[architect]

Typically I avoid driving at night, but it's not an absolute no-no. However, I have found myself quite alert between 10.00 PM and 03.00 AM. So during my last drive to Rajasthan, I did nearly 600 km of night driving, alone, as usual.

The first stretch was Chomun-Bikaner (almost 300 km) which I did in the evening from 6.00 to 11.30 PM and I was pleasantly surprised that once you get used to high beams, it is actually easier to drive at night, as long as you are alert. The simple reason is because there are less things to worry about. Very few pedestrians, animals, tractors, two-wheelers and bicycles. Most importantly, the villages are empty.

After spending the day in Bikaner, I decided to drive down to Sambhar Lake overnight. Did 300 km in 5 hours (11 PM to 4 AM) between Bikaner and Rupangarh over State Highways. I was lucky because the State Highway between Nagaur and Didwana was so narrow that with hardly any oncoming vehicles, I was actually faster than the day time.

If you are alert and reasonably confident of the safety on the road and reliability of your vehicle, I would suggest giving night driving a shot.

[abhayshanu]

Completely agree with this.
Once about a year ago, me, my mom, my cousin sister and my cousin sister left for Nanded at around 12 pm and i covered 280 kms by 630 and more 350 by 2 am, the roads were empty and very few trucks, the only problem two problems i faced were lack of locals to guide to our destination and lack of 24/7 fuel pumps, and during that time pumps were giving 10Lt of fuel to everyone as there was lack of it. After reaching there we rested and did the work and left for shirdi at around 2 am and reach at 6 am sharp, this was the easiest the the least troubling ride in my life till now. There was almost no traffic, i must have crossed 5 trucks max till 5 am.
Overall because of the small non lit inside roads i could use my beam and only the useful part of the road was lit, there were no distraction except for this 1 dead drunk guy, so now i know why truckers drive at night

[KSM-Vtec]

Originally Posted by sudharma

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?

Will be great if you can share such reports. i am sure there would be reports on accidents happening during the day also.

People tend to speed up more during the day as compared to the night and that leads to a good number of accidents during the day as well.

[rkbharat]

Originally Posted by sudharma

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?

What reports? I am kind don't agree on this. Can you please share the source?

[Swordfish]

I prefer Night drives what so ever. I guess its mostly because I plan my trip that way - Friday night start after office and start back on Sunday afternoon if its a 300-400km distance. If longer than that, early morning start is what suites me best. But otherwise, I am very comfortable with night drives since I started long drives long ago on my pulsar 180. Its just that a little more attention is required. I normally follow a vehicle if driving on a bike keeping some distance just in case.

When it comes to 4wheels, I stop during the sunset and sunrise times where the headlights wont be affective.

I always have a good music collection for a long drive, even for night drives, I just make sure I dont put-up a lot of sound and be in a situation that you cant hear a horn from behind or from a oncoming vehicle.

[sudharma]

Originally Posted by rkbharat

What reports? I am kind don't agree on this. Can you please share the source?

Just search for "Night Driving" on the internet and you will get hundreds of relevant reports. You can go through them and come to your own conclusion.

I am including couple of extracts from such reports here.

1)
Driving improvements to night vision
In a bid to reduce the annual death of more than 50,000 people and the countless severe injuries on Europe’s roads, future onboard night vision systems have been developed that highlight unexpected obstacles and improve driver visibility.

The system, developed by a team of carmakers, automotive suppliers and university researchers under the IST programme’s EDEL project, is expected to increase safety by highlighting unexpected, sudden events; improving visibility of road signs; assisting drivers on unknown roads and the timely detection of obstacles invisible to the human eye under night driving conditions.

The 30 per cent of road accidents that happen at night involve half of the people killed on the roads. Darkness is a major risk factor: while drivers travel just 28 per cent of their miles at night, 55 per cent of all motor fatalities occur after sunset. Ninety per cent of a driver’s reaction depends on vision, which is severely limited at night. Depth perception and colour recognition are also compromised after sunset. Other dangers besides reduced visibility include fatigue, drowsiness, blurring of peripheral vision and impairment in judgement of distances and movements.


[The numbers behind these statistics do not reveal how many accidents occurred because of lack of visibility at night, but introducing an effective and easy-to-use system to enhance the driver’s perception would help prevent accidents and ultimately reduce fatalities and injuries for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. For example, a pedestrian wearing dark clothes is only visible at a distance of 100 feet to a driver using low beams

