Rear lights

[Duncan Grimmond]

This is not really Austin country but...
Driving to Ludlow and back today in torrential rail I was astonished by the number of cars driving without tail lights. At first I thought that the drivers had not put their lights on but seeing front lights showing on the same cars it would appear that they can drive with front side lights on but have no rear lights showing. 
Is this the result of automatic wiper/ rain sensors removing the requirement for thought?
Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon?

[Douglas Alderson]

Probably modern cars with driving lights which don’t operate the tail lights, although our car has driving lights and tail lights on all the time.

[Steve Jones]

Many modern cars have daytime driving lights that are on all the time at the front but don't light at the rear. Been out to lunch today with another long time Seven man and we had this very conversation about his Wife's VW Up!

Steve

[Duncan Grimmond]

It strikes me that it is asking for trouble, not to say b****y stupid! If you have to have them to be seen it would appear to ignore half of the traffic needing to see you...the cars behind.
Were motoring organisations consulted?

[Steve Jones]

I think it could be worse than that, Duncan. For Mr/Mrs Average, it's reasonable they might assume that when the front lights are on the rear lights would be on as well - and you can probably see the fronts are on from the driving seat, particularly in poor conditions. I suspect that many don't even know the rears don't come on with their day time driving lights and drive about in conditions like we've had today in the belief that they're fully illuminated when, in reality, they're only 50% so. Our experiences today on the A64 in torrential rain were similar to yours driving to Ludlow.

Steve

[Howard Wright]

Hi Duncan

I have an idea that the introduction of front "driving lights" stems from European legislation.  Initially Scandenavian countries required headlights on at all times, probably due to the very low sun angles and the risk of not seeing oncoming traffic. As often the case in Europe, legislation is enthusiastically embraced by some countries.

In Italy it is a requirement to drive with your headlights on at all times (except in cities I think?).  Certain manufacturers (VW for one) introduced always on lights that met the legislative requirements.  My 18 month old Audi has both front and rear always on lights but my previous FIAT had front lights on only.

Cheers

Howard

[Ivor Hawkins]

I have a modern Fiat 500 and it took a month or so for me to find that the so-called “daylights” were switched on at the front and the rears were not...I disconnected them immediately, in the interests of safety. interestingly, there is the option to do this within the computer menu.

Another reason why I love my Sevens!

[Tony Griffiths]

Most modern cars with front running lights have an option for automatic control of the headlamps. If the switch is not in this position and the light level falls to a level where the automatic system would switch them on (under dense shade, heavy rain, fog, etc), the dashboard lights go out. Some drivers take the hint to switch on their lights; some don't get it.
Does anyone remember "dim-dip"? A British idea where the sidelight setting would switch on the headlights, but through a resistance so they only lit dimly - a sort of primitive running-light set-up. EU law forced the abandonment of this system - and it did have its faults: I once followed an elderly driver at night who slowed down and braked every time a car came the other way. It eventually dawned on me that his car was fitted with dim-dip and the driver had switching to the first light position also put on the headlamps. At the first set of traffic light I went over to him and asked if he knew his lights were not on. "Yes,” he said, "they are, but very dim. I've never had a car with such poor lights." I pointed out the second switch position on his new Honda, he tried it and cried, "Wonderful I've got proper lights now." I went on my way.....

[Chris KC]

Don't get me started. High time someone put the lid on high intensity beams - I'm dazzled by both oncoming and following traffic most of the time now even in broad daylight mid-summer. Then there's people who think fog lights are needed because 'it's a bit grey' when they are queuing in nose to tail traffic...

[Dave Mann]

Back in the 1980s, I think, it became illegal to drive on sidelights at night so that pedestrians could tell the difference between a parked and moving vehicles. Thats all been negated by daytime driving lights now because I see loads of parked vehicles with their daytime driving lights on. On the plus side this is the first year I've been able to drive our RN saloon at night without needing to deploy the rear window blind.