Do we really need Dippers in India...???

[RajaTaurus]

Oh Dear Bottle, I realy would like to know which place in Chennai it is better... I am driving about 35 kms/day in Chennai and I return home from work at 7 pm everyday and its chaos driving in night within city. You take to highway, things are a bit better, coz, many of the bus drivers and truck drivers do use the dipper on highways when there is on-coming behciles.

Within city, seldom you find a vehcile with dipped lights, which might be self-driving, educated owners like you and me. Thats one in a thousand...

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[RajaTaurus]

With regad to High beam sensor, even if it is fitted on these small slow moving vehicles, our road-side mechanics are smart enough to take 'em off in no time... Then only people like us will be having the sensors, which basically woudn't be needed for us anyways...

[anainar]

Hmm!! Interesting piece! But you guys know what? We were stopped by police at Trinity circle in Bangalore by police. The reason, my brother who was driving had hi-beam on by mistake. He was fined Rs.100 nonchalantly. The funny part is, he had a even more serious offcence of broken number plate, which was noticed because of hi-beam.

But I found drivers in Bangalore to be a lot more courteous. If I signal that they are on hi-beam by flipping the light, general crowd dips and goes to low beam. But there is another breed called IndiCABs. They have their own rules and give two hoots to others.

Nainar

[PVS]

Originally Posted by RajaTaurus

May be ... But, I couldn't help this thread here...
Is there a way to educate these drivers...???

Government legislation seems to be 1 way. At Hyderabad, the authorities are trying to get all the heavy vehicle owners associations together to try and explain the problems faced by other motorists, due to the continuos use of high beams. They are also contemplating black stickers/black paint on the top part of all the headlights. It will be interesting to see if this will be enforced, or will fizzle out.

I believe people consider driving around with 4 headlights (at high beam) and 2 bumper lights/fog lights, a symbol of prestige. This can be a tremendous problem to 2 wheelers on dark highways.

[carboy]

I know about the high beam & low beam. In the US, I think
the norm is to always use the low beam & use the high beam only when
there is poor visibility - i.e. fog, very heavy rain etc? I do the same here
also. What's a dipper? Is dipper another name for low beam?

[RajaTaurus]

Yes. Dipper is 'low beam'. But, its common belief of the uneducated cab and minitruck drivers that HI-BEAM gives better visibility to them and they go ahead and fix extra powerfull lights and many of these auto-trucks and mini trucks have only ON-OFF switch for their head-lights...!!! They really don't need 'dippers' or Low beams as they never use 'em...
This is the biggest problem in the City and suburban driving in nights..

[DirtyDan]

This is probably the single highest contributor to nightime accidents on indian roads.

Drunks and drugged out morons are a bigger night time menace, I think. But lights are surely a problem in India along with the fact that Aishwarya Rai got married to someone who is not me. Oh well, she is getting a little old anyway.

I had a special heavy duty voltage regulator and relay installed in my vehicle to allow me to use a much brighter than ordinary bulb. I also trained my headlights more to the left. This way if anybody night blinds me with their lights I can turn on my high beams and easily illuminate the left side of the road without blinding anybody else coming on. It works pretty good.

[chanapli]

I feel the problem is with the headlamp positioning.
In trucks, the head lamps are fixed well above the total hight of the car.

So does that matter if truck drivers use dip/high?.

I believe in USA, the lamps are kept on the bumber
(even their bumber are low positioned compared to Indian trucks).
that makes small vehicle drivers easy.

wonder if there are any regulations by Govt to automobile manufactures / body builders regarding
positioning of the head lamps.

[Venkatesh.C]

@Rajataurus. Let me put it this way. It is a LOT better nowadays than it used to be. I have been driving around in chennai since 88 (have never used HIgh beam in the city). I have seen worser days in chennai when Hi-beam was the norm. Nowadays it is a lot better within the city. There are stray cabwallas(call taxis and BPO cabs) and MOSTLY bikers who use hi-beams.
So, i would second @bottle that its better (i cant speak for the other states though). Its only in the highways that it is a menace.

