People driving cars with sidelights on – why?

Driving to work today, it was generally a bit dull and drizzley so I put my headlights on, as did most of my fellow commuters.

Some just put their side-lights on. Why? If you think you need to be lit up to be seen, then stick your headlights on. Sidelights are the lighting equivalent of trapping a glowworm in a jam jar. Why would you think “ooh, I need to be lit up, but not too much”? I don’t understand…

I think it used to be the recommendation in the highway code for those conditions, may still be.

Saves petrol…

Probably day running lights rather than sidelights on newer cars.
They come on automatically so you don’t get the option of sidelights. If that’s the case, they’re probably the people who didn’t bother putting their lights on at all!

You noticed they had their sidelights on? So they were more visible than if they didn’t have them on? Sidelights are for dull conditions, headlights for dark.

End of thread?

Sidelights seem to be an outdated logic. Not sure what the highway codes says about them these days, but they used to be recommended dawn and dusk, in lit up areas and parked up? Something like that.

They’re a waste of space really.

double post 😳

113
You MUST

•ensure all sidelights and rear registration plate lights are lit between sunset and sunrise
•use headlights at night, except on a road which has lit street lighting. These roads are generally restricted to a speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h) unless otherwise specified

115
You should also

•use dipped headlights, or dim-dip if fitted, at night in built-up areas and in dull daytime weather, to ensure that you can be seen

That’s clear then, you can drive at night with no lights on street lit areas (generally 30 zones, so that’ll be a built up area) except in built-up areas where you have to have your lights on at night…

Anyway, dull daytime weather = headlights.

Rain will generally have me with headlights on and ‘a bit dull’ (dimpsy was the word my driving instructor made up) will have me with side lights

(i now have DLR’s anyway so its pretty acedemic!)

If you’re 18 and drive a Citroen Saxo or Vauxhall Corsa, driving around with your sidelights and front foglights on (but no headlights, big no no) apparently makes you look cooler than a polar bear’s paw, impresses womenfolk everywhere and adds at least 50BHP to your car’s power.

I have to admit I do this by accident sometimes. I drive pretty much everywhere with my lights on it’s just a habit, and the switch is a bit sticky so sometimes not all the way on.

You noticed they had their sidelights on? So they were more visible than if they didn’t have them on?

No, generally I noticed that they didn’t seem to have any lights on at all, and then realised, on closer inspection, the pathetic glow of the sidelights.

Sidelights are for dull conditions, headlights for dark.

Not, it would seem, according to the Highway Code.

Sidelights are for when yo are parked. If you need lights then it shlould be headlights

As ever ( 😉 ) TJ is right.

The highway code changes, how many people have actually read it since passing their tests?

I am more worried about drivers sat in their cars seething about the minor discrepancies of others than sidelight users.

anyway acording to the AA

Motorists must use sidelights between sunset and sunrise and headlights at night (between half an hour after sunset and half an hour before sunrise) on all roads without street lighting and on roads where the street lights are more than 185m apart or are not lit. Motorists must;

use headlights or front and rear fog lights when visibility is seriously reduced, generally to less than 100 m,
use dipped headlights at night in built-up areas unless the road is well lit,
use headlights at night on lit motorways and roads with a speed limit in excess of 30 mph.

Sidelights are for dull conditions, headlights for dark.

End of thread?

If a completely incorrect statement signifies the end of a thread.

Then, yes.

End of thread

People probably don’t do it for this reason but loads of people who drive about really are very blind indeed, especially around dusk and dawn. Side lights provide enough light in these circumstances to be able to see the cars.

All extra visibility is good

I am more worried about drivers sat in their cars seething about the minor discrepancies of others than sidelight users

Not seething, just wondering. It justs seems to be a really strange decision; to consciously choose to be a little bit less lit up than you could be, when there’s no disadvantage to being as lit up as you could be.

What always amazes me is that if its foggy 7/10* cars/vans without lights on will be white

* based on official statistics

It’s a lot easier to see vans stationery in the outside lane alongside a lane of queueing traffic if they have their sidelights on

I tend to leave my sidelights on most of the time as it also lights up my dash which can be quite hard to make out when shaded and not lit. The dials are recessed at the bottom of some cylinders so are often shaded.

