idiots who drive with dips only making it harder to see them coming from below the hill or bend. My rule is if you see white or red lights no high beams.

I hate idiots on long straights that think because your 300m ahead they can have their high beams on.

Misaligned lights and blown bulbs do my bracket in. Last week I saw someone late at night on the old N4 with one side light and one fog light on:mad::mad::mad:did they not notice how little of the road they could see and how little light was being produced.

mink_man

is there a law regarding dipping?

corktina

i heard of a Lady who told her husband that a light had come on on her dash...a blue one...she thought the side-light position was dip and the dip position was full...god help us...

still at least she didnt dazzle anyone...

Big J

Most of my driving at night is on the N25 west of Waterford and the locals don't seem to grasp that it is still necessary to dip your lights on the new bypass. Yes, there is a concrete barrier between the 2 sides of the dual cariageway but the road goes up and down the hills so the oncoming traffic can see you and yes, you are blinding them.

Also a lot of driving on full beam because one of the dipped heads is out. Begs the question - why do motor factors bother to stock replacement bulbs? Who buys them?

Berty

Big J wrote: »

why do motor factors bother to stock replacement bulbs? Who buys them?

For us sado's.

-Corkie-

i know but six spots on top of a topline scania normally cures those fancy cars....

hoodie6029

agree with the OP, this is a real annoyance on the road not to mention the lack of a full sets of lights!
my brother was driving across France a few years ago. He had to have a full set of spare bulbs in this car to comply with the law there. time to bring it in here..