[prince_pervez]

Originally Posted by naren_gs1

2) Vehicle: Vehicles with lower seating arrangement would not be fun to drive due to lights from oncoming vehicles - especially trucks.

I agree. I had a torrid time trying to neglect oncoming truck lights in my zen on NH4. The seating or the height matches exactly with some heavy vehicle head light arrangement enough to throw their light in the face directly. I took a break in Hubli and continued the next morning.

[coolclouds]

Highways are fun to drive on day but City after midnight.
But for Kerala like populated roads, its better to drive only night irrespective of highway/village(?) routes which saves a lot of time.

[IndrojitSircar]

Well i have fun driving very late at night or early in the morning because driving on a road which has no or very little traffic gives me plesure to drive in.

[JackSparrow]

I prefer driving in the night. There is no traffic at night and also it's exciting. But again, driving on roads with no white/yellow marks is really dangerous. If there is a 'u' turn and if you are not aware of it, it could hard to drive. I guess high beam helps in a few cases but I nearly missed a 'u' turn once.

[Hrishiz]

Highways: Day or Early morning
Cities: Night

Our great truckers seems to have thrown the low-beam switches out of their window, not that other vehicles are any bad !!! I avoid highway night driving like dead rat.

Day driving - better light than the best one we get in market. Safer when driven safely.

[sudharma]

Correction.

Originally Posted by Hrishiz

Highways: Day or Early morning
Cities: Night

Our great truckers seems to have thrown the low-beam switches out of their window, not that other vehicles are any bad !!! I avoid highway night driving like dead rat.

Day driving - better light than the best one we get in market. Safer when driven safely.

I prefer driving in day light. Can see a long way, Road signs easly readable, No dazzling lights to blind you and very few sudden surprises like animals appearing suddenly and you can always see the kerb. (As it is a very difficult to see if you are wearing glasses as I do, due to dazzle.)
Also you can see the heavy vehicles broken down in the middle of the road well in advance. As you all know, the warning signs on the road
by these guys are either a few tree branches or some stones. And about 80% of thesevehicles have bo parking lights or brake lights.

[chandrda]

I prefere night driving than day driving.

I do a lot of night driving with my friends who also can drive. We usual leave bangalore around 10 PM and its no stop driving to our destination. Each one drives for around 2 hours and takes a nap in the back seat, so we cover 10 hours of driving between 5 with out any issues.

But we do follow a lot of rules -

1 Front passenger should never sleep when driving, makes the driver also sleepy
2 Take a 5 mins break every 1 hour or so
3 Driver change every 2 hours
4 Maintain a max speed of 80-90 KMPH
5 Plan the route and have route map ready
6 good headlights, spare tyre and other things check and really confident about the vehicle you are driving

Things can go horrible wrong in the day time as well. Visibility is the only factor differentiating day and night driving. But need to consider things like cow, people, cycles, bullock carts, autos, tractors, local buses, pigs, dogs, roadside vendors, rowdy elements not leaving way, traffic, political rallies.. etc in day time.

Night we need to be careful about a lot less things than above. But at the end of the day its about being comfort and confidence about driving either in day or night.

Regards

[MileCruncher]

Having just completed an almost 8K Km drive, I can safely say that I prefer day driving but am equally comfortable with night driving on plains with good to moderate roads. Night driving in the hills is something that I dislike like anybody's business.

[vinaydas]

love driving during the nights,Its got a certain peaceful element to it .
last week drove from 4am in the morning to 4am next morning from Trichur->munnar->thekady->Bangalore the stops were very limited 30 mins for breakfast,lunch dinner and 5-10 mins stop at certain scenic locations +1 hr stop at thekady boat ride.
Apart from that the drive was continuous and i was driving Solo since i was the only one experienced with kerala roads
The best part is i dint sleep the time i reached home @ around 5 am in the morning instead i got ready and left for college (although a lot of backbench sleeping was followed later)

Tip while driving at night :
Listen to your favorite music genre and preferably sing along, well i did sing along pink floyd the whole night till a point where my friends were annoyed .

[shajufx]

Originally Posted by vinaydas

well i did sing along pink floyd the whole night till a point where my friends were annoyed .

I am sure you might have also sang 'Catch me while I am sleeping'.

Night driving is a total NO NO for me. I manage within the city (the familiar roads that I do during the day). City roads are mostly well lit and marked with reflectors, blinkers, linings etc. Early morning drives (before 6am) are a pleasure.

My in-law is just opposite, he takes all his long drives in the night. Somehow he hates the traffic during the day, therefore opts for peaceful night drives. According to him, villages, small towns etc do not exist in the night. But he never goes alone, there is someone who will stay awake throughout, talking or enjoying good music together.

[vinaydas]

in my experience i find sunrise and sunset timings while driving difficult.
complete darkness is much easier to drive in.

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by vinaydas

in my experience i find sunrise and sunset timings while driving difficult.
complete darkness is much easier to drive in.

especially sunset when people turn on their lights prematurely leading to non-visibility of road conditions.

[sudharma]

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

especially sunset when people turn on their lights prematurely leading to non-visibility of road conditions.

As per the reports, most of the fatal accidents on the highways happens between 1200 midnight and 0630 in the morning. Isn't this telling us something?

[issigonis]

Lads,

I prefer daytime driving because of the following :

1. Visibility
2. Help available if required for an unforeseeable breakdown
3. Driving on unfamiliar roads, especially

I will drive at night only on roads which I know like the back of my hand ( these are typically city and suburban roads) as traffic in completely unpredictable in our country ( driving on public roads is all about predictable driving behaviour) .

Whereas traffic thins out in the night, this is true for populated areas and not necessarily true for the highways, where lorries- buses-taxis rush rashly. It is safer not to drive at night if one is alone or if there is/are no co-driver(s).

I'd prefer to start at 6 am in the morning and not start at say, 4-5 am as there could still be sleepy-inattentive-rash drivers about.

Regards

[scorpydave]

Folks,

Daytime driving - Any given day is the best.

Nightime driving - Certainly need to look into some aspects.

On almost 5 occassions, mostly I had the part to drive during nights, Vinay das rightly pointed on listening to your favourite music genre, which really helped me singing along without any strain to my eyes. Ofcourse did take few minutes break in betweens, apart from which all went good.

Need to have a good eye during nights, should know where your vehicle stands while travelling at particular speeds, need to check air pressure on all four tyres, have to surely watch out for those high beam dippers, since there are many of the truck fellas drive with high beams on, don't give way even though you ask for a much clearer visibility, I faced this recently when i've been to Gwalior from Hyderabad, we had travel with so many scratch and potholes on the highway while all through the night from Bhopal to Gwalior, especially as Vinaydas right said, during sunset and sunrise, its kind of irritates your eyes, because as you been driving constantly all through the day and then once you slowly get into that dark phase, it turns so awkward, ofcourse got to have a nice 5 minutes break and a nice refresh splash on the face. One more thing, while overtaking on highways where there is less traffic, watch out for those which does not have Accident prone area hoardings, but look out for those which do not have much zig zag turnings, have to look out for vehicles which headlights fall on the first vehicle appearing you, you can judge that there are some lined up vehicles behind still.

Just be on a constant 70-75kmph on a single highway with not much of yellow and white markings, during nights which can ease your drive.

Happy Night Driving