2)
Official accident and traffic density statistics on Swedish highways were used to compute the relative risk (Odds Ratio - OR) of being injured or killed in a traffic accident at different times of day. After removing accidents due to alcohol 10344 accidents remained for computations, and the period 10:00h-11:00h was used as the reference pointThe highest total risk was seen at 0400h (OR=5.7, Confidence interval = 5.6-5.8), with an OR of 11.4 (Ci=10.3-12.5) for fatal accidents at the same point. The same pattern was exhibited by single vehicle, head-on, and "other" (e.g., turning off the road) accidents, whereas overtaking and rear-end accidents did not show clear 24 hour patterns. Retaining alcohol-related accidents approximately doubled the nighttime peak for total accidents. During the winter, the peak of total accidents occurred at 03:00h (OR=3.8, Ci=3.5-4.0), five hours before sunrise, whereas the summer peak occurred at 04:00h (OR=11.6, Ci=11.3-11.9), shortly after the early summer sunrise and with consistently higher nighttime risk than for winter driving. It was concluded that early morning driving is several times more dangerous than driving during the forenoon. Apart from alcohol the effect seems related to sleepiness, but not to darkness.

Also see the attached Doc file.
These rep[orts are of developed countries, Think about our highways.

[phamilyman]

Those are all good statistics - but not from India. Fact is that one needs to get out there to realize that with good lighting - night driving is more efficient and safer than day driving.

If you ever come to delhi, I'd be glad to take you on a midnight drive and a day drive to illustrate my point

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Those are all good statistics - but not from India. Fact is that one needs to get out there to realize that with good lighting - night driving is more efficient and safer than day driving.

If you ever come to delhi, I'd be glad to take you on a midnight drive and a day drive to illustrate my point

Agree with this that Night Drives are much more efficient. You can cover much greater distance without much traffic. Atleast jokers onfoot, cycle, 2 wheelers, autos are absent during the night.
But yes Night Driving would be much better if people understand to dip their lights.

I find the twilight time the most dangerous for driving.

[sudharma]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Those are all good statistics - but not from India. Fact is that one needs to get out there to realize that with good lighting - night driving is more efficient and safer than day driving.

If you ever come to delhi, I'd be glad to take you on a midnight drive and a day drive to illustrate my point

The topic was Night Driving on Highways. Night Driving in Cities are a different story.

Agree that the report was for European countriies. Do you mean that our indian highways are much better than that of the developed countries?.

As long as Riders and Drivers don't change their mind set, Accidents will keep rising on our Highways.

I feel that irrespective of the countries where the research has been carried out, the findings are applicable to all drivers and riders alike.

Please see the attached research report on:- " Extended night-time driving actually ups risk of accidents ".

Very informative report.

[architect]

Agreed that the statistics saying night driving is dangerous are equally applicable for any place in the world except Antarctica in winter and the Arctic in summer.

But the point everybody is trying to make is that if you factor in the "jokers" on foot, bicycles, bullock / horse / pony / camel / donkey carts, motorcycles and even home-built vehicles doing all sorts of crazy things on the road, then the chances of accident on the highways in the daytime increase drastically as well.

I am not saying accidents at night are any less than what they are. Your chances of getting medical aid are way lesser as well. But still, I do find it much more stress-free.

[majumon]

Night drive would be a stict no no unless there is an emergency or if you are in the company of men among whom atleast one would stay awake with the man behind the wheel.

Also drive at night only if the roads are familiar and you know every turn/blind spot.

Another risk is that invariably however cautious we are, there could be so many wearied truck driver who are really tired and at a point of time between 3 and 4 everyone's eye may close for a few milli seconds which may prove fatal for either.

[MX6]

Day or night doesn't matter. I drive anytime as long as I'm not tired. Each has it's own pluses and minuses and as long as I'm behind the wheel, the minuses seem to disappear from my mind. When I enjoy my drive, day disappears in to night and night in to day. Cheers!

[coolclouds]

I feel that those who are not used to night driving feel tired especially between 4-6am. I personally know few accidents happened during wee hours and the (village) drivers were tired and used only to day driving/very short night drives. Similarly, some call centre/BPO cab drivers also says that they feel sleepy mostly on this time as they don't get proper sleep any time.

90% of my long drives are alone in the night but always I planned my start time so that I reach destination before 5-6am max after which me too feel uncomfortable.

[watashi75]

I don't understand how people can enjoy night driving. Half of the joy of driving stems from the fact that you get to enjoy the sights!

[jagan0677]

Originally Posted by architect

But the point everybody is trying to make is that if you factor in the "jokers" on foot, bicycles, bullock / horse / pony / camel / donkey carts, motorcycles and even home-built vehicles doing all sorts of crazy things on the road, then the chances of accident on the highways in the daytime increase drastically as well.

I was trying hard to locate the reason, and you hit it on the head!

This one reason is good enough to make night driving comparably better in India.

Earlier, I have driven quite a bit between Hyderabad and Kanyakumari on NH7 and some such similar good undivided highways. Night driving used to be more effective than Day driving. However,with these GQ's recently, i feel the difference in time /stress between day and night driving closing. Also, add the comfort of bypasses to avoid cities and towns completely - day driving is turning out be a breeze nowadays. Although the toll charges kill you!

Cheers,