Just saw another one tonight. I think a lot of the blame has to go to the engineers who thought lighting up the dash automatically was a good thing. It ends up fooling the drivers into thinking their headlights are on when they're not.
I tend to see 2 or so a night if i drive all night.....can be kinda scary if the taillights are covered in dirt, so the reflectors don't work well, and the drivers are going slow....
In another life time back in the 50's I was a young LEO in the suburbs of Detroit. Our squad cars were equipped with hand held, plug in spot lights. My pet peeve also was people driving with bright lights. After I flashed them once with my car headlights and they didn't respond accordingly a swipe across their windshield with the spot light got dim lights instantly. Probably not the proudest thing I ever did but I suspect the recipients would rather I do that than give them a traffic ticket.
^^^ I used to do the same thing when working for Dominos in high school with a 1,000,000 power hand held spot light. I used the light for finding addresses... :ihih:
Warning an old fart rambling on..... Many years ago (35 or so) I was out in my rally car with a friend doing checkout out for a rally we were putting on. I had a set of Cibie headlight conversions & compared to the other cars on the road with sealed beam headlights mine were whiter & brighter. I'm coming down a state route when this arse coming the other way gives me his high beams. I give a quick flash back a couple of times & he keeps his high damn beams on. I think OK you farker & give him a a taste of all my lights, 4 Super Oscars with 100 watt bulbs plus high beams with 100 watt bulbs. I left them on to burn his retinas. My friend & I were laughing so hard. Right up to the point he turned on his lights on the roof. Yep a Ohio State patrol car! Oh carp!!! At that point I knew I was screwed big time. So being young & somewhat dumb I figured I'd hang a left down the next dirt road. Turns out it was on the rally route we were using anyway. With my Buddie calling out the turns on the route sheet I beat it down a bunch of dirt roads to evade the trooper. When we were done driving the course I pulled over & removed the Super Oscars in case I came across that trooper on the way home. Oh to be young & dumb again.
Okay, so being on another end of this conversation. I'm okay with anyone using bright brake lights in the rear of a car. That being said, What I hate is those a$$wipes that use their DRLs in the rain with ZERO rear lights. You never see them until it's too late. manufactures need to do something about it and soon. My wife did it, and I showed her that her rear parking lights never come on when using just DRLs. I also think the switch is an issue. No one uses parking lights they way they were intended. Make them all be on or off at the switch. Until manufactures put auto lights on all cars, we are all going to deal with idiots!
Some folks know how to use their light properly, but they are in the minority it seems. Ones that get me are the ones who turn on their fog lights front & rear no matter what the conditions. I swear some turn them on the day they buy their car & never turn them off again.
Right after high school, a buddy and I built a racing Mini. We were moving it from where we built and installed the engine to where we where going to do the body work. The car had no licence plates, glass, headlights, tail lights or interior, other than a pair of racing seats and it was eleven O'clock at night. We where hauling butt down a twisty road when we saw a state police car going the other way. The cop did a U-turn and turned on his flashers. We kept going and soon lost him in the curves. We turned off the main road and up the back entrance to the high school. Having gone to that high school. We knew of a space inside a clump of ornamental trees where kids went to smoke. We drove the Mini into that clearing and shut it down. After an hour, we drove the car to the other shop, which was about a mile away. We didn't see the cop again.
So your lights didn't bother anyone. Father Lucas FTW. :wink: I think we all have some dumb stuff in our histories.
I swear there are some people running rear fog lights on who have absolutely NO IDEA their car is equipped with rear fogs. Or even that rear fog lights exist. Part of that is that some cars turn on the rear fog lights automatically when the front fog lights are switched on (which makes sense if you are using the front fog lights like a European driver would -- only during fog!)