Day Driving or Night Driving?

[aaggoswami]

I mostly ride bike. Sometimes on highway and mostly in City.
I prefer day driving becasue.
Positive points:
I am able to see the traffic.
Better visiblity in natural light.
Most of other road users know I am on the road. ( Its totally different they dont act in disciplined manner ).
Negatives:
Useless cops and traffic jam, scenes that would give Mental Hospital patients a cardiac arrest.

Night: I dont perfer driving in the night.
Positives:
Excellent situation to test your luck and to know if God persists.

Negatives:
Each and every headlight in high beam or low beam targetting at my eyes.
I cant see road nor pedestrians. Just blinding headlights.
More senseless driving. People are not aware what they are doing. Even hitler knew he was doing wrong thing. But here its really more bad.

[Murugan]

Day driving any Day!

There is no doubt that day driving is safer in every way. Many positives of day and negatives of night driving have been mentioned; I will not repeat them.

Shops, eateries, fuel pumps, service stations etc are always open during the day.

Originally Posted by eclectix 1st

Preferred time would be Day, but am not averse to Night driving as long as the Highway has a divider, separating me from the oncoming traffic.

Forget it - the divider is no protection. Believe me - The number of times I've seen 2 wheelers, lorries and even state transport buses on the wrong side of the divider - ghastly. Some times they are close to the divider (on the wrong side) and on a right curve - you will see them only at the last minute - since the saner among us drive only on the left side of the road in India.

Originally Posted by abhibh

I prefer day driving when driving on highways but on hills i prefer night driving and when i m driving i never feel sleepy.

Originally Posted by kuttapan

If in the ghats, I would pick night driving anyday(except when travelling with family to enjoy the scenery) -

Ghats should be the last place to drive at night (unless it is an emergency). Having to go off-road to avoid anything may mean having to go off-hill! A sure recipe for disaster.

Originally Posted by clevermax

Apart from the disadvantages mentioned against night driving already in this thread, I'd like to add one more:

At night you tend to misjudge the distances of the oncoming vehicles from your car according to their headlight's intensity. A brighter headlight makes you think that the vehicle is nearer than where it is, and a dimmer headlight makes you think it is farther from where it is - this could lead to accidents while overtaking.

Have seen many people including me mis-judge distances of oncoming traffic at night. Fully agree with you.

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

Add to this some of the great people who ride with one of the lights blown. It is usually the right one and they will be traveling in high beam.

Net result, if you are not careful enough, you tend to misjudge the amount of space you have on your right, a perfect recipe for disaster!

Any number of such instances.

I know this is an old joke but once it actually happened to me in the city around 10 PM. A two wheeler rider kept coming for the middle of my bonnet from the opposite direction and I braked rapidly. He had the gumption to tell me that he thought it was two 2 wheelers and he could go in between the two head-lights - no doubt he was drunk to kingdom come.

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

The temperature is cooler-so no A/c,you save fuel and wear and tear of the A/C components.Plus the air is cooler so engine remains cool-No tension of having the car overheat especially while climbing ghats.Also the road surface is not hot...so tyres dont heat up comparitively on hot summer.

Originally Posted by humyum

With 6/6 vision and right pair of prescription glasses night driving anyday. Cool air into the intake,engine at its best,No ac required hence no power loss. Dim,dip and zip.

Forget saving wear and tear of your car - avoid wear, tear AND breakage to yourself, your co-passengers and other road users please !

[sumeethaldankar]

Have seen many people including me mis-judge distances of oncoming traffic at night. Fully agree with you.



Dear Murugan,
When you are not able to judge the distance of the traffic coming from the
other side of the road, what will you do? I think you will probably stick with the
right side of your road.What this will do?It will keep you safe.Now if you were to the driving during day ,won't you be overtaking more than than you would have
done while driving at night. have seen people overtake dangerously at day just because they are able to judge the distance better during day

[shankar.balan]

Day Driving on Highways definitely preferred. Less eye strain especially since our highways arent all that well lit. Plus other traffic violates rules very easily in terms of not having proper lights etc so chances of danger are very high - maybe not your fault but you end up paying the price for someone else's fault.

[khaadu75]

Highway driving during the day -- Hill driving at night !!

[Jeep]

What the hell??? He engaged reverse gear since he dozed off???

I am leaving for Kerala tomorrow evening and will be extra careful. Prefer starting early in the morning however can't do it most of the time

Originally Posted by hellstar

Once while at the Krishnagiri Toll plaza a truck driver who dozed off shifted into reverse gear and accelerated back into me luckily there was no one behind me so i could engage reverse and scramble out of the way of the truck ..just in time ...and this was at about 0330 hrs .

For me night driving is a personal choice .....

[khaadu75]

Originally Posted by Murugan

[



Ghats should be the last place to drive at night (unless it is an emergency). Having to go off-road to avoid anything may mean having to go off-hill! A sure recipe for disaster.



Have seen many people including me mis-judge distances of oncoming traffic at night. Fully agree with you.



