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this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
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In defense of most drivers, it isn’t their fault. Most drivers, myself included, often don’t know how to use headlights safely and in fact, smart headlights are not accounted for in the US. Meaning that on highways you can either have brights on and see things, but piss people off, or you can go without them and be in constant danger between those
What’s worse is that US law, afaik, does not let you drive with your brights on when incoming traffic is present. The result is that you’re forced to outrun your headlights on most highways in the US AND a lack of headlight regulation has led to LED headlights blinding drivers constantly. US driving visibility is awful and it makes our cars death traps.
Yes it is their fault! The solution is incredibly simple and taught right at the beginning of driver's ed: it's called SLOW THE FUCK DOWN.
Absolutely fucking not. Nobody is "forcing" you to do 55 fucking miles per hour in the middle of the goddamn night just because that's what the speed limit sign says when your headlights only have enough throw for you to safely do 40 (or whatever). You do the fucking 40!
IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND, COMPREHEND, AND FOLLOW THIS RULE, YOU ARE A NEGLIGENT DRIVER. END FUCKING OF!
And while I'm at it, I'm gonna go ahead and reiterate: it's not about other vehicles, and what lights they may or may not have has absolutely fuck-all to do with it! Maybe there's a disabled car with a dead battery (lights not working) in the middle of the road. Maybe there's an animal -- or a human! -- lying in the lane. Maybe there's a big-ass fucking boulder in the way, either because of a landslide or because it fell off a landscaping truck. Maybe there's a flood or a sinkhole and the road itself is gone!
Overdriving your headlights -- under ANY FUCKING CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOVER
is as absolutely catastrophically irresponsible as high-off-his-gourd Tony Shaloub in Galaxy Quest: "It's pitch black out there! Is there road?! You don't know!"
If there are other cars going in the same direction on a 55 mph highway, the other lights do "combine" and allow you to see much farther then your own lights alone.
Okay and that’s cool and all but what you’re saying won’t change anything. What needs to be changed is speed limit signs, headlight technology, signage, and drivers ed. Most people are not taught how to check visibility in drivers ed at all. Most I was given is the 3 second rule but that’s about it.
I’m not saying this takes the blame off of drivers entirely but as an engineer that’s what I want to do when searching for solutions. Reason for that is that changing people is by far more costly and less effective than anything else we can do. That’s why things like trains and buses and planes will always be superior to a highway. You don’t need the people inside to know or do anything at all.