[srishiva]

Its a welcome move. Hope they move fast on other safety aspects.

What about other vehicles that dont turn on their headlights or they dont repair them when they conk off?
On highways, I have seen tractors without tail lights or headlights moving in both directions.

They need to disable the engine after a few kilometres of these lights going bad giving enough time for them to be repaired

[vinit.merchant]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

All Two-Wheelers are expected to get Auto Headlamps from April 2017 as part of the Safety Measures the Government is planning to implement.

A good rule but how does it help the Indian population?
Half the bikes I see on road have no functional lights.
Auto ON lights will be effective when there are lights working. It is not because the population is lazy to switch it on, but rather lazy/miser to get the non working lights fixed.

Secondly, from the remaining half population of bikers, 50% have their beams at such high angles, they hardly fall on the road ahead. Blinding the oncoming traffic is the only thing they achieve. (Amongst these, I personally find the Honda Dio's to have the worst effect)

OT: Back in the 80's, they had a good rule. Blacken the top half of the headlight. Was implementable then as all cars had protruding round headlights. Nowadays, well, the headlight units are a feet long.

[r.praveen]

Headlights or DRLs during the daytime is a feature that aids awareness of a vehicle in regions that have a slight fog throughout or in regions where the sun shine is dull and insufficient. This is India and the last time I checked most regions in our country have ample sunlight. I do not know how much research have gone into making this proposed rule but as a common user of the road with basic common sense, I feel that headlights are redundant during the day and (as I have many times felt regarding the automobile policy) there are many important issues that need government and traffic authorities' attention.

High beam regulation, adherence to lane discipline, rash riding etc. are some of them. If at all a sensor should be made compulsory in the light of increased safety, I would suggest "Side stand indicator". Some bikes have this but if fitted in all bikes, it will go a long way in preventing accidents-that-are-waiting-to-happen.

[abbyanish]

Originally Posted by GTO

Excellent move! Forget bikes, I even keep the low beam of my cars on whenever I drive on the highway. It greatly improves your visibility to others at junctions, in their rear view mirrors etc.

From my highway safety article:



Just hope someone figures out how to force bikers to keep their tail-lamps on at night. There are too many idiots riding invisible at night.

Yes THANK YOU! Finally someone to throw some light on high beaming - pun intended. Nearly 70% vehicles I pass use their high beam and I believe this is sort of challenge of "Who's got brighter lights" . It is common sense to be used, you 've got to think from others point of view as well as your own safety while driving.

But coming to the topic, I have understood from my time in Europe that using headlights during day tends to put better perspective for the oncoming traffic on how fast the car is moving supposed to cars with no lights. Meaning if the car opposite to you moves with lights on, you'll be able to gauge the cars approaching speed towards you, thereby making you more aware on whats happening in front of you. Hope that makes sense.

[rangan]

A better option would be to have tail lamps running on for all vehicles that move or crawl. Have had too many close shaves in the past with bullock carts, tractors and bikes.

[hybridpetrol]

Great move!

But have you ever noticed that, even at around 6 pm, when the natural light is dim, and you are running with your headlight on (low beam only), and somebody coming from the opposite direction flashes, or points out that our headlights are "unnecessarily" switched on?

It requires a lot of education, otherwise, people are likely to "save their batteries" by disconnecting wires or doing some after market jobs to switch off their headlights.

To quote some examples of how we bypass some important safety measures:
a) In my city, all the buses with doors have some "work" done (such as the doors are tied with thick ropes), to get the extra space for foot board travel. Beats the whole purpose of closing the doors for safety on the move.
b) Most of us wear helmet only in their arms. When they see traffic police in the distance, we would wear it, just to save a few hundred rupees fine.

So, at the cost of our own safety, we would vehemently resist any new safety measure by default.
Our arguments when such a move is launched would be as follows:
a) Can they force implement AHO in older vehicles? Nobody will find out, if I do some modification to switch off headlights
b) Wasting electricity is against our practise. We should switch off lights / fans etc when not in use.
c) First let all the trucks fit their both headlights, fix broken tail lamps, etc.

[ashwin.terminat]

I am glad to hear this.

I am tired of asking the cops here in Bangalore to focus on functional safety aspects like badly focussed headlamps, high beam(menace to society), non working tail lights, amber indicator bulbs replaced with white, blue, green LED bulbs, missing mirrors, missing indicators and so on.

These are critical to the safety of motorists and pedestrians alike. Far more important than checking if the person has a DL, PUC, insurance etc. A person not having a DL but using a vehicle with proper taillights, headlamps, indicators is far more dangerous than a person with a DL but using a vehicle with none of the above.

Also, I would like all bikes to come with DC powered 55/60W headlamps. Headlights are of most importance while negotiating a turn, in the case of AC powered headlamps, this is exactly when the brightness is lowest since you will barely be accelerating. And the 35/35W bulbs on our two wheelers are a sad excuse for brightness I have always felt. Always on DC powered headlamps coupled with always on taillights should greatly improve visibility that is paramount for a two-wheeler. I focus so much on light because while driving, you are mostly deaf to outside sounds due to noise isolation in the cabin. When you are going to enter a intersection with blind turns, you may not hear the honks of other vehicles at night, but you will definitely see their headlights.

One last thing I would love is a standard horn for each class of vehicle. One for bikes, one for cars, one for trucks, etc. That way, it will be far easier to discern what vehicle is behind you and how you will need to respond.

[neelemail]

If at all this would become a norm, personally I would prefer a DRL setup separately like the Halo ring light in RE TBs than the always lit headlamp. Always lit tail lamps would be more relevant to the objective. Always on headlamps would be most suitable only when the visibility is poor aka winter season/foggy condition which would not be more than 2-3 months in a year.