]

I wonder why u say that driving in the ghats at night is a sure recipe for disaster ?? Infact driving in the ghats at night is so mich better as you get aqmple warning of oncoming traffic ... Or are you just saying it for the sake of saying it ??

[CR-V]

I prefer night driving.

But my favourite time is between 4-7am
this is the time when it feels like evening just that minus the traffic.
the best time you can accelerate as fast as you want to, as light is there and less traffic.

CR-V

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by CR-V

I prefer night driving.

But my favourite time is between 4-7am...

Same here. The best time to drive. The road are empty and you are fresh, what more can you ask for!

[phamilyman]

Agree with khaadu here. Besides the mind block - you can hear the next soul miles away. Only issue with offbeat destinations is that it can get a bit scary

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by khaadu75

I wonder why u say that driving in the ghats at night is a sure recipe for disaster ?? Infact driving in the ghats at night is so mich better as you get aqmple warning of oncoming traffic ... Or are you just saying it for the sake of saying it ??

Hi Khaadu,

In what way is driving in the ghats at night so much better ?

In fact the way I see it, taking a ghat in the night would make it ..
-Difficult to spot potholes and craters
-You cannot see for sure what is beyond the road should you be forced to go off-road due to an oncoming truck
-Frequently blinded by oncoming Buses and Trucks..
Imagine 2 buses just cross from the opp direction at a hairpin bend, You first have to wait for the blinding effect to fade out.
-The road on a ghat section is never a level road its either a climb or a descend and If you are at a junction where the road goes up and then comes down, at the point where the descend starts you will not have a clear view of the road ahead, cause your headlights will be focussed on the open air. (Until your car actually starts to descend)

[zaks]

Originally Posted by Fillmore

Hi Khaadu,

In what way is driving in the ghats at night so much better ?
-The road on a ghat section is never a level road its either a climb or a descend and If you are at a junction where the road goes up and then comes down, at the point where the descend starts you will not have a clear view of the road ahead, cause your headlights will be focussed on the open air. (Until your car actually starts to descend)

what a nice point you make , like just entering the black hole for a moment. Actually driving in the ghats at night is safer provided you keep the speed limits and you have traveled the route a zillion times.

[Murugan]

Originally Posted by Murugan

Day driving any Day!

Ghats should be the last place to drive at night (unless it is an emergency). Having to go off-road to avoid anything may mean having to go off-hill! A sure recipe for disaster!

Originally Posted by khaadu75

I wonder why u say that driving in the ghats at night is a sure recipe for disaster ?? Infact driving in the ghats at night is so mich better as you get aqmple warning of oncoming traffic ... Or are you just saying it for the sake of saying it ??

I have not said anything just for the sake of saying it.

Fillmore (below) has many answers to your questions.

Originally Posted by Fillmore

Hi Khaadu,

In fact the way I see it, taking a ghat in the night would make it ..
-Difficult to spot potholes and craters
-You cannot see for sure what is beyond the road should you be forced to go off-road due to an oncoming truck
-Frequently blinded by oncoming Buses and Trucks..
Imagine 2 buses just cross from the opp direction at a hairpin bend, You first have to wait for the blinding effect to fade out.
-The road on a ghat section is never a level road its either a climb or a descend and If you are at a junction where the road goes up and then comes down, at the point where the descend starts you will not have a clear view of the road ahead, cause your headlights will be focussed on the open air. (Until your car actually starts to descend)

Also
- Many vehicles travel without lights and some with only one light; you may never be able to even hear them especially if you have the windows up, the AC on and the music on flow (now dont tell me that you should not have the windows up, the AC on and the music on flow when driving! We will gang up and ban you to the stone ages - well, if not that far, atleast to the era where these features were not available on cars - just joking, not meant to hurt anybodys feelings).
- What about animals on the road at night in a curve or a dip in the road? yet to see animals sauntering around flashing their warning lights!
- All the other reasons common to night driving apply to driving in the ghats too.

[sumeethaldankar]

Originally Posted by Murugan

I have not said anything just for the sake of saying it.

Fillmore (below) has many answers to your questions.



Also
- Many vehicles travel without lights and some with only one light; you may never be able to even hear them especially if you have the windows up, the AC on and the music on flow (now dont tell me that you should not have the windows up, the AC on and the music on flow when driving! We will gang up and ban you to the stone ages - well, if not that far, atleast to the era where these features were not available on cars - just joking, not meant to hurt anybodys feelings).
- What about animals on the road at night in a curve or a dip in the road? yet to see animals sauntering around flashing their warning lights!
- All the other reasons common to night driving apply to driving in the ghats too.

Hear the vehicles approaching.. dude is that how you spot oncoming vehicles.. by listening to them coming...well that's funny.
Animals on the road really do not need flashlight.. if you have ever driven at night you might have noticed most animals eyes shine and glow ...looks scary though ...don't stare though...

[phamilyman]

The glass is either half full or half empty. Its all in your eyes.

The same evidence is interpreted extremely subjectively. I am pretty sure that hardly anyone would've changed their stance

Takes experience on either side to believe!