Driving In Poor Weather Conditions

laineyiow · Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 184

Having just travelled to Stafford and back over this past weekend it does always amaze me (can't actually understand why really as it happens so often! Laughing

) that drivers insist on driving in poor weather conditons without any lights at all or on just their side lights (which in a lot of cases are so ineffective they might just as well not have any lights on at all). Rolling Eyes

I just wondered if any forummers on here could possibly answer me the question as to why a (large) number of drivers don't like driving with their dipped headlights on?

This trend doesn't seem to be just for the "mainland" as I have many a time seen drivers on the Island driving without any lights in bad weather and when the light is fading. I feel that these drivers seem to have the mentality of "Oh, it's light enough, I can see clearly, I don't need any lights on" - but what this driver doesn't seem to realise is that although he can see maybe his car isn't quite as visible as he might like to think it is.

I know at the weekend it was quite awful when trying to overtake on the various motorways as suddenly there would be a car there that at first glance in the mirror couldn't be seen speeding up the motorway as there were no visible lights on the car and it was only when it came up close that the car then did become visible.

The driving conditions on the motorways were quite strange in that one minute you could be driving along and it'd be fine then it was as if you went over an imaginary line and that someone had switched on a shower and turned off the light and you were plunged into darkness - really strange - but did the drivers without lights think to switch on their lights - no, they continued merrily along their way - some doing 90/100 mph plus without any lights too!

Is it just me that gets really frustrated with these types of drivers or do others find it annoying when drivers insist on driving on stupid side lights that just cannot be seen.

I personally drive on my headlights practically all the time as I like to think that I can actually be seen by other road users (be that drivers or pedestrians). I certainly don't have any aversion to switching my dipped headlights on at all.

Do drivers think they are saving money by keeping their headlights off?

Please drivers think - just because you can SEE doesn't mean that you can be SEEN!

My partner very often used to leave putting on his lights until the very last minute until one day I was in the car with him and did a bit of an "experiment" with cars coming in the opposite direction - he soon got used to my way of thinking when he realised which cars he could actually see coming down in the opposite direction and those he couldn't - now he always puts his headlights on straight away when the light starts fading or the weather conditions are such that you need lights. It just needed someone to point out the folly of his ways!! Laughing

Good - I've got that off my chest - feel much better now.

Any comments would be appreciated!!

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Carrie · Joined: 19 Aug 2008 Posts: 84

On my drive home from my last trip to the Island there was some atrocious driving on the M40 in very heavy rain, it was like driving through rolling fog and the vast majority of people were not slowing down at all. I'm not a cautious driver and will be the first to admit I do drive fast on motorways, but that evening I was sticking to 50 in the inside lane and it was impossible to see any road markings etc and yet so many people were doing about 80.
People not putting lights on in that weather is a pet hate of mine. One time driving to Silverstone I was just about to leave the motorway and pulled into the inside lane behind a wagon, got a real shock when I found there was a little silver hatchback with no lights on completely hidden in the wagon's spray. My exit route suddenly became the hard shoulder because otherwise I'd have rearended that car.
Just curious as you said you lived in Shalfleet. How many people there regularly run the red lights just because they know they'll be okay if they get onto the tailend of the traffic that's gone through on green. I stopped for those lights one day because they'd gone onto red before I'd reached them and three cars behind me floored it to go through and catch up with the cars in front Rolling Eyes

When I was in Cowes on my last trip I'd stopped because my side of the road had parked cars and I flashed a bus to come through. He got half way through and this little old bloke overtook me and then sat nose to nose with the bus on the hill. Quite where he thought he was going to go I don't know Laughing

The bus had to pull right onto the pavement to get round him.

laineyiow · Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 184

Yes, very often cars go through the lights just as they are changing to red.

What is equally as annoying is the drivers who that tend to stop at the "Keep Clear" sign BEFORE the lights. When you have waited there for a couple of light changes before the front car realises that maybe he needs to move forward to the actual lights, grrr so so frustrating! I cannot understand why the driver doesn't realise that you need to go to the lights to make them change.

Tuco444 · Joined: 27 Mar 2009 Posts: 11

I drive a particularly large car and have developed a technique for encouraging such menaces forward. I repeatedly flash my lights and sound my horn, revving the engine of my steel behemoth ever closer to the rear of there comparatively pathetic transport. If they still do not move I simply ram them and force them to the line.
give it a try