2nnd June 2023
Upper House Nick McGowen’s comments regarding drivers using headlights during the day caught my attention recently. HS 1st of June 2023, A Bright Idea.
In the 1970s, while stationed at Seymour Highway Patrol, I often found myself from time to time, losing sight of oncoming vehicles or those waiting to turn onto the highway. All be it for a slit second, but long enough for it to be potentially dangerous, particularly at dawn, dusk, and variable weather conditions. This was especially dangerous for catching-speeding motorists, as high-speed driving was commonplace, and that facilitated constant high-speed driving for enforcement.
I was ridiculed by my superiors when I suggested that drivers should use their parking lights while driving. I was even directed not to use them in police vehicles.
Interestingly, I could not find any regulation that prohibited driving with headlights during the day.
MP Nick McGowan’s proposal to require all drivers to activate their headlights during the day is a sensible measure that should be supported by all politicians. This simple initiative can significantly improve visibility on the country as well as metropolitan roads, particularly in areas with shadows and variable conditions. However, drivers of vehicles without daytime running lights should be required to use their parking lights.
Aftermarket daytime driving lights are available for less than $100 and are easy to install without the need for a specialist auto electrical service. Therefore, it is reasonable to require vehicles that need a Certificate of Roadworthiness to be fitted with these lights.
While I support this initiative wholeheartedly, it saddens me that it could have saved hundreds of Victorian lives if it had been introduced in the 70s.
The lesson here is that our legislators should not dismiss ideas simply because they cannot see their value; sometimes, the visions of others are critical.
Absolutely essential. Sth Aust has for many years had a “be seen, be safe – lights on 24/7” policy, and as far back as the 1990’s, Canada required all car headlamps to be wired to illuminate as soon as the cars engine was fired up.
I agree with the principle in Canada.
We don’t need legislation just a direction to car manufacturers that lights automatically come on when the ignition is turned on.
My wife and I came back from Melbourne yesterday, 650 kms, and dusk was closing as we drove up through Sea Lake. As usual we discussed oncoming vehicles seeming to disappear into the road surface colours, even from just a few hundred yards away. My eyesight is excellent, as is my wife’s, and in many cases we could see an oncoming vehicle far away against the horizon. Then, when it should have become visible as it approached us, it had virtually disappeared.
Typically, it was any sized vehicle, a smaller car or a larger 4X4, in the colour range of grey/brown/reddish/fawn/dark silver or similar colours. Towards the Murray River the road surfaces vary in colour from almost whitish-grey to the darker red/blacks/browns, and at a distance it is almost a certainty cars with similar colours to roadways, or those in the lower spectrum of colours, will be largely absorbed into the background colours. That will occur on every roadway.
All cars which are roadworthy must have operating parking and driving lights for their RWC, so to require them to operate whenever being driven is quite simple. Almost all newer vehicles have DRLs – Daytime Running Lights, most of which are quite visible and make the vehicle’s position obvious to oncoming cars, even during those dangerous sun-up or dusk hours.
Older vehicles retro-fitted with LED DRLs should have no problems whatsoever with battery-drain, given the wiring is installed as ignition-live; the lights should operate parallel with ignition only, causing no direct battery loss at all.
Look at road transports – many of them are heavily decorated with multiple low-drain LED lights, quite simple to install, and not expensive even if done by an auto-electrician, and usually very visible to all oncoming vehicles. To buy such a kit with a minimum of six or eight smaller LEDs would not be expensive, and their major focus requirement should be that they are installed as clearly visible for straight-ahead traffic.
There was a lot of discussion years back when our motorbikes were made to run headlights full-time; I recall riders doing or saying anything we could think of to avoid that happening. However, it has proven clearly a bonus, and makes any oncoming bike safer through improved visibility.
The drawback can be that of any operator, car or bike, is unaware of having lights on high-beam, which can hurt or blind opposing drivers from their oncoming high-intensity LED headlights.
There is a side-benefit from requiring DRLs to be fitted – making a complete light-check requirement part of the condition to fit DRLs. On country roads we quite often suffer from the dangerous condition of oncoming vehicles with incorrect lights.
Thus we are forced to suffer the stupidity or even danger of many vehicles with either one headlight not working, or maybe worse, with badly-focussed headlights blinding oncoming traffic.
Front-facing LEDs or similar DRLs fitted to all vehicles would draw attention easily; think of how seeing a bright stoplight in front of your vehicle, where another vehicle is braking ahead of you when driving in traffic, makes you react positively.
On the other hand, thinking about lighting and traffic safety, some drivers fit their vehicles with totally-blinding LED lightbars or spotlights, unfortunately a definite requirement for country drivers for some timely protection against the myriad kangaroos and their potential vehicular damage.
Light-beam focus can be a major problem with these or any headlights as well, maybe through driver choice or ignorance. Surely such lights contribute to driver pressure, when they partially blind oncoming drivers, from not being dipped to low beam? Smaller LEDs would be most unlikely to cause any similar condition.
Quite a few of these drivers also seem to ignore the requirement for isolation switches, fitted to drop these bright lights when the vehicle lights are switched to low beam. Efforts to catch such vehicles now don’t seem to be made; simple vehicle checks no longer seem to be a part of traffic checks, far away from early days on MTS or TOG traffic patrols… Maybe this condition is a contributor to the fairly savage road toll?
There is absolutely no drawback to, or reason against, operating headlights any time a vehicle is being used on a road, 24/7. Maybe, like anything else, familiarity breeds contempt, but IMHO, with probably way over a million miles up so far, I always run either parking lights or DRLs on my vehicles. I’m sure it’s helped contribute to my road safety. Check out the truckies, ask them – they’ll tell you it’s a good thing.
Very important, not only should motor vehicles be lit up at all times, so should motor and other cycles, they are very hard to see on rural roads, particularly with trees forming shadows over the roads.