While they may lack practicality they make up for it in aesthetics 😕

dimpsy was the word my driving instructor made up

no – that’s westcountry terminology beuy! 😆

dimpsy was the word my driving instructor made up

Did he also spend much time slaying Jabberwockies whilst “`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe”?

Sidelights are for being seen by, headlights are for seeing with. If you don’t need lights to see where you’re going just put your sides on. But then if all the morons put on their headlights your sidelights get drowned out in a sea of light.

when there’s no disadvantage to being as lit up as you could be.

There’s a few disadvantages. It makes cyclists harder to see as they can’t lump around 55w spotlights too easily and it wastes fuel. On my car it also pops up the headlights which spoils the lines of the car 😀

It would save a lot of this if they were referred to, as in other countries, as “parking lights” rather than “sidelights”.

I agree with the logic that if you think the conditions warrant lights, then it should be dipped headlights if you’re moving.

Coffeeeking – sorry – headlights are to be seen by as well. Sidelights are for parking not for use in poor visibility when driving

I agree with the logic that if you think the conditions warrant lights, then it should be dipped headlights if you’re moving.

Doesn’t make any sense. You’re not less visible because you’re moving – so if you just want to be seen rather than need to see the floor, use your sides.

Coffeeeking – sorry – headlights are to be seen by as well. Sidelights are for parking not for use in poor visibility when driving

Disagree, no need to be sorry.

This thread is the pinnacle of Wednesday excitement.

Sidelights are for being seen by

Yes, when parked at night.

On the road, on a dull, drizzly, dimpsy (apparently) morning, you might as well light two candles and stick one on the dashboard and one on the parcel shelf for all the use sidelights are.

I do tend to agree with the OP – there is no real need for side lights and dipped main beams – if you need to be seen then you may as well put on your dipped beam and be sure people can see you.

This thread is the pinnacle of Wednesday excitement.

Don’t get carried away, it’s still warming up 🙂

My car’s the same colour as the road, sidelights always on.

And putting the lights on makes the dashboard/buttons light up so I can pretend I’m a pilot.

If cars were all in high viz vellow we’d have to have a lot less of this driving around with sidelights crap

I was going to put something similar to coffeeking, along with the same people who can’t see side-lights probably campaign for badgers and hedgehogs to be issued with appropriately sized hi-viz jackets, so that there reflections are more visible in the black mirror of the iphone that they’re gawping at rather than looking out the windows for potential hazzards.
Then I imagined the resulting interminably long and dull thread with people getting really shouty about when does drizzle become rain, how dull is dull and numerous other points of tedious pedantry.
So I deleted it 😀

“deleted” in the sense of “posted it”?

Then I imagined the resulting interminably long and dull thread

We’re way ahead of you man

Yes, when parked at night.

On the road, on a dull, drizzly, dimpsy (apparently) morning, you might as well light two candles and stick one on the dashboard and one on the parcel shelf for all the use sidelights are.

I’ll take the “blind drivers” tack a little further.

Why is a car parked on a road (30, maybe 40 limit road) and you driving at it [the point where you think it’s right to use only sides] any diffent to a car driving along the road at 30-40? It’s no less visible and weather affects it no differently to the moving vehicle.

If you struggle to see cars with sidelights on I suggest you may wish to inform the DVLA.

Coffeeking – highway code disagrees with you

You MUST

ensure all sidelights and rear registration plate lights are lit between sunset and sunrise
use headlights at night, except on a road which has lit street lighting. These roads are generally restricted to a speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h) unless otherwise specified

You should also

use dipped headlights, or dim-dip if fitted, at night in built-up areas and in dull daytime weather, to ensure that you can be seen

I can’t disagree with that evidence, but I still think it’s nonsense (and probably added to nod towards the EU who wanted DRLs to be compulsory), however I still don’t see the point – if sides are visible on a stopped car in dull light they’re visible on a moving car in the same light.