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Especially when it isn't pitch black out yet. It's hard to tell if your headlights are on or not if it is overcast.
People have driven away with gas caps ajar, hood unlatched, trunk open. I wouldn't immediately call these people morons, just momentarily lapses in judgement. Same with driving without headlights. And like mentioned before, the car manufacturers aren't helping out by installing always-on instrument clusters. These used to be a tell-tell sign of whether headlights were on or not but not so much anymore
A previous poster said he has a car that DOES NOT have an indicator that tells you when your headlights are on.
As far as people being "idiots", I always remember the guy I was in the army with. He used to do math equations for relaxation, he was an electronics whiz, he's probably a millionaire today. He could never get down the concept of "lefty loosey, Righty tighty" as far as changing a tire or something like that.
Back in the 90's, driving around without headlights at night was, in certain circles, part of a gang initiation process. You drive around with no headlights. Whoever flashes you, rolls alongside you trying to get your attention "gets got".
Don't know if this is still going on but please be careful out there!
I've done way stupider things in my life than drive the first 1/2 mile at night with nothing but the daytime running lights. My DRL kick out enough light that it takes a minute or two to notice that I've managed to turn the automatic headlights off once again.
Don't buy into that excuse. Any moron knows whether it's day or night when they get in their car, streetlights or not.
I was in the car with a friend of mine after dark. He was driving along and all of a sudden I caught the driver beside us gesturing frantically so I rolled down my window and she shouted "your lights aren't on!"
His instrument panel was illuminated and we were in an area with a lot of street lights, so he didn't even realize he hadn't turned them on.
Some of it may also be tied to the brightness of streetlights. People can see because of them and forget it's night.
The electric company redid ours a couple years ago and residential streets are so bright you can sit in your front yard and read a newspaper.
Bingo. Why turn on your headlights if it's not dark? I had a friend who lived on a hillside 5 miles out of town. You could read newsprint on his front porch by streetlights that were 5 miles away.
This is what happens when you buy a vehicle without automatic headlights. All of my vehicles have them. I never have to worry about turning them on. My truck and my Jeep will also activate the headlights if the windshield wipers are turned on.
Last edited by AlaskaErik; 08-04-2016 at 11:30 AM..
Back in the 90's, driving around without headlights at night was, in certain circles, part of a gang initiation process. You drive around with no headlights. Whoever flashes you, rolls alongside you trying to get your attention "gets got".
Don't know if this is still going on but please be careful out there!
My husband and I have a game we play when driving: "indifferent", "ignorant" and "entitled" when we see irresponsible driving behavior. Some are all three. We recently added a front replacement bumper to our large truck with camper to see if it would make a difference in people who pass in oncoming traffic seeing us looming ahead or those who make abrupt left hand turns in front of us. It seems to have made a difference. Lights on all day and night for us when driving, espevially in unfamiliar areas. Drive safely.
I realized every single time I brought my car in to the dealer for service they would switch the headlight control from automatic, where I always kept it, to off. Now I make a point to check it when leaving. I couldn't figure out why people were signaling me as I never had a problem with headlights before till I discovered this.
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