I have had friends who did not even know that there is something called a dipper version of the headlight. They kept using the headlight on hi-beam for 2 years before i asked them and they were shocked that they were doing something as bad as using a hi-beam.

[RajaTaurus]

Hi Venkatesh,
I agree it might be better than before. Nevertheless, the way vehciles are swelling in the city (I read that on an average 425 new vehciles per day are registered in Chennai City alone...) and more so, drivers without any knowledge of lights and safety taking to the roads, combined with rash driving to reach faster than others... drains out your patience.
There is no regulation as to the power of headlights, mounting height, usage of hi-beams and dippers and no traffic cop seems to be bothered in Chennai. I read that in other cities they enforce no-hi-beam within the city.
I am driving from T.Nagar to Pallikaranai and I pass thru Velacheri, Vijayanagaram and this road is packed with all kind of vehciles plying for the IT companies in the IT highway.

I am driving nearly blindly (God save me...) on this road, as all those super-Luxury buses with logos of TCS, CONGNIZANT, SATYAM etc, with headlights brighter than the sun, mounted at a height much above the car's view and with hi-beam on your face... Man..! Its a nightmare...

Yes within city limits, most of the places the roads have dividers and we dont realy get blinded by hi-beams. I only hope it improves day by day...

[Ford_madhan]

I am a regular commuter in old mahabalipuram road chennai. Mostly i will leave office around 8pm. One peculiar habit i noticed from the cab and bus drivers is, if they are on the high beam and if you flash the high beam at them, they will simply move the vehicle towards you and make you go to the extreme left. I faced this issue many times and now stopped the habit of flashing high beam at them.

[Venkatesh.C]

agreed. the area you drive through would be only full of high beams. Especially after you cross Lattice bridge (Tiruvanmiyur) Once on the OMR life is hell.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I don't find it good in Chennai. Many drivers use high beam.

This is just one of the many symptoms of dismal driver education, utterly futile 'tests' to get licences, and, above all, drivers who really do not care about another human being.

The fact that bicycles are never lit (and of course pedestrians aren't either!*) and our streets are frequently dimly, or not lit at all, makes an occasional flash of hibeam necessary --- but the priority should be slowing down. Not much chance of that!

*How about compulsory inclusion of highly-reflective safety strips in sari borders?

Venkatesh... sorry, I missed the second page before posting. Very interesting to know you are seeing improvement in this where Chennai is concerned. I have only been driving here for a year or two. But it must have been really bad before, although maybe the available headlights were much less powerful

[nefarious]

Couldn't agree more. These IT buses and cabs are the main culprits.
I drive about 30 km in chennai everyday partly through the OMR and partly through ECR.
Most of the IT buses and cab sumos and Taveras a even fitted with additional lights and all of the lights are turned on along with the high-beam. All one can see is a "celestial body" passing by in the complete darkness of space ! .
The only time they budge and lower their beams is when two of these vehicles come face to face with each other, other poor souls on the road are not so lucky unless you have a row of hi-powered ligts fitted on top of your vehicle.
One of the main reasons for using the high-beam is people attempt to clear the road for themselves by "hitting" others with all lights they have so that vehicles in the opposite direction on a single road moves out of the road and these guys do not need to slow down and give way.

[easyrider]

This is a good thread to debate on this dangerous issue of High Beam.
I avoid most of the time or possible never driving night mainly because of this oncoming highbeam lights. It is just dangerous in highways, where you going at good speed and then you are totally blind (literally), it is all guess work as where the road is. Accidents are just unavoidable in this case. A person on walking on your side might get knocked off or you might end up under a truck parked on highway (NHs are not spared).

Is there somebody in here in TBhp who has some political clout and can influence the regional RTOs are traffic authorities to enforce the dipper use by vehicles. I beg these authorities to do something and help save precious lives.