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From: res@ihuxn.UUCP (Rich Strebendt)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: parking light law question
Message-ID: <811@ihuxn.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-Aug-84 12:12:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxn.811
Posted: Fri Aug 24 12:12:58 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 25-Aug-84 07:26:46 EDT
References: <722@opus.UUCP> <1303@ihuxl.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 61

Re:

| There are many times when running lights are the optimum.  This
| occurs when it is dark enough that you need lights on the car
| so that others can see you from far enough away, but not dark
| enough that you can see better with your headlights on.  

Bull.  Parking lights (as named in my Owners Manual) can only be seen
from a few car lengths away.  That is NEVER "far enough away" from an
on-coming car at any practical automobile speed. 

| At these
| times, headlights *do* often cause glare to oncoming traffic,
| so why have them on?

Not so, unless the "headlights" are 5000 watt mercury arc lights.
Indeed, the headlights seem quite dim in the half light of dusk and
grow in apparent intensity as the ambient light level becomes lower.

| Yes, you can see cars farther away with headlights on than with
| just the running lights on,

That is the whole idea of turning lights on before they are needed to
let you see the road and environs!

| but there is a limit to how far away it
| does any *real* good to see them.  

I want on-coming traffic to be able to see me as early and as far away
as possible without causing nearer drivers unnecessary discomfort.
Hence, at dusk I turn on the low beams and mumble in disgust at the
bozos who think that turning on parking lights makes them at all
visible.

| The increased glare is definately
| a baddie.

Not to me or to anyone with whom I have previously discussed this 
problem.

| Why don't you complain about the *real* problem: people running around
| in the dark with NO lights on, and one-eyed cars, and high-beams
| when not appropriate, and miss-adjusted lights,

AHAH!!! We agree!!!

| and the absurd
| headlight laws in the US. (At least it looks like they're *finally*
| going to make it legal to have real headlights.  

If by "real headlights" you mean the ultra high intensity jobs that are
illegal in most states, then I part company with you again.  For
on-coming traffic those lights really are a bad scene.  I have often
wished that my car had a 50 caliber mounted in the nose to extinguish
those kinds of lights when I have encountered them.  Problem is that
they are so blinding that I would probably miss the lights and get the
driver ... but that probably would not decrease the total intelligence
level of the world much (might even raise it!) [:-)].

					Rich Strebendt
					...!ihnp4!ihuxn!res