[raj.singh]

Originally Posted by simplyself

True.

Majority of the tail gaters do not realize it. Now it has become less of a concern as cars come equipped with anti glare RVMs.

As for the glare of head lights of oncoming vehicles, there is a way to reduce the effect - one does look into the headlights involuntarily, which amplifies the effect; it is better to focus on the point where one's left head light focusses, or simply, to the left side of the road. It does help a lot.

Agreed, anti-glare or dimming mirrors help, but what beats me is why people first tailgate and on top of that have their high beams on. Why does one need high beams when there is hardly any distance between you and the car you are following ?

There is a nice trick, which my girl friend told me in the US, for telling (to let go off the high beams) the driver tailgating you is by cycling the IRVM between night and day mode. The driver following you can pick this and hence should put his/her headlights in low beam.

[himadrimondal]

Day or Night driving, it depends on a few factors.

Day driving when
1. On a new road, new destination. This involves highways and city traffic and one may stop to ask for directions.
2. With family, day driving is a safe bet.
3. Remote locations in the mountains should always be day drives, its practically impossible to find help at nights.

Night driving when
1. Road is familiar, have traveled multiple times on it.
2. You have a good days sleep.
3. You are dead sure about the performance of the car.

[Swaraj!!]

In India, always prefer night driving. Mostly because of less traffic, and lights usually ensure you dont have to use your RVMs too much.

Sometimes the oncoming HI-beams do cause an issue but in my case I usually pick up a long distance bus or another car going at a decent speed (~90-100 kph) and follow them (without tailgating).

In the US however, it depends. I usually try for day driving if I am in Long Vacation or Sightseeing mode. Night driving is a bit more difficult in US because it is so darned easy to get sleepy in those roads. I have clocked plenty of miles in both cases, but I guess yes, I prefer Day driving in US.

[BinFord]

I prefer early morning (around 2 -3 AM).When I was living in Bangalore I used to drive down to home town at Kerala starting at 2 -3 AM from Bangalore and reaching my home by afternoon 2-3 PM.

But right now I used to do a lot of night driving in the weekend since I moved to Kerala one year back. Starting at 9 30-10 30 PM in the night after my work and reaching home by 12 Midnight. In Kerala it is better to drive at night since you can avoid the 2 wheelers and crazy pedestrians.

Still I prefer early morning drives compared to night driving.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by raj.singh

It gets better when there are hedges on the median but otherwise I don't want to travel at night on the NH 8. I have travelled in the day light and it's a beautiful stretch and one just cruises smoothly on the newly paved highway.

I have also made an interesting observation, mostly car owners are the ones who don't have any idea of using their headlights. I mean truck drivers never use their high beams especially when they are passing any vehicle on the opposite lane. But cars, they will tailgate you with their glaring high beams and it's a double whammy as one is already blinded by on coming cars.

Absolutely spot on. Headlight glare is the single most irritating thing coz of which I prefer to drive during the day. The double whammy is actually a triple whammy as the headlight glare is amplified by the ORVMs and the IRVM. It's all the more painful for people with spectacles.

I always dip my lights whenever I see them reaching the mirrors of the car ahead of me. Yet to come across someone who reciprocates this. :(

Like you said, if there is a hedge along the median and low traffic, then one might just think about going out on the roads during night time. On busy highways, I avoid night driving.

[Haque]

Try to avoid night driving to the extent possible, unless its a short-run to the airport ( i.e familiar territory ).

Reason for the preference:
- Visibility, especially due to high-beam usage.
- Safety - somehow feel comfortable driving during daylight than night.

[rhuturaj]

I only prefer night driving on highways as its the most safest compared to day driving. In a day you have to be always judging all the subjects on the roads which are completely unpredictive at different situations. So the chances are more of banging into each other.
Night drives are stress free, focussed, cold temperatures and only two or three types of subjects i.e. trucks, buses and few cars.
For people on 2 lane highways @night when overtaking, keep the dip light's top edge focus bordering on the rear tyre/bumper of the vehicle ahead, give first flash, mostly the vehicle ahead of you will give you side, speed up and give the second flash just when you are 10 meters and overtake. I can guarantee you, anywhere in India if you follow this, you will royally overtake 90/100 trucks on the road.

