Curious of people's night driving habits

BeerWolf

Going on the long boring stretches of UNLIT roads where you're cruising along at night, such as on the M50, traffic out still... you can't use your [high beam] headlights, do you:

- tend to use the car ahead of you as a guide, that has HIS [high beam] headlights on if at the front of the line.

or

- the road markings on the road ?

CiniO

I just look ahead.
Dipped lights should lit about 40-60 metres in front of the car so you should see enough.
At 100km/h you are travelling 28 metres per second so you should see 2 seconds in advance which should be plenty.

Spook_ie

Use main beam whenever I need it to illuminate pools of darkness where danger/hazards may be lurking as long as no ones going to get blinded, even on lit roads

Leave them on main when ever nobody's in front or approaching on unlit roads, I'll even flick to main beam when trailing a car if they round a bend, even if it's only for 2-3 seconds

maceocc2

I tend to use both where available.

As for bad habits....I tend to flick the lights off for a second to scare the bejaysus outta me as well :pac:

Mycroft H

Main beams where I can. If there is a decent barrier on the motorway (big hedge etc), I'll still use the mains when there is opposing traffic as long as I cant see the cab of the car/jeep/lorry etc.

uck51js9zml2yt

I have my man walk ahead of me with a lamp and flag.

ardmacha

Mycroft H wrote: »

Main beams where I can. If there is a decent barrier on the motorway (big hedge etc), I'll still use the mains when there is opposing traffic as long as I cant see the cab of the car/jeep/lorry etc.

On this, on the M1 they cut the hedge right down so that higher vehicles on the other side could see your lights, while on the M4 section beyond Maynooth they have a high hedge which means that you can use the full beams on your side.

Interslice

Mycroft H wrote: »

Main beams where I can. If there is a decent barrier on the motorway (big hedge etc), I'll still use the mains when there is opposing traffic as long as I cant see the cab of the car/jeep/lorry etc.

Oneof the nicest drives I had was heading home from cork when the M8 southbound was shut. I use my full headlights on the motorway when I can. Knock them off whenever i think its effecting any traffic on the far side.Any advanced warning of debris cars people animals on the motorway is good imo. Reaction time together with braking distance at 120plus in the winter is massive. Far beyond your dips coverage.

KerranJast

I regularly drive at night on R and N roads and people who chug along at the head of a queue at night with no full beams on, with nothing coming the other way, so you cannot judge if you can overtake, drive me goddamn insane. :mad:

Mycroft H

ardmacha wrote: »

On this, on the M1 they cut the hedge right down so that higher vehicles on the other side could see your lights, while on the M4 section beyond Maynooth they have a high hedge which means that you can use the full beams on your side.

Yea, that's why I look out for the cabs of lorries etc. If I can see where I think the driver is, I'm probably dazzling him

ardmacha

Mycroft H wrote: »

Yea, that's why I look out for the cabs of lorries etc. If I can see where I think the driver is, I'm probably dazzling him

Absolutely. At night though it isn't always easy to identify a mid sized vehicle whose cab might be above the line.

Atlantic Dawn

Motorways are really poor for driving at night, they should have either installed lights on the full route or put a central barrier/hedge high enough to block your lights from blinding drivers from the opposite direction.

CiniO

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Motorways are really poor for driving at night, they should have either installed lights on the full route or put a central barrier/hedge high enough to block your lights from blinding drivers from the opposite direction.

I can't really see a problem with driving with dipped lights at night on motorways.
All other vehicles on the motorway should have their lights on as well, so you see them from much grater distance.
And there shouldn't really be any other surprises on motorways.

Interslice

CiniO wrote: »

And there shouldn't really be any other surprises on motorways.

I seen a full exhaust from the flexi back sitting in the middle of the M6 before chrismas. Luckily during daylight.

Atlantic Dawn

CiniO wrote: »

And there shouldn't really be any other surprises on motorways.

Yes normally not but I have had a couple of instances with partial truck tyres and body mouldings on the motorway, lucky on each occasion it was on a lit stretch.

Supergurrier

Buy some better bulbs would be my advice.

visual

really dislike motorists who drive with their highbeam on motorways and centre barrier doesn't block out their light to on coming traffic.

they wouldn't do it on a normal road yet think a 3 foot concrete barrier will shield their stupidity of highbeams .

chrysagon

hate folk who hit the brakes on national routes at night..just cuz of an oncoming car..night blindness?

jay48

ardmacha wrote: »

Absolutely. At night though it isn't always easy to identify a mid sized vehicle whose cab might be above the line.

Yeah , can be a pain driving the van on the motorway with high beams coming at you , there are no lights on the roof like you have on trucks so people don't realise they are blinding you . Usually a quick flash of the beams and they'll dip , having said that there are a minority who just carry on oblivious . In fairness it's not as bad as being blinded on a single lane road , you can look passed the car and follow the road .

edburg

Siggy has auto lights and tend to leave the car go about its business although sometimes it doesn't pick other cars out to well and have to turn full beams off.

Astra I tend to leave them on dipped but have just put auto lights set up on it so be lazy again and leave car to it lol

Zcott

Full beams and foglights on all the time no matter what just so I don't stand out.

Interslice

jay48 wrote: »

Yeah , can be a pain driving the van on the motorway with high beams coming at you , there are no lights on the roof like you have on trucks so people don't realise they are blinding you . Usually a quick flash of the beams and they'll dip , having said that there are a minority who just carry on oblivious . In fairness it's not as bad as being blinded on a single lane road , you can look passed the car and follow the road .

One thing I dont miss about my old van. Used to drive me skits. Made me want to fit the 100w spot on the roof in a poorly alligned fashion!

