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From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: parking light law question
Message-ID: <4313@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 29-Aug-84 11:08:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.4313
Posted: Wed Aug 29 11:08:53 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Sep-84 10:12:36 EDT
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Organization: Ballistics Research Lab
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Regarding the various state laws on headlight or parking/running light use:

Does any state FORBID the use of headlights in daylight? Or do they all 
ignore daylight use and merely mandate use in some definition of darkness?
I ask because I am convinced that it is an unsafe practice to use 
headlights when they are not necessary, yet I have often heard of
many organizations asking motorists to drive with their headlights on
durning the day to commemorate or call attention to some event or
occasion.

Maybe this is based on long-obsolete auto technology, but I always
believed that your battery did not charge (or charged very little)
when your headlights were on, so that extensive driving with the
headlights always on would drain the battery. Also, I find headlight
glare an annoyance even in daylight, despite some statements to the
contrary posted by others. Aside from the prevalence of mis-aimed
lights, the simple fact that roads are not flat makes even properly-aimed
lights shine directly into the eyes of oncoming motorists or pedestrians
every time a car breasts a hill.

Certainly headlights should be used when conditions warrant; their use
at other times, for whatever reasons, seems unjustifiable.

Will