[amit_mechengg]

even the taxi walas have the ethics to lower the beams when someone is blinking. but the educated people who dont drive frequently dont even know when to keep high beam and when to keep low beam. infact they dont even know on what beam his car is.especially gals, ladies and older people.
one day i was very much irritated with those bright skoda lights on high beam. i blinked a lot but the guy didnt yeild. what i did was put my high beam and straight away stopped in front of his bonnet, got down and banged on his windows and asked him what the hell is he upto. he kindly said whats the problem. then i told him that why have u put high beams. he said he was totally unaware that his beam is high.

[Torqy]

Originally Posted by rrnsss

I have a set of driving lights 100 W each.

... I have 130/110 as my head lights .....LIGHTFORCE 240 Blitz pencil beam .

...... LIGHTFORCE 240 marine focus light ........a set of Bosch 100 W driving lights mounted on my rear roof.

In the front I have a total of 660 W and in the rear I have 200 W. And a 75 Amps alternator.

@rrnsss......looks like you drive a powerstation with it's own reservoir.



-- Torqy

[SRShrikanth]

Bright red, reflective stickers that scream -

1. Are you Blind. Turn off the damn lights, please.


2. Conserve Energy. Start with your high beams.


3. FREEDOM.....from eye sores.


4. ....Keep it ON.


Lots more that can get offensive as well.

[Sahil]

Full beam blinders make my blood boil, the only solution i have found is Xenons !
Now that i have a car with HIDs, its hard to withstand the powerful beam they emit, most drivers have to succumb. Have often seen driver actually cover their eyes with their hands, which isn't a good thing either.

[sanjaykk]

Education/Awareness is the only way. I remember seeing an Ad in TV (I think by some goverment agency) about the use of high beams. In the Ad a M800 or some small car fellow if blinded by high beams of an oncoming vehicle and ends up blocking the way of the 'offending car.' The 'offending driver' honks continuosly and shouts 'behra hai kya,' to which the small car fellow shuots 'andha hai kya'!!
If a nation can be led to be free of polio and if the concept of 'hum do hamare do' can be propogated by the govt using Ads in TV and newspapers I am sure they can do this as well.

Another idea that comes to my mind is having a these slogans/messages next to traffic lights (along with 'sponsored by' ads).
Maybe the vehicle manufacturers can put up these messages on the car, like they have the message 'Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear'

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

I have Xenons on my 1964 Fiat Super Select (must be the only one). I have set them so that I can see the road and not disturb opposite motorists. One negative of the xenon is that you need supplementary lighting otherwise effectivness in the face of oncoming traffic is not so good.

In new cars, as per the CMVR (Central Motor Vehicle Rules), a 4 position headlight dipper switch is compulsory. I drive alone between Mumbai / Nasik / Pune regularly. I have a new Scorpio and I have kept my headlight switch on position number 3 (max down) and I am very happy with the performance in both low beam as well as high beam.

WHAT IS REQUIRED IS SELF DISCIPLINE.

Further, as far as people who just don't just dip headlights are concerned, I used to get angry at them, now I only pity them for the irresponsible people that they are. It's no use getting all worked up. Let's hope good sense prevails with somebody sometime.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[hellstar]

Now that what io call a pet topic. I have 130W/110W Philips rallye bulbs for my headlamps and normal fog light i use the dipper once or twice , the yank the dipper stalk all the way up and hold it there till i pass the guy. I belive that when i do that all the four filaments in the two H4 Halogen bulbs are activated so thats (2x130+2x110)= 500 Watts of light . 90% of the time the irritant heading toward me in the opposite direction, decides to atleast take a relook at his headlight positioning . But sometimes within city limits SUVs and HCVs do not respond to this treatment but very rare.

As Tadukuttan pointed out earlier i have also noticed that on the highways the truck drivers always respond to a flash on high beam , the guys that you could really be looking out for are the volvos and other passengers HCVs. I have at a time counted upto eight headlamps in one such bus when he was overtaking me on my way from Dharmapuri to Salem. Also after 0300 Hrs on the road a vast majority of the people understand the stress and are well behaved .

