Bay Area driving etiquette - driving in the city with high beams. (Oakland: living in, vs.)

[drive carephilly]

Unfortunately I spend a lot of time on the road for work and while I see a lot of horrendous driving everyday the one thing that perplexes me is the volume of people who drive around SF, Oakland, Berkeley, etc with their high beams on.

But what's even more baffling is that when you flash your high beams at them they don't respond. Even when people are driving at night with no lights on and you flick your lights at them . . . nothing. And this isn't passing someone at a high rate of speed where they might not notice. This is sitting opposite someone at an intersection for 45 seconds where there's no way they can't notice what you're doing. I didn't get as much of it mid-summer but now that it's getting darker earlier I'm back to seeing it 2-3x a night and usually see one case per night of no headlights.

I've lived in 6 states, driven regularly in 4 others, driven in 5 other countries including a pretty long stint living in one of them and the flashing of lights at night has been universally understood to mean, "hey, check your light situation."

Am I missing something here?

[mstnghu2]

Wow, somebody finally is bringing this up! This is a huge driving peeve of mine. I have eyes that are sensitive to light and it drives me completely nuts. It affects my ability to see other objects when the bright lights are coming toward me.

Here in the Fremont area it's unbelievable how many people do it. I've lived in the Bay Area my entire life and this is something I started noticing a lot within the last few years. It's a very recent thing. And, you're right, if you flash your high-beams at them to let them know, they don't do anything about it! It's the same around here when people drive with their headlights off. You flash your high beams at them multiple times and they just don't get it. There are times when I've been stopped directly across an intersection from somebody at a red light and flashing my high beams to communicate with the other driver is completely useless. It blows my mind that these people are operating motor vehicles.

I'm sure somebody will pull out the race card for me saying this, but around where I live it's almost entirely Asian drivers who do it. Fremont has a large population of foreign born Chinese and Indian people and it's just reality that for the most part they have very poor driving skill. I have extensive personal experience encountering this, so nobody will convince me otherwise. I also work in the car business and the vast majority of our clientele is Chinese and Indian and they have no clue how to work the most basic functions in their vehicles. Cars constantly pull up to our dealer with the high-beams on.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Mostly people who learned to drive rather late in life, who have night blindness.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

Wow, somebody finally is bringing this up! This is a huge driving peeve of mine. I have eyes that are sensitive to light and it drives me completely nuts. It affects my ability to see other objects when the bright lights are coming toward me.

Here in the Fremont area it's unbelievable how many people do it. I've lived in the Bay Area my entire life and this is something I started noticing a lot within the last few years. It's a very recent thing. And, you're right, if you flash your high-beams at them to let them know, they don't do anything about it! It's the same around here when people drive with their headlights off. You flash your high beams at them multiple times and they just don't get it. There are times when I've been stopped directly across an intersection from somebody at a red light and flashing my high beams to communicate with the other driver is completely useless. It blows my mind that these people are operating motor vehicles.

I'm sure somebody will pull out the race card for me saying this, but around where I live it's almost entirely Asian drivers who do it. Fremont has a large population of foreign born Chinese and Indian people and it's just reality that for the most part they have very poor driving skill. I have extensive personal experience encountering this, so nobody will convince me otherwise. I also work in the car business and the vast majority of our clientele is Chinese and Indian and they have no clue how to work the most basic functions in their vehicles. Cars constantly pull up to our dealer with the high-beams on.

There is a lot of tribal knowledge regarding the bolded items. If a person wasn't here as a teen or worst case young adult, they did not gain such knowledge.

[WizardOfRadical]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

Wow, somebody finally is bringing this up! This is a huge driving peeve of mine. I have eyes that are sensitive to light and it drives me completely nuts. It affects my ability to see other objects when the bright lights are coming toward me.

