Rant: They're called PARK lights for a reason, dammit.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Something that drives me extremely crazy:

People who park with their headlights on. Particularly: people who park on the wrong side of the road, facing traffic, with their headlights on.



You know what I can't see in this image? ANYTHING AT ALL BEHIND THE CAR. I can't see if someone has the door open and is exiting the car. I can't see if people are standing around or near it. I can't tell if there's traffic or if the @#$%ing earth just ends suddenly right behind the headlights.

You know what's not remotely safe? NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE WHERE YOU'RE DRIVING.

If you're going to PARK, and not go anywhere, you don't need headlights.

See, cars are equipped from the factory with a variety of lights. Some of those lights are there to make you easier to be seen by others. Some of them are there to enable you to see better. Headlights are in the latter category.
PARK lights. Park lights are designed to make you easier to BE SEEN. If you are PARKING your car and need to be seen, turn your damn HEADLIGHTS off and turn your PARK lights on.



Whoa, would you look at that! I can see the car AND the rest of the universe around it. How incredibly useful!

If you're the kind of d!ck who parks facing traffic (so on the wrong side of the damn road in the first place) and can't spare the .000000003 IQ points required to realize you're blinding EVERYONE, you are scum and I hate you and your children and your dog and your face.

Even if you're not facing traffic...you're facing something. Another parked car, a home, an apartment, somebody who isn't interested in being blinded by your smegging headlights. You are not moving. You do not need to see where you are going because you're NOT GOING. Turn your effing headlights OFF.

Note: sheer coincidence that I found two BMW pictures for this. They were the best photos GIS turned up for headlights and parking lights.

[Dattebayo]

Well s***.

I never use them at night unless I'm pulling up in front of a window in an apartment complex or unless I am trying to be all stealthy or something...
Some cars don't have the option of turning their headlights off, either.

[themadscientist]

I sometimes go stealth mode and flip off my lights and track other cars. I flip them on right behind them to announce my presence.

[Jesda]

Some cars don't have the option of turning their headlights off, either.

That annoys me to no end. I remember getting stuck in the Escalade. During my Onstar rescue call the battery died because I couldn't shut the headlights off.

I didn't have my phone.

Needless to say, I lost my shoes in the mud.




On a similar note, I hate when people in German or Swedish cars leave their rear fog lights on when there is no fog.

[Bubba1]

[On a similar note, I hate when people in German or Swedish cars leave their rear fog lights on when there is no fog.

What's amusing is when a 'Murican in an old fullsized 'Murican pickup truck (or fox body mustang) notices your rear foglight on and shouts, "hey, your brake light is still on".

[frapjap]

Some cars don't have the option of turning their headlights off, either.

This. Or some require some very out of the box thinking to keep them turned off when the car is on. For instance, Grand Prix (and other GM models from the 2000's require you to turn the car off, push in the parking brake, turn the car on, and then you can you just the parking lights. It took us a good while to figure that one out. Probably would've helped Jesda in his time of need.

[veery]

[On a similar note, I hate when people in German or Swedish cars leave their rear fog lights on when there is no fog.

What's amusing is when a 'Murican in an old fullsized 'Murican pickup truck (or fox body mustang) notices your rear foglight on and shouts, "hey, your brake light is still on".

And LESS amusing is when the sheriff pulls you over and says one light in the rear of your car is out, thinking the one lit rear foglight has a non-functioning match on the other side.

[skydragoness]

What about GM cars and the reverse lights being on when they're in park? Can someone explain this stupid feature to me? It scares the crap out of me everytime because I think the person is about to gas it in reverse, but no, no, they're just getting out of their car and already shut the engine off. ARGH.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Some cars don't have the option of turning their headlights off, either.

I honestly didn't know that, since I've never owned a car that unfathomably stupid before. That's ridiculous.

What about GM cars and the reverse lights being on when they're in park? Can someone explain this stupid feature to me? It scares the crap out of me everytime because I think the person is about to gas it in reverse, but no, no, they're just getting out of their car and already shut the engine off. ARGH.

Oh, HELL yes. This is the single worst "feature" in the history of the automobile. I actually ranted about it myself a while back. Are you telling me someone actually thought it was a good idea? Are you telling me nobody at GM has ever driven through a parking lot with other modern GM vehicles? It's so terrible it's mind-boggling. It's also exactly what I'd expect from the one automaker on the planet who still genuinely believes daytime running lights are a good idea.

