[Carpainter]

Originally Posted by tharian

By fog lights do you mean the yellow ones, since those are the ones usually called fog lights. I refer to the lights in this context as bumper lights so it is understood.

Originally Posted by zenren

I've read this piece in several places that the fog lights would dazzle the people in front of you but I'm still unable to understand how it can happen. From what I know, all OEM fog lamps are 35W, placed very low on the bumper and have a very low throw. I can't see how this can dazzle the oncoming traffic, since the fog lights have a height cut-off lower than the low beam.

The yellow ones are definitely a cause of concern for the oncoming traffic. I saw a jeep once that had two yellow fog lamps on its grille (big ones) and four lights on its roof and all were switched on including high beam. Think about this in a dark highway with no divider.

But to me, even the ones provided on the bumper are not necessary to drive around in the city. I don't think they improve the visibility that much and in my opinion, if the stock low beam is not adequate, one should upgrade the stock bulb instead of using the bumper/fog lamp for better road visibility, whether they dazzle the on coming traffic or not.

[narendra.vw]

Aren't we forgetting City night driving while it’s raining. Most of the vehicles are on High Beam. It creates blindness to oncoming traffic as well as to him self. Light reflect back.

[babu.sundaram]

It is mass illiteracy. No driving school probably teaches road courtesy or even safety with using low beams.

I upgraded my headlamps just due to this nuisance and glad to return favor to people who do not dip even after repeated flashes.

On a lighter note, I am now considering putting a head lamp on the BACK of my car just to flash at vehicles who push high beams into my RVM.

PS: I met a cabbie who told that low beam is actually a back up lamp, to be used when main lamp (high beam) fails!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Carpainter

The yellow ones are definitely a cause of concern for the oncoming traffic. I saw a jeep once that had two yellow fog lamps on its grille (big ones) and four lights on its roof and all were switched on including high beam. Think about this in a dark highway with no divider.

The colour makes no difference. The aim and focus makes the difference. Home-fitted stuff on bars and roof is nothing to do with properly fitted and adjusted fog lamps. What's more, the ones you describe would probably be useless in fog!

But to me, even the ones provided on the bumper are not necessary to drive around in the city. I don't think they improve the visibility that much and in my opinion, if the stock low beam is not adequate, one should upgrade the stock bulb instead of using the bumper/fog lamp for better road visibility, whether they dazzle the on coming traffic or not.

The point is they aim in a different place, and yes, many of us do find them absolutely invaluable for city driving and no, by definition, they do not dazzle oncoming traffic.

Headlights light the road ahead, and making them brighter does not alter that. fog lamps light the road nearer the car, and have a wider spread. There is no need to make them brighter: they do not need to shine very far.

In a few decades of driving, I never used fog lights except in reduced visibility, then I came to Chennai, and discovered that they have a whole world of utility that I had never imagined.

[FarPatel]

Whats up guys, no more complaints for a whole year?
Well, I'm seething inside, whenever I see blinding headlights in all three rear view mirrors. This is especially so now, as the sun sets earlier and I'm subjected to this onslaught for half my homeward trip every evening. So, apart from signalling to errant drivers behind me, some of who do dip immediately, I thought of doing something else. Stickers, just like the T-BHP ones. I'll admit I lifted some of these designs from TAI but I'm sure they won't mind, as they're for a good cause.
So what I did was make these in PPT and sent the JPG images to my local office stationery supplier, who printed them out on vinyl sticker paper. But since he uses a continuous roll the minimum he would print was 1 running foot worth of the 3 foot wide roll. So I got him to print multiple copies of the four samples I had and I now have three copies of each. I'll probably keep one set for myself, so if any of you, especially those living in Sion or CBD, Navi Mumbai, want the rest, I'll be glad to pass them on. Only downside of the stickers is that the vinyl is matt and the end result is slightly grainy. I don't have expertise with, or access to, Coreldraw, which would probably give better results, but I'm happy with this first attempt.
Cheers and hope it meets with some success at least.

[ankurchaturvedi]

Originally Posted by FarPatel

I'll probably keep one set for myself, so if any of you, especially those living in Sion or CBD, Navi Mumbai, want the rest, I'll be glad to pass them on.

Thank you sir, i will be more than happy to use them, can i take it? I can pick it up from Sion.

Thanks for your initiative once again.

[FarPatel]

Originally Posted by ankurchaturvedi

Thank you sir, i will be more than happy to use them, can i take it? I can pick it up from Sion.

Thanks for your initiative once again.

Hi Ankur, You're most welcome. I'll send you a PM with my address details.
Cheers.

[rattanw]

I have never been able to understand this myself. I prefer driving with low beams in all road conditions, including highways, unless it becomes vital to use high beam due to safety concerns. I can say with confidence that 95% of the times doesn't require one to use high beam under normal city driving. It is more of a habit than anything else. Driving with high beam in the city is a moot point.

Many people who drive around with high beam on know this, while some don't. But the result is the same. They still keep the high beams on. In Hyderabad where I stay currently, the situation is far worse than Say Delhi or kolkata. Here in Hyderabad people do not yield, no matter how you explain it to them. I have seen even educated fellows, not just the cab drivers, behave in illogical, arrogant manner despite requests. I live in an apartment society and have experienced fellow residents driving within the well lit complex on high beams. It's frustrating to say the least. I have had people argue back, ignore or ask me to mind my own business, but find it below their level to accept a simple request from a fellow driver. In fact, i have learnt that barring few drivers, the respect shown by drivers to their fellow road users is inversely proportional to their financial status. Sorry, I didn't mean to draw any comparison between cities but that's the reality. I am just really really exasperated at how much effort it takes to expect people to behave sensibly and that too educated, well off people.

