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Having family connections in Denmark my wife and I have spent twenty years driving across Europe and can safely say that the Scandinavian model of having your lights on 24 7 is the best law imaginable and why it hasn't become law in this country is difficult to understand. The UK is virtually on the same latitude as Denmark and the benefits of see and being seen is a no-brainer.Just lately with dark early- evenings low cloud fog and wet roads casting shadows making visibility far less reliable. Next time you are out on the road just try and take in the benefits of being able to see much easier than you would if you didn't and the car coming towards you didn't and you may take my point.

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Except if you can't see a car which is around a tonne of metal during the day then having lights on aforementioned car isn't going to help. In fact you need to consider that there are other users of the road who don't stand out, like cyclists, pedestrians etc, who will be even harder to see if cars have their lights on all the time.

 

Actually I think it's a daft law, and actually it's not safer to drive in Scandinavia than here:

 

Accidental road related deaths per billion km driven:

UK - 3.6

Norway - 4.4

Sweden - 3.5

Finland - 4.8

Denmark - 4

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DLRs are compulsory on new cars all over Europe including the UK.

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Also I'd say the best law imaginable is: Do NOT murder, but each to their own.

 

Or better still: Don't be a dick. That'd be a great law.

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I do tend to drive with headlights on 24/7. The car has automatic lights but there are times when it isn't quite dark enough to trigger them, but I'd like them on. And they turn themselves off anyway when you lock the car so no danger of the battery going flat :)

It became a habit after driving my partner's van with DLRs.

Headlights can be useful to other drivers when there is a restricted view e.g. by parked cars near a junction.

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DLRs are compulsory on new cars all over Europe including the UK.

 

Picking hairs, on new types of cars from 2011. If you are buying a new car that was type approved before then it still doesnt need one apparantly to my surprise. I dont think though there are many that fit that description still on sale.

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Judging by the numbers of cars I see driving in dense fog (like this morning over snake pass), and in the actual dark (at 7pm today), without any lights at all, any kind of law requiring lights being on would be a waste of time.

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Far too many drivers out there who believe the only reason that cars have headlights is so that they can see where they are going. And don't get me started on indicating :P

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Far too many drivers out there who believe the only reason that cars have headlights is so that they can see where they are going. And don't get me started on indicating :P

 

Exactly put. I do tend to drive on sidelights only, during the day unless visibility is really poor. As for indicating I think some drivers think that they are there for telling you what they have just done, instead of what they are about to do, if they can be bothered at all.

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Judging by the numbers of cars I see driving in dense fog (like this morning over snake pass), and in the actual dark (at 7pm today), without any lights at all, any kind of law requiring lights being on would be a waste of time.

 

All modern cars will have DLRs by default. Give it another decade and you'll hardly ever see a car without DLRs.

 

And automatic lights are becoming more common, both our cars now have an auto setting, we just leave it switched to that all the time.

Edited by Cyclone
Fixed it Obelix

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Exactly put. I do tend to drive on sidelights only, during the day unless visibility is really poor. As for indicating I think some drivers think that they are there for telling you what they have just done, instead of what they are about to do, if they can be bothered at all.

 

Except on roundabouts where indicators are used to show that the driver is coming off at the next exit, or the one after, or maybe the next one.

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All modern cars will have DLRs by default. Give it another decade and you'll hardly ever see a car with DLRs.

 

Ahem :) Without ?

 

And automatic lights are becoming more common, both our cars now have an auto setting, we just leave it switched to that all the time.

 

Which are rather marvellous. I had to think hard where the headlamp switch in my BMW was as I'd not touched it for a few years.

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