"Miles D. Oliver" <moliver@mmoliver.org> wrote:
> Can anyone point me to fed websites that discuss safety issues?
> I've been trying to get my wife to turn off her headlights when she
> drives in daylight. She claims it's * SO MUCH SAFER * if she drives with
> them on. All it does as far as I am concerned is cause premature bulb
> failure and my point is, I drive as much as she does in my '02 QC and I
> have NOT replaced any headlight bulbs at all and we're on our 4th one in
> her '03 Durango. Stupid waste of $$.
I've never considered premature bulb failure, but yeah, DRLs and
people who leave their lights on during the day are a pet peeve of
mine. I guess the root of my particular beef with DRLs is that they
are yet another one of those knee-jerk, feel-good measures which
actually worsen the problem they purport to solve.
I will grant that a car with its lights on can be seen more
readily (from the front), but there are really only a few conditions
(mostly environmental) where this increased visibility is important,
and that is precisely why the lights should be turned on and off to
meet the current conditions, and not just left on all the time. When
everyone has their lights on, a sort of "sensory overload" takes over
and the important vehicles like motorcycles and safety vehicles start
to dissapear. This basically leads me to the second main reason why I
don't like DRLs and people who drive with their lights on all the
time; in my mind, they are basically saying "I am more important than
anyone else. I don't care if my actions inconvenience and endanger
everyone, because *I* am all that matters." Its probably a signal of
society's continued decrease of courtesy and civility, or at best, an
indicator that we are nothing but ignorant sheeple who can't be
bothered to research, reason, or muster a single independent thought.
I just touched on a couple of the issues which are the major
reasons why I don't like DRLs/lights on all the time, but there are
many more, which I won't bother to get into here, I'll just direct you
to the National Motorists Association at http://www.motorists.org. If
you type "DRL" into the search box, you will find several articles
which document the numerous problems with DRLs and/or having your
lights turned on all the time. The first document that comes up, (NMA
Petition to Modify DRLs) has a pretty good list of the problems
associated with the infernal devices.
Sun up? Lights OFF! Thank you. :-)
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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