[FarPatel]

So I've come to the inescapable conclusion that my emails to the Traffic Commissioner of both Mumbai as well as Navi Mumbai about the high-beam menace will come to nought, and since only one of you guys want my free stickers , I went scouting for something to restore my sanity during my night drives. I think this is perfect for both, day as well as night driving, at least in reasonably lit areas. These clip on to my specs and also flip up if not required. They are 100% polarised, so says the sticker, and I tend to believe it, since I checked them out looking at oncoming vehicles at Sion Circle last night before buying them. I was quite happy with the way the high beams were reduced to weak torch-beams, without affecting general vision. I haven't yet tried them out while actually driving at night but I'm sure they will take care of the triple light-blasts I normally get in my rear view mirrors.
I used these clip-ons this morning and afternoon on a 120km round trip to Badlapur and found they reduce eyestrain considerably. I use photochromic lenses in my spectacles but they don't darken in the car as there is no direct sunlight on them, so these are perfect for daytime glare too.
I had seen these on Amazon but wasn't sure of their quality or efficacy so preferred to physically check them out and if necessary pay more for assured results. Stephens Opticians on Sion Circle quoted 1.5k for them but reduced it to 1.2k since I'm a familiar face there.
Here's a pic of the clip-ons

[for_cars1]

Originally Posted by FarPatel

... I went scouting for something to restore my sanity during my night drives. I think this is perfect for both, day as well as night driving, at least in reasonably lit areas.

These clip on to my specs and also flip up if not required. They are 100% polarised, so says the sticker, and I tend to believe it, since I checked them out looking at oncoming vehicles at Sion Circle last night before buying them.

I was quite happy with the way the high beams were reduced to weak torch-beams, without affecting general vision. I haven't yet tried them out while actually driving at night but I'm sure they will take care of the triple light-blasts I normally get in my rear view mirrors...

Wearing any kind of coloured (however light the tint) glasses for night driving would be highly risky.
Same goes for polarized lenses, they serve well during the day by cutting down horizontal plane of light as it bounces off objects thereby minimizing glare, it's not advisable to wear them at night as they would reduce the amount of (the already scarce) light from entering your eyes.
(That's why fighter pilots don't get to use polarized glasses even during the day , they need to see as much as possible and not miss out anything)

What these yellow tinted glasses actually end up doing is reduce the total amount of light entering your eye at night and gives a false perception of better vision. One could feel contented about the reduced intensity of the glare from the high beams but its also easy to totally miss out seeing other things. Objects/people/animals/vehicles anything on the road that are not bright enough can potentially get masked by the tints at night.

There are many types of tinted (especially yellow coloured) glasses that are falsely marketed as night time driving glasses. Never fall for this con and trap however convincing it may seem.

The best way to reduce glare from the oncoming headlights would be to use clear/prescription lenses with AR (anti-reflection) coating. The idea is to allow as much of the already less light at night into the eyes as possible and to reduce scattering of light as it enters the eye.
Having the windscreen squeaky clean and crystal clear helps a lot in preventing the scatter and face the oncoming lights.

[FarPatel]

You may be right and the Net does caution drivers about using tints at night. However, as things stand at the moment, I believe the high-beams in my rear view mirrors are more of a threat than the reduced visibility caused by the lenses. And, thanks to your post as well as the Net, I will be trying out the clip-ons for the first time tonight with abundant caution, checking it out and ready to flip the lens up if I feel at all that it does impair vision or reaction time.
As an aside, I read on the Net that computer screens are also polarised so I checked out the polarisation of the lens by holding it at different angles against the pc screen. You can see it is almost 100% dark in the third pic.

[ankurchaturvedi]

Originally Posted by FarPatel

Hi Ankur, You're most welcome. I'll send you a PM with my address details.
Cheers.

So we finally met up yesterday and FarPatel handed over almost his entire bunch of stickers. Was touched by the generous actions of this gentleman. Hats off to him. We keep on venting out our frustrations here, but he went ahead and did something about it.

[FarPatel]

Originally Posted by ankurchaturvedi

So we finally met up yesterday

It was good to meet you too Ankur, and share some similar views and pet peeves. My only hope is that someone in khaki sees those stickers that your friends will hopefully put on their cars and put some rules in motion to curb this menace.
In case anyone has similar ideas he may be interested in the PPT file I used for the stickers. I can't attach it here as pptx attachments are not supported, so I can email it if requested.

About those clip-on lenses I referred to earlier, I used them last night and found them pretty effective to cut the glare and surprisingly clear, even with the brown tints. At least on my regular route, which is reasonably well lit.

[anuragn]

Even I am fed up of all those idiots driving with high beam on. And frustratingly, whenever I give a dipper to an oncoming car, they just dont understand the signal and keep on driving with high beam.
This sticker idea is really wonderful.
Can we have offical t-bhp stickers? I am sure most of the t-bhpians wold be glad to purchase them.

[silverado]

There should be a buzzer every time HIGH BEAM is activated below a certain speed, say 60 kmph.
Many a times, people maybe forgetting that headlights are indeed on HIGH BEAM.