I dare say painiting my car luminous pink would also make it more noticeable-unfortunately, pushing yourself into the limelight has the inevitable effect of pushing everyone else into the shadows so there's no net improvement in safety. In fact, dimly illuminated road users like pedestrians and cyclists become even less noticeable.

The result is an arms race. This is what happened in the USA where every soccor mom tried to buy a bigger SUV than every other soccer mom because of the belief that a bigger vehicle was safer. Since it is impossible for everyone to have a bigger vehicle than average, the average needlessly rises.

If I find my eyes being distracted by headlights in my rear view mirror in the daytime, I usually feel the need to put my fog light on.

No, I'm a naughty lawbreaker who should be shot. Adding illumination only helps when visibility is a limiting factor. In normal daylight, lack of visibility isn't an issue-the issue is lack of attention. DRL does not address this.

If one person walks around with a large letter 'A' stuck to their forehead they would be more noticeable. The simple but eroneous conclusion is that wearing a letter 'A' makes people more visible. The fallacy is exposed when you you then make everyone wear a letter 'A' on their forehead. Once again, strangers blend back into the background.

The point is not entirely pedantic. A lot of drivers are fitting very bright headlights because it makes driving in the dark more convenient. Unfortunately, they do not experience the dazzling effect of these lights. Their added visibility is coming at the expense of everyone else's and this is not a trait that we should be encouraging.

This topic has been done to death before. It seems people hate the DRL law coming in because its an EU one, if the UK Government decided all cars sold in Britain from 2013 have to have them, there wouldnt be as much fuss. In my view, it cant make the roads any less safe can it so why not give it a go? A car with lights on it is more visible than one which isnt, you can forget the semantics and over complicated scientific theoretical explanations the fact is lights make things more visible, end of. Ive always thought it should be law to have your lights on in the rain, on an overcast day, with moderate rain, something like a Grey Golf may take a second look to see sometimes, something like a motorbike maybe even more so, if they just had sidelights on it would solve that. Most people do put their lights on in the rain to be fair but as far as im aware there is currently no law for not doing so, and how do you define rain? Difficult to enforce when the amount required to reduce visibility is a matter of opinion, so to cut out the need for opinion, if all cars are built with lights on anyway it'll take that out of the drivers hands. Still too many people think their lights are to help them see, when in reality just as important is how it makes you visible too.

Ive come across cars with these DRL's, i saw a Golf with them yesterday and although i'd like to think i definatley wouldve seen it without the lights, i know it didnt make the car any LESS visible anyway. To me most of the time it'll make no difference, but if it saves even one life then i suppose it'll be worthwhile. While on one hand i dont like the idea of responsibility being removed from individuals, the fact is theres too many idiots in this country to be trusted with responsibilty, people used to think it was fine to use their phones while driving, and to not wear seatbelts, until laws were made forcing them to stop. If people had common sense those laws wouldnt of been required. But i dont see why anybody is getting out of their tree, its not us who have to do anything, its the vehicle manufacturers job to make sure these things are installed. What does it have to do with us?

On the subject of drivers fitting extra dazzling stupid lights i agree its unneccessary, in my view it should be illegal for people to tamper with lights or to alter them from the manufacturers specification. If it needed light-house style Xenon million watt things then they'd have built the car with them!!

and for info purpose i have incorporated red smd led strips into my rear lights already to aid rear visibility hazy,rainy conditions

Have you actually bothered asking other drivers whether they have difficulty seeing your car, or are you just one of those drivers who think that everyone bar themselves is incapable of operating a motor vehicle? I had hoped that tthe comments might give you pause for thought regarding festooning your vehicle in fairy lights. Clearly not.

What I find really hypocritical is that you will criticise me for selectively using my fog lights to illustrate how distracting extraneous illumination is, but you're planning on adding extra lighting to use all the time!!

Edited by unthrottled on 08/07/2011 at 00:05