New European laws will force all cars sold in the UK to be fitted with automatic daytime running lights by 2011.
The EU believes that daytime driving lights increase a car’s visibility and help reduce accidents by three to five per cent.
In Scandinavia, the practice of daytime driving with lights on has been commonplace for years. Volvo has long fitted headlights that stay on permanently, and more recently Audi and Peugeot have followed suit with automatic running lights.
Now the system will be a requirement for all major car manufacturers.
Not everyone believes this latest EU safety scheme is a good idea. Tory MEP Timothy Kirkhope told the Times: “There is a concern that drivers start looking out for lights rather than pedestrians and cyclists.”
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Re: Daytime lights mandatory by 2011
It's a cunning plan to increase electrical load, therefore increasing fuel consumption and CO2 emmissions, so they can fleece you for more tax!!!
Re: Daytime lights mandatory by 2011
Is there any point in running side lights during the day time? On most cars they're so feeble that they can't be seen from more than a few feet away during the day.
I don't understand the comments about dipped beam headlights dazzling drivers during the day time either. Properly adjusted lights don't dazzle at night, so how can they dazzle you during the day when your eyes are expecting it to be bright?
I'm all in favour of it - there are far too many numpties driving grey/silver cars without lights on during dusk, fog and heavy rain. And in those conditions they just disappear, which makes pulling out of T junctions onto fast A roads a real game of russian roulette. Similarly in the winter with low sun or glare off the road, it's almost impossible to spot cars coming from out of the sun/glare unless they're running headlights.
Re: Daytime lights mandatory by 2011
I have no problem with such a law, since I usually drive with side and tail lights lit anyway. That is as long as the manufacturers set it to use sidelights, or similar low intensity lighting, rather than dipped beams. This is because it seems to me that most off-roaders dipped beam isn't really dipped for oncoming car drivers. I'm all too often blinded by other drivers when they seem to think it's dark (when it's quite clearly not). The automatic lights on my car go straight from nothing to dipped beam, and so aren't what I would term useful or acceptable. I would hope that more adaptive lighting can be developed that automatically takes account on the surroundings and lighting.
Has anyone else noticed these Audi's LED lights on the front, with no tail lights on at the rear? I drive into the sun a fair bit, and want to see tail lights lit, rather than "That car's dissapeared ... Oh there it is, braking, crash!". So to me they are worse than useless, leading the driver to think he is safer, when in actual fact they aren't.
As for the bikers, let them use dipped beams (so a brighter light during good daytime conditions), as long as they don't blind car drivers with them.