Jesus.

CiniO wrote: »

At 100km/h you are travelling 28 metres per second so you should see 2 seconds in advance which should be plenty.

Plenty for what? Can you stop a car at 62mph in 2 seconds?

Bpmull

I drive up the m8 every Monday morning early so it's completly dark and I almost never turn on my high beams as there is too much traffic on front or coming from the other side. I have Osram nightbreakers plus and they are probably as good as you get even on dipped beam the road is well lit up in front of me with them. Probably the best 20 quid you can spend on your car really they make night time driving so much easier.

CiniO

Jesus. wrote: »

Plenty for what? Can you stop a car at 62mph in 2 seconds?

Heh, here's the flow in your logic.
No - I don't believe you could stop a car from 62mph (100km/h) in 2 seconds, as to do that you'd need to have 0 reaction time and braking distance of 28metres. That's pretty much impossible.

But it doesn't mean that what I said was not true.
Once you see to about 60 metres in front of you, you can see to the place where you would be in 2 seconds if you kept the speed of 100km/h. But once you start braking, you are slowing down, and that automatically means that it will take more than 2 seconds to get there.

Correct way to look at it, is by distance.
Can you stop a car from 100km/h (62mph) on distance of 60 metres?
In good circumstances - yes you can.
On good dry surface, modern cars have braking distance from 100km/h to 0km/h below 40 metres. If you add to it reaction time of 0.5 second (which is not the best, but not the worst either), you should be stopped completely within 50 to 55 metres. So within distance you should have seen.

On the side note though - it's rather not normal that you have to step on the brakes to stop completely on the motorway.

Jesus.

Cinio I don't know what all that is supposed to mean but the fact is, if you can only see 2 seconds in front of you, you shouldn't be doing 62mph

CiniO

Jesus. wrote: »

Cinio I don't know what all that is supposed to mean but the fact is, if you can only see 2 seconds in front of you, you shouldn't be doing 62mph

On motorway?
So what should you be doing?
Are you suggesting that no one should drive above 60km/h on motorway at night when they can't put full beams on?

Noccy_Mondy

Knocking off the lights while going along at 80/100km is one I've done a few times, scary as fcuk! Also, I've a habit of cutting twists or bends on the road at night, local roads that I know well.

josip

Noccy_Mondy wrote: »

Knocking off the lights while going along at 80/100km is one I've done a few times, scary as fcuk! Also, I've a habit of cutting twists or bends on the road at night, local roads that I know well.

Try doing the two of them together

creedp

Noccy_Mondy wrote: »

Knocking off the lights while going along at 80/100km is one I've done a few times, scary as fcuk! Also, I've a habit of cutting twists or bends on the road at night, local roads that I know well.

No need to stop at junctions either .. just flick off the lights and if no lights visible drive on!!

I much prefer night driving. When driving on the Motorways I tend to keep dipped lights on only. I can see far enough ahead to react to debris etc on the road. It's very frustrating when other cars behind you have full beams on or cars on the other side do the same.
On local or national roads am constantly switching between full and dipped. Coming into corners I drop to dipped so I know if some one is coming the other way.
I always check my lights when I pull into my drive because there is nothing worse in my opinion that people who drive with bulbs gone at night time.

micks_address

I've noticed a lot lately when driving at night that that cars behind me - their lights seem to go 'up and down' a lot.. i know obviously going over bumps or inclines etc this would be natural but cars like Audi's seem to be the most obvious at this.. is it a self leveling function in the lights or something that's adjusting the beam? with a auto dimming rear view mirror the probably has largely gone away but it was very irritating before i had that fitted..

H3llR4iser

Some things just happen involuntarily - a few years ago I discovered I use road markings a lot for night driving. Essentially I was driving on the A1 motorway in Italy and rolled on a stretch where they had just renovated the tarmac - no lines painted yet. As the road is very wide, I found myself having an enormously hard time figuring out where I was on the road, nor what was coming next.

If there are no incoming cars, I use the full beams - there is a reason why they are on the car
I normally watch the edge of the road approaching corners - if I see light shimmering through, I flick the full beams off to avoid dazzling the incoming car. Which in turn will invariably proceed with its full beams on

noelf

I use adaptive cruise control and set it at max distance to the vehicle in front I also turn off lights when Im being blinded from behind to let them know their blind fu*cks .. but the drl come on in front

Spook_ie

CiniO wrote: »

I can't really see a problem with driving with dipped lights at night on motorways.
All other vehicles on the motorway should have their lights on as well, so you see them from much grater distance.
And there shouldn't really be any other surprises on motorways.

Shouldn't be isn't the same as won't be

Spook_ie

visual wrote: »

really dislike motorists who drive with their highbeam on motorways and centre barrier doesn't block out their light to on coming traffic.

they wouldn't do it on a normal road yet think a 3 foot concrete barrier will shield their stupidity of highbeams .

Not aimed at you or anyone else in particular, but if you are in the driving lane and the other car is in their driving lane and headalights are sett corrrectly then you're less likely to dazzle each other because of the seperation distance between the carriage ways

Skylinehead

I accidentally left my beams on driving towards Belfast on the M1. Lorry driver kindly let me know by turning on what seemed like every floodlight in Ireland around his cab, now that's blinding. It worked anyway!

jay48

Spook_ie wrote: »

Not aimed at you or anyone else in particular, but if you are in the driving lane and the other car is in their driving lane and headalights are sett corrrectly then you're less likely to dazzle each other because of the seperation distance between the carriage ways

If the road is straight , if you approach a right turning bend you are getting the full blast of the oncoming cars beams .