How will this work?
1. You are respecting the truck driver by not honking and asking for side in humble manner, you did not stress on his eyes by flashing early or too much when you are close behind.
2. Most of the truck drivers are drunk in the night, due to heavy stress in the proffession, but they can certainly drive it for hours if not disturbed by other vehicles, handling that three times costlier truck than your car which is a heavily loaded vehicle with minimest traction control, limited acceleration and power, stiff body movement and most importantly less space on the highway to handle the truck leads to lot of confusions, and on top of that other car drivers abuse them, ask sides out of sudden, forcibly overtake them as they are fast leads to most of the accidents in nights.
A truck driver knows any situation on a highway anytime better than us because he has been driving slow to save accidents and has observed the highway more intensely which we dont do cause we are mostly surrounded by airbags in those fast luxury machines.
You will double up your vision in the night if you respect that other vehicle ahead, he will surely try to tell you if you are overtaking him when there is something in curves and hilly areas on the road which might cause trouble to you, can cost life as well.

[Sommos]

Fully agree with you Rhuturaj.

Contrary what many of my friends and relatives say I have personally observed that most of the truck drivers drive safely and follow the rules while driving on the highways at night. And if you follow the rules and do not hurry unnecessarily to overtake the trucks, they respect you and give way at the first possible oppurtunity.

One must keep in mind that the loaded lorries cannot be manoeuvred so easily and you need to give then time to change lanes.

[rhuturaj]

These truck drivers have helped me a lot in the Ghat Sections on the steep turns, curved slopes and even if some cattles were present in the night sometimes.
Vehicles coming from opposite to you are equally scarred to cross you, confidence arises from better headlights to them, ask with a single flash, should dip it in 3 secs, if not then switch on the right indicator for 20 secs with a dip light, he will dip the lights or he will slow down for sure. Also when doing this have a glimpse of that long stretch with the opposite vehicle's light on the road. You will find yourself more confident in crossing without much worry.
Anyways these are my ways of crossing but things do differ at various situations.

[Koenigsegg220]

I always prefer early morning driving instead of night driving, if day driving is not possible.
I will wake up at 4 and start driving by 5 in the morning. I found this to efficient because:
1.Early morning traffic is always very less even when compared to late night.
2.You feel fresh that day, because you get to see sunlight, and by the breakfast time, one could easily cover 150kms
3.Since most of the times, the destination will be less than 500 kms, one could easily reach the destination by noon.
4.So there would be ample amount of time remaining on that day, which one can use to do the work associated with traveling to that place.

[carrerastrax]

Previously, I always preferred to drive during the day. But, from the last 2.5-3 years, I've slowly started to prefer night drives. My home is an 800 kms drive and it's done 7-8 times in a year. Only 25 kms of the distance is not on the 4 laned GQ. Over thee last few years, I've noticed that the highways are increasingly being encroached by settlements and burgeoning suburbs.

Now with these settlements, there's a lot of autos/ tata ace buses etc. that hop from town to town. And this lot insists on driving on the wrong side of the road. These pose a greater danger as the shoulder is not wide enough to accommodate them. I once had a close shave - was in the right lane cruising and there was traffic ahead of me moving at similar pace. Suddenly, a truck on the left decided to move into my lane without any notice or time to adjust. It was so sudden that my reflexes started the final prayers to the almighty for the good life. I was able to stop with a couple of inches away from the truck on the left and the divider on the right. The truck jumped because of the auto on the wrong side. The truck driver did wait for the traffic ahead of me to pass. He could've warned me, but didn't. It couldn't be the case that he noticed the auto at the last minute because there were no exits from the highway.

It pains me that our society is being built around roads these days, while historically religious centers (temples, churches, mosques etc.) were the town centers. Decadence, maybe? With such trends, we may not be left with highways in the future. I feel that the authorities should restrict the highway for high speed travel alone and not allow settlements along the highway. Once it starts, speed breakers, signals start to find their place. Eventually, a bypass route will be the need of the day. All of this could be avoided if they left the highway as it is. Maybe this can be a separate thread, along with another questions that I have; why should we pay toll for roads that are incomplete...?

[satrab]

Completely agree with you carrerastrax. It's far safer and less stressful if one drives at night. The trucks also go to the left lane as they feel that small traffic won't be there at night.