[XD2]

As a practice - I always turn on the low beams on my car/motorcycle in all low light conditions.

In discussions that I have had my peers - the general consensus has been had this feature is not needed in India as the weather is predominantly warmer and visibility is good most time of the year.

Personally, I think the feature is a must have in India - not so much for low visibility weather - but dawn/dusk every single day. There are way too many drivers who will not turn on their lights till visibility goes down to the point which makes headlights necessary. The concept of "making yourself visible" is very hard to explain to most drivers.

This certainly doesn't solve the host of other issues : but is a step in a right direction.

[ArizonaJim]

In the USA, the Department Of Transportation has mandated that all motorcycles that are imported must have their headlight on whenever the engine is running.

This DOT is a Federal branch of the Government which controls what can be imported but it cannot dictate to the States what their laws are. It can only advise them.

Because the DOT laws can not require the individual States to adopt these regulations,most of them have not, leaving the same laws that apply to automobiles to control the issue with motorcycles.

All of the States require the headlight and taillight of all vehicles to be on during the hours between dusk and dawn but most do not require this during the daytime hours.

Because of this "always on headlight requirement" for importation, Royal Enfield has installed a short length of wiring which bypasses the factory headlight/parking light off/on switch.
It keeps the headlight/tail light/parking lights on whenever the ignition key is on but does not have any effect on the High/Low beam and Headlight flasher switches which are left in place on the left hand grip, so these controls can still be used.

There is no doubt that a motorcycle with its headlight on is much more visible to other motorists and an untold number of accidents caused by a driver not seeing the motorcycle has been avoided.
Automobile drivers usually look to see if a car is approaching but they are not looking for a motorcycle so they can look right at it and not recognize it for what it is. Because they don't see it while looking right at it they also don't notice that it is approaching them at a high rate of speed. The bright headlight attracts their attention and (usually) causes them to actually "see something".

For that reason, I always ride with my headlight on however there are times having the ability to turn the headlight off can be beneficial to the motorcyclist.

An example of this benefit is when the weather and motorcycle is cold after being left unridden for long periods of time (like overnight).

Being able to have the headlight turned off at times like this can make the difference between the engine starting and it failing to start.
Also, in the case of a run down or failing battery, turning off the headlight while starting the engine can be a good thing, even with a kick starter.

Because of this, many of the owners of Royal Enfields in the US including me have removed the bypass jumper wire from the wiring harness.
Our headlight on/off/parking light switch now operates just like the ones in India.

Unfortunately, the people in the US who buy Japanese,Chinese and Korean made motorcycles usually don't have this option. There is no off/on switch for the headlight on these motorcycles. (There is also no kickstarter so if the battery is bad they are out of luck.)

[landcruiser123]

More than visibility in the day, this will enhance visibility at night. I've seen so many Auto and 2 wheelers with their headlamps off even after dusk in urban areas.

A claim by an auto driver is that "Olley mileage kodathe sir!" (Auto gives better mileage with headlamps off)

@ Govt: Extend the regulation to Autos too!

[VMehta]

The govt published draft rules regarding Central Motor Vehicles. The rules have not come in force, but are out for comments etc.

I personally feel that it is major step ahead in the right direction.

every two wheeler manufactured on or after the 1st April, 2016 shall have a head lamp, conforming to the performance requirements as per AIS: 010 (Part 1) (Rev 1)-2010 / AIS: 010 (Part 2) (Rev 1)-2010/ AIS: 010 (Part 4) (Rev 1)-2010 and AIS: 010 (Part 5) (Rev 1)-2010, and installation requirements as per AIS: 009 (Rev 1)-2011 as amended from time to time, which shall automatically switch on when the engine is running:
Provided that if day time running lamp, conforming to the performance requirements as per AIS: 012 (Part 10) (Rev 1)-2011 and AIS: 010 (Part 5) (Rev 1)-2010, and installation requirements as per AIS: 009(Rev1)-2011 as amended from time to time, is installed in a two wheeler, it shall switch on automatically if the engine is running:
Provided further that the daytime running lamp shall switch off automatically if the engine is running and the head lamp is switched on.

Layman language :
You get compulsory DRL / Head lamps in your two wheeler. You have to choose between them while driving.

[bikerabhi]

This (AHO) is a case of blind follower-ship of westerners. I remember few years back, it was made compulsory for cars/buses to follow Euro emission norms. Later they found that they are way too strict to follow in India, they invented Bharat norms...LOL...

AHO makes sense in Europe as most of the times they have low visibility due to shorter days and climate is foggy. Also, speeds at which they (even motorcycles) usually drive are above 120 kph which makes visibility an important aspect. AHO improves biker's visibility to car drivers in rare-view-mirrors avoiding accidents due to changing lane by car ahead. In India, we are anyway used to expect other vehicle to change lanes without any indicators

IMO, it is not going to make much difference in many parts of India. Only it could make some difference in northern parts that too in Winters.

[Rajeevraj]

KTM removes the head light switch on all models in India. Low beam and parking light will remain on at all times. No official word from the company yet.

KTM has now added daytime running lights (DRLs) to all its motorbikes in India. Currently, no official announcement has been made but a picture reveals the removal of the headlight on/off switch below the engine kill switch, just above the engine start button. No, there are no cosmetic changes and no LED strip has been added to the headlight, instead the parking light and low beam will remain on at all times, similar to the Kawasaki Ninja 300 and Yamaha R3.

Sources:

• Motorbeam
• Shifting Gears

[girimajiananth]

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