Here in the Fremont area it's unbelievable how many people do it. I've lived in the Bay Area my entire life and this is something I started noticing a lot within the last few years. It's a very recent thing. And, you're right, if you flash your high-beams at them to let them know, they don't do anything about it! It's the same around here when people drive with their headlights off. You flash your high beams at them multiple times and they just don't get it. There are times when I've been stopped directly across an intersection from somebody at a red light and flashing my high beams to communicate with the other driver is completely useless. It blows my mind that these people are operating motor vehicles.

I'm sure somebody will pull out the race card for me saying this, but around where I live it's almost entirely Asian drivers who do it. Fremont has a large population of foreign born Chinese and Indian people and it's just reality that for the most part they have very poor driving skill. I have extensive personal experience encountering this, so nobody will convince me otherwise. I also work in the car business and the vast majority of our clientele is Chinese and Indian and they have no clue how to work the most basic functions in their vehicles. Cars constantly pull up to our dealer with the high-beams on.

Agreed. I have noticed there is a correlation between this issue and demographics.

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by mstnghu2

Wow, somebody finally is bringing this up! This is a huge driving peeve of mine. I have eyes that are sensitive to light and it drives me completely nuts. It affects my ability to see other objects when the bright lights are coming toward me.

Here in the Fremont area it's unbelievable how many people do it. I've lived in the Bay Area my entire life and this is something I started noticing a lot within the last few years. It's a very recent thing. And, you're right, if you flash your high-beams at them to let them know, they don't do anything about it! It's the same around here when people drive with their headlights off. You flash your high beams at them multiple times and they just don't get it. There are times when I've been stopped directly across an intersection from somebody at a red light and flashing my high beams to communicate with the other driver is completely useless. It blows my mind that these people are operating motor vehicles.

I'm sure somebody will pull out the race card for me saying this, but around where I live it's almost entirely Asian drivers who do it. Fremont has a large population of foreign born Chinese and Indian people and it's just reality that for the most part they have very poor driving skill. I have extensive personal experience encountering this, so nobody will convince me otherwise. I also work in the car business and the vast majority of our clientele is Chinese and Indian and they have no clue how to work the most basic functions in their vehicles. Cars constantly pull up to our dealer with the high-beams on.

I don't think what you're saying is racist. The main caveat here is that you understand the main correlating factor is percentage of foreign-born immigrants vs. American-born. I'm confident in saying that it doesn't matter what race the person is (please get that stereotype out of here) - but I do think it definitely matters if someone is from another country where people don't drive much and/or they're learning how to drive here later in life. That certainly makes a huge difference.

I rarely notice anyone driving around with their brights on - but I do notice people driving without their lights on more frequently here than in other places I've lived. I always do the "flash" thing to let them know, too, but usually the message isn't received/understood. I do think bayareahillbilly is right in that this kind of stuff is really only learned if you grow up here (in the U.S.)...

[sonarrat]

I started noticing it with the last generation of Civics and then started seeing it on HR-V's as well. Maybe they made the stalk too sensitive? Can't chalk it down to being an "FOB" phenomenon, when all sorts of drivers are represented.

[mr bolo]

probably elderly people with poor night vision, I noticed some people cant see too well at night?

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by sonarrat

I started noticing it with the last generation of Civics and then started seeing it on HR-V's as well. Maybe they made the stalk too sensitive? Can't chalk it down to being an "FOB" phenomenon, when all sorts of drivers are represented.

I know what you mean about the issue with the last generation of Civics. I used to notice those quite a bit. I actually used to have one and I think the issue was that the blue high-beam indicator was located in a place that was blocked by the steering wheel. My '07 had a funky gauge cluster and the high-beam indicator was way down low and almost impossible to notice on while driving in my normal position.

I've since noticed it on pretty much any kind of car where I live now and it almost seems to be getting worse. It's actually a VERY common problem I see, at least around Fremont...and 99.9% of the time, it appears to be FOB-related.

[mstnghu2]

Originally Posted by mr bolo

probably elderly people with poor night vision, I noticed some people cant see too well at night?

...not where I live. It has nothing to do with being elderly.