In case you
missed it, over the last few weeks I’ve been going on about
headlamps -- and now it’s time to sit back and let some readers
weigh in. Lorimer Rutty of Burlington writes, “There are thousands
of vehicles on Ontario roads running both headlights and upgraded
'fog' lights. This amounts to four headlights. It's not much of a
stretch to assume that we do not have an provincial government
interested in administering its own laws regarding the number and
power of headlight lamps. The penalty for such negligence should be
that bureaucrats must drive on two-lane highways from 7 p.m. until
midnight for seven consecutive nights. After they visit their
respective eye doctors, they might think about enforcing the law.”
Allan Rostic of
Niagara Falls believes “headlights, especially on new cars, are
becoming very much brighter. So much so, that I find myself always
wearing a hat at night so I can use the brim to shield my eyes from
the brightness. Sometimes it is very difficult to judge whether the
other guy has his high beams on or not. You drive along a lone
stretch of highway, and ... flash your high beams at a considerable
distance, since you know that as he approaches the lights will only
get brighter. Then he flashes his brights and you are almost
blinded. Some low beams!”
Don Janzen of
Ruthven, Ontario takes up the case: “Are my eyes getting more
sensitive in my old age or are headlights getting brighter? As if
this weren't enough, what's with the morons who insist on having
their fog lights on all the time? Don’t they care how dangerous this
is? SUVs are the worst -- brighter headlights mounted at eye level
plus totally unnecessary fog lights. An acquaintance that drives a
tricked-out Ford Explorer said that paying $50,000 for a vehicle
gave him the right to use all the lights he had, even if it blinded
oncoming traffic. Nice, eh?”
Mike McNeil is
also peeved by the improper use of fog lamps. “Many times I’ve
flashed my high beams at oncoming drivers -- thinking that they have
their high beams on -- only to be responded to by a higher intensity
flash. Why do people have to drive around with their accessory
lights on? I don’t think they forgot to turn them off -- I mean, how
often do we need to use fogs in our climate? Obviously the driver
thinks his car looks ‘cool’ with them. Throw in the added height of
SUVs and trucks and you have a dangerous situation. This situation
is truly aggravating when these vehicles are traveling behind.”
Let’s hand the
baton to Erik Nippak of Toronto: “I do have a beef about the SUVs
that have higher mounted headlights that will shine into regular
cars. I think it's time to readdress this by forcing SUVs to conform
more to car requirements -- such as bumper heights and headlight
placement.”
As for me, I
wonder how we will manage these two opposing forces, namely our
collectively aging eyeballs and the steady escalation of vehicle
lighting. A large number of concerned drivers might convince
governments to act, from streamlining new car requirements to
properly enforcing after-market add-ons. I hear Transport Canada is
working with the U.S. government and the United Nations to harmonize
the height of headlamps on cars and SUVs, but progress is apparently
slow. And what about the combined use of fog and regular headlamps
-- can we realistically require that only one set be illuminated at
a time? Perhaps we need a worldwide automotive summit, bringing
together vehicle and part manufacturers, scientists, engineers and
public officials. Should go smoothly, don’t you think?
Ed Drass
Email the
Traffic Guru at
edrass@nationalpost.com