And if you ask a modern GM owner about it, their response will be one of two things:
1: Oh...I never noticed that before!
2: Yes, it's stupid, and I hate it, and it's stupid, and it confuses everyone, and it doesn't even produce usable "safety" illumination anyway.

It's akin to using turn signals to replace a failed horn. It might sound clever on paper but in reality all you're doing is confusing the s*** out of everyone and making the situation worse.

It's a huge safety issue, because it undermines the basic (and singular) decades-established purpose of a particular lamp. And ONLY GM does it, so that makes it inconsistent. I'm never in favor of industry legislation, but I honestly think the NHTSA needs to step in and tell GM to knock it off, because they're clearly not bright enough to figure it out on their own.

If I owned a modern GM vehicle with this "feature" I'd do whatever it takes to disable it.

[skydragoness]

Hmm, I wonder if the Corvette does it. Maybe the automatic ones, haha.

DRLs might draw your rage, but I think it's okay given the vast amount of drivers on the road who couldn't be bothered putting on their lights at dusk/early dawn, even when told why it's a hazard and it's to *their* benefit. I suppose they're the same people who put their high beams on in dense fog I guess.

[MinisterofDOOM]

One of the many problems I have with DTRLs is a common lazy implementation: low-wattage high-beam repurposing. It just means I spend all day staring into bright lights from oncoming traffic. I'm sure I'm more sensitive to bright light than most people (years of being a nightwalker will do that) but even during the day, I find myself doing the Dracula hiss in reaction to peoples daytime running lights glaring me in the face. But, really, everyone has the same human eye function, which shares two common key weaknesses: high-contrast or low-contrast light-conditions. Dusk sucks for this reason, but so does staring into somebody's high-beams, whether operated at half-wattage or not. Those lamps aren't "aimed" like low-beams and they HURT.

Also stupid: DTRLs that have to be disabled when signalling. If your moronic jeweled multifacet LED forward lamp housing arrangements are so overwrought that you have to turn some lamps off for others to serve their needed purpose, maybe it's time we remove some of the excess. This is another downside to using headlights at low brightness as your running lights. Toyota generally does it this way, so watch next time you see a newer Toyota product signalling for a turn--they'll have one unlit running light on the signal side. So...we've reached the point where our daytime running lights are out-brightnessing other lights on the car for what purpose? To LOOK FANCY? Good s***, I can't even wrap my head around that. DTRLs have gone from an ostensible (and scientifically disproven) safety feature to the automotive equivalent of jewelry.

GM's DTRLs are generally amber and separate from headlights, but I hate that for an entirely different reason. First: Just use your damn park lights (hey, full circle discussion!). Second: the amber looks like CRAP. Especially when it's lazily combined with the fog light housing as in the early CTS.

And lastly, and again: it has been proven that the practical benefits of DTRLs are only really present during low-light conditions where people should be using their headlights anyway. And this is where I disagree with the "at least it helps with people who refuse to turn on their lights at dusk" because, like automatic headlights (which I personally love but also frequently override), it encourages a hands-off, brain-free, "I'll let the car do it for me" mentality. DTRLs at dusk don't help the view of the rear of the car, where taillights are still unlit. And as a driver I'm a WHOLE lot more concerned about seeing the rear of the car in front of me than the front of a car on the other side of the road in terms of safety.

Oh, and even more lastly:
Maybe if automakers enabled PROPER function of driving lights (aka fog lights) we wouldn't have a NEED for DTLRs, since people could use THOSE. Low-positioned, low-aimed, and providing usable contrast-lighting, they make a Hell of a lot more sense than just turning on some existing or extra light all the time for the sake of being easier to see. Still, even that only provides improved visibility from the front, at which point we're back to the original conclusion: if you need to BE SEEN but not see better, use park lights. If you need to SEE, you also need to BE SEEN, so turn on your effing headlights.

[dasoupdude]

THANK YOU.

Considering the amount of stupid i see on the roads here in South Fla every 10 seconds, especially the ones in the parking lots that just love to floor it the second the gear hits R, its always been a habit of mine to creep through full parking lots. My catlike reflexes into braking come into play the second i see reverse lights..Well as of recent years those methods have proven to be garbage now because every car has those 'remote control do anything reverse lights.'

You know how stupid it looks to slam on your brakes as you pass a family of 4 with an Extremely Young Daughter eating a lollipop?