[abhibh]

Even though traffic cops are pretty strict in Chandigarh people still drive on HIGH beams. Now thank god i have 20/20 vision so i don't have problem driving.

What it do is. Use dipper 2 - 3 times and if they still don't lower their beam i just change my lane and go straight to theirs and turn on my HIGH BEAM and go back to my lane when there is just 8 - 10 feet difference between our cars.

[vebmetal]

Looks like I opened up a whole can of worms!! Wow - 3 pages in less than a day!


Well some interesting suggestions here though mostly unpractical and some thoroughly dangerous! (Black paint water balloons!! ). I know people who drive into the other car with full beams on. Mostly it does get the message across (especially with HIDs), but it is dangerous. As is swearing / shouting at someone especially in a place like Delhi where people are so aggressive and every other person driving is a gunda (literally).

TV ads would be great, and worth doing. But unfortunately not that effective... after all they regularly advertise and have boards on the roads on how to give way on roundabouts. Yet people behave exactly the opposite. (Anyway that's for another thread! )

How about this, is it possible? - To have a car sticker on the back of your car at least (say above your rear windshield) which is otherwise not visible, but when a car behind you puts on their full beams, it glows. That way you can have a message like "Have some manners. Turn your full beams off." It may not be very effective against *****les, but it might do the trick for people who in good faith do not realize what an annoyance it is to other people.

[krazydriver84]

I totally understand the sentiments overflowing here, I face the same stuff everyday when am travelling on the NH8, from Delhi to Gurgaon. The raod being so well lit, you actually do need beams. In fact i keep my beams switched off, but I guess the so called "educated" drivers think the street lights are useless... and thus put on their full beams. Another thing that i have noticed is that while you are stuck in a jam, people will still not bother switching off their beams let alone the engine. Do they expect, the traffic lights will turn green because their beams are on. Where do these Oxymorons come from? or in fact where have they learnt to drive.

I myself have got pissed off on a number of occasions and have scared some drivers of oncoming vehicles, because they refused to lower their beams.

I think the NHAI should take it upon themselves to put up signboards advising drivers to use low beams.

[anonymous]

What I do is quite simple.
I want to reach home safely and in one piece, so when I encounter this kind of situation, where incoming car is on high beam, I never look at the light, instead I look at the road or other side. If someone is flashing from the backside, I let him overtake.

[bullboy]

what will the poor bikers do ?
end up in potholes and lamp posts .huh?

[phamilyman]

Get an HID - blind the living daylights outta him, and then go back to regular city lights.

[condor]

bullboy : what will the poor bikers do ?

They just have to dip their lights too - from high-beam to low-beam. Most Bikers think that they are blinded (even if they encounter low-beam). They feel they need to use high-beam always, and they just dont understand the need to flash / switch to low-beams.

condor : The high-beam of a bike can be equally disconcerting.

[itwasntme]

Here's my 2 bits: Most of the time, I have noticed that older vehicles have such badly adjusted headlight units and or faded reflectors/lenses that they scatter light all over the road EVEN if they are on low beam. Added to that, their scattered beam makes THEM use high beam and as a result, oncoming vehicles switch to THEIR high beam.

Another irritant is retrofitted unfocused HIDS/Xenons. These kits (i.e. those without the projector) are a complete menace as they project a humungous amount of blinding white light.

Further, headlight adjusting in especially older cars is nearly unheard of. I know some highway drivers intentionally angle 1 headlight directly towards a HCV driver's eye while keeping the other on the road!

How pathetic can this chain effect get? Net net, ordinary drivers with legal well-adjusted lights (and also using the now-mandatory load-levelling electro-mechanical beam adjusters found on all cars) get shafted.

I have moved to Xtreme +80% for just this reason and considering a aftermarket driving/fog light fitting for my Aveo. I also thought of Rallye 130/100s but dropped it due to their illegality.