I know that there are strong positions on driving with headlights and
taillights on and I am not trying to drag the argument on on the list but I
will pass along a bit of experience.
I have driven truck through a lot of Canada both on highway and off highway
and through these trips I have hauled all shapes and sizes of loads in all
kinds of trucks.
In my experience, there is no question that every vehicle that drives with
its headlights on, (by switch so taillights are also on), is clearly more
visible to other drivers, regardless if it is daytime, nighttime, twilight
or dawn, in the city, on the highway or crossing frozen muskeg.
Even sitting in a cab, eight feet off the highway, oncoming black cars blend
into dips in highway and white cars blend into the snowbanks and dark cars
hide in the shade. When a car has its headlights and taillights on you are
always alerted to it much sooner, regardless of where it is.
I also ride a bike. Over the years, most of the accidents I have seen were
the result of not being seen by the car or truck that picked them off. I
have personally found that running a light bar does increase my visibility
and I swear it causes more automobile drivers to wake up enough to
understand there is a bike also on the road.
Do what you want, but I always drive with my headlights and taillights on in
every vehicle. In the cab of a truck, from eight feet off the highway, I
will see you earlier if you drive with your headlights on - and that is a
good thing.
Doug
Jeff wrote:
> Does it also turn on your marker lights at the back? Since 1989 (I think)
> in Canada we have Daytime Running Lights on all new cars. Many turn on
> only the headlights, the result being people with no rear lights on as it
> gets dark, starts to rain, etc. Neither of my cars are young enough to
> have this feature, so I have run with full lights on ever since Drivers
> Ed, which was, umm, rather a long time ago ;-)
> Jeff
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