Turns out their Tahoe wasn't going reverse after all, The first time I ever saw this happen I'll always remember how I thought that was a weird and senseless feature. Now the soccer moms all have a universal beacon to go by that reads, "HEY THIS SPOTS ABOUT TO OPEN UP, WAIT AND COME TAKE ME LEL" Thereby holding up traffic even longer because they cant spare the extra 30 yards that they have to accomplish in a parking lot..and that they're probably going to Triple that amount in the Supermarket anyway.

But I digest..

Nowadays I just park farthest away from ***holes as I can and lose the risk of driving through a gauntlet in the first place.

[themadscientist]

DTRLs are an option on the BRZ and I DID NOT check that box.

[Jesda]

I use my high beams at the peak of rush hour even when it's sunny outside.

People are inattentive so I compensate.

[frapjap]

I disabled the DTRLs in my Legacy by snipping a wire. No more prematurely burnt out bulbs for me!!!

[Dattebayo]

I use my high beams at the peak of rush hour even when it's sunny outside.

People are inattentive so I compensate.

Me too, except for the high-beams. I get cut off like crazy if I don't have the headlights on during the day, unless it's really really sunny out.
Something about having a dark-colored vehicle I guess? It used to happen to me all the time in the Sentra as well...

[themadscientist]

That's racist!

[dasoupdude]

Oh dear God. I remember posting on this page hammered after a friends birthday party, everything i wrote was a response to MoD's OTHER thread. Whatever I said up there ^ was extremely out of context.

post6327939.html?hilit=reverse%20light#p6327939

[Dattebayo]

So, everything you said was in response to a 2.5 year old thread? Really?

You should probably leave that jager alone, broseph.

[Jesda]

In a Miata, I naturally fear death. I should cover the hood in flashing strobe lights.

[float_6969]

I was told by a friend that's a Nissan tech that the deal with turning the DRL off on the side that's indicating is to draw attention to that headlamp so that the car's signal, and so intention to turn, became more obvious. They did some test comparing, no DRL's and a turn signal, normal DRL's and a turn signal, and the signaling DRL off and a turn signal. There was an obvious difference in the way that it would capture peoples attention and they would be more aware of the indicator..... so long story short, it's a safety thing. I honestly think it's because we're not used to it. Once everyone is doing it, it won't be any more noticeable than normal indicators, but we'll see.

[BusyBadger]

Something that drives me extremely crazy:

People who park with their headlights on. Particularly: people who park on the wrong side of the road, facing traffic, with their headlights on.

Thing is, the biggest crime I see in this pic is the bulb colour. Nothing like reducing light output and increasing glare with one so-called upgrade.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I was told by a friend that's a Nissan tech that the deal with turning the DRL off on the side that's indicating is to draw attention to that headlamp so that the car's signal, and so intention to turn, became more obvious. They did some test comparing, no DRL's and a turn signal, normal DRL's and a turn signal, and the signaling DRL off and a turn signal. There was an obvious difference in the way that it would capture peoples attention and they would be more aware of the indicator..... so long story short, it's a safety thing. I honestly think it's because we're not used to it. Once everyone is doing it, it won't be any more noticeable than normal indicators, but we'll see.

I realize that's why they do it.

My problem is that's dumb as Hell.

"Hey Bob, turns out our running lights make it hard to see our turn signals!"
"Well could we just remove the running lights? They're not exactly critical but turn signals certainly are?"
"No, dumbass, people eat those LED running lights up!"
"Well...s***, I dunno..."
"What if we have the running lights automatically turn OFF when the signal comes on!"
"...That seems almost not completely stupid, let's do it!"

The fact that it's necessary to disable the running lights for signals to serve their purpose proves my point: DTRLs need to go away.

[dasoupdude]

So, everything you said was in response to a 2.5 year old thread? Really?

You should probably leave that jager alone, broseph.

Basically..

Ah, but theres no such thing as too much Jager.

[BusyBadger]

Ah, but theres no such thing as too much Jager.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Thing is, the biggest crime I see in this pic is the bulb colour. Nothing like reducing light output and increasing glare with one so-called upgrade.

I certainly don't disagree there.

[Ace2cool]

I agree to everything in this thread. Including Jesda's idea of strobe lights on Miatas.

But BY FAR the thing that pisses me off the most is the stupid GM reverse light crap. I used to drive past a new gen Camaro in my old apartments every morning, just as he was getting out, and those f*ckers stay on for at least 30 seconds. I'd always stop and wait to see if he was actually about to back out, or if it was his "parking" lights. One day, it wasn't, and he wasn't paying attention and my F150 almost had Camaro for breakfast. I hate those things with such an undying passion that I fully believe only MoD could understand.