[ajaypjayaraj]

Originally Posted by joe1980

Waking up a very old thread, but I could not resist posting a news article on punishing people driving with high beams.

Here it is http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...se-police.html

How I wish this was done in our country too. Let those careless drivers not drive but sit and stare a few times into dazzling high beams.
I don't think there is any nicer way of making these people wake up and have some safety awareness.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by ajaypjayaraj

How I wish this was done in our country too. Let those careless drivers not drive but sit and stare a few times into dazzling high beams.
I don't think there is any nicer way of making these people wake up and have some safety awareness.

Absolutely! Specially those pesky Tata Aces with 100/130w ill focused lights!

[saurabh2711]

Looks like this High Beam virus has not only infested south India. It is a regular practice in Pune as well.
Had an arguement once with a cab driver, on driving with high beams (within society premises) not on the raod. HE replied to me what does that means. I really thought of braking his control panel, but was left only with banging my head. And adding misery to this, the passenger sitting in the car owns a luxury sedan & works with a IT giant was not aware of this feature either. What a shame...
The same was the case, when had similar arguement cab driver on road. Same answer.

Thankfully I have now switched to 100/90's & a single flash is enough to shut their high beams.

[aneezan]

My friend and I were driving around in 2 different cars last weekend. One of his low-beam lights was not working, hence he was using high beams. A cop suddenly pulled him over, and told him he shouldn't be using high beams in the city. He was stunned, as was I. First time being actually caught and warned by police for using high beams in Bangalore. I thought the whole cab brigade was doing the same 100%. How do they catch them? They wouldn't have enough cops.

[mukundz]

Considering that it's going to be a long time before stringent laws and practices are imposed to curb driving with high beams on normal city roads, lets discuss about methods to reduce their impact on our eyes. What I regularly follow is keeping my windshield as clear and dust/smudge free as possible. Helps to quite an extent. Though sometimes even requires me having to clean the windshield on a daily basis but as long as serves the purpose, I dont mind it.I've come across some discussions where a specific solution/nano coating helps curb the glares though I'm personally yet come across them. Anyone had any luck with these?

[rattanw]

I am glad that I found this forum. Since long now I have been bothered, rather irked at attitudes of most drivers. I stay in Delhi, drive my self always, and have often wondered why people driving in perfectly lit condition s on city roads need high beam. I mean, yes, I can understand use of high beams while overtaking or while on unlit stretches, but usage in city leaves me baffled. In my opinion, high beam is as much a threat as driving on the wrong side of the road or Jumping a traffic signal. I remember many years back there was a drive in Delhi against driving on high beam. Many drivers back then painted the top portion of their car headlamps with black paint to reduce the glare. Am unsure of what benefit resulted from such an exercise but it's worth mentioning as that is one of the few instances where active enforcement brought about a change, however short lived it may have been.

On the other hand I believe driving on low \ high beam is more of a habit than anything else, at least for majority of the drivers most of the times. I don't mean any disrespect neither am I insensitive to others needs, as I am aware that driving in rural areas, driving under unlit conditions at night or at few other places requires compulsory use of high beam. Having said that i must also state that other than that there is little justification to the use of high beam. I have driven extensively in North India and bit in East India and can confidently state that 70% of all drivers driving in high beam do not actually need high beam at that particular time yet continue driving so because of lack of awareness and/ or epathy towards other road users. Unfortunately many people today care less about others safety than changing their own driving habit ever so slightly.

[balajird]

I have a question on handling the high beam, I read somewhere that wearing a "polarized" sun glass not only reduces the glare but also helps soothe the high beam. Did anyone tried it? Is this true?

[wantarangerover]

I am convinced that many drivers in India think that the Low beam is only for dipping to signal an overtake In Baroda, I see more than 50 pc of the vehicles with High beams on. And when I turn my High beam on to signal them, nothing happens. It is all about educating drivers, the license procedure is to blame for this - I mean, we don't learn even the basic rules of motoring for getting a license

[ajitsank]

Originally Posted by joe1980

Waking up a very old thread, but I could not resist posting a news article on punishing people driving with high beams.

Here it is http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...se-police.html

I could not control my laughter!

Good to wake up a old thread for the benefit of new members and to refresh all of us on this. All for the help to spread the word around. A year back NDTV had a similar initiative. Like china, it can never be implemented here, too many people play spoil sports (Politicians, people etc).

[Horizon81]

Originally Posted by balajird

I have a question on handling the high beam, I read somewhere that wearing a "polarized" sun glass not only reduces the glare but also helps soothe the high beam. Did anyone tried it? Is this true?

That is a bad thing to do, IMO. Polarized sunglasses only cut off reflected light. They are an absolute pleasure during daytime, and I wear it only during daytime. Its not advisable to wear sunglasses during night to avoid high beams. Visibility will be reduced considerably, and you will end up hurting yourself or other road users.

[mukundz]

Originally Posted by ajaypjayaraj

How I wish this was done in our country too. Let those careless drivers not drive but sit and stare a few times into dazzling high beams.
I don't think there is any nicer way of making these people wake up and have some safety awareness.

True. I've never seen my office cab driver ever not drive on low beams. I understand that driving all day they need to be able to concentrate on the road without straining but not at the cost of blinding other drivers.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by mukundz

True. I've never seen my office cab driver ever not drive on low beams. I understand that driving all day they need to be able to concentrate on the road without straining but not at the cost of blinding other drivers.

They don't have any reason to drive on high beams, nor does anyone else, in city limits. It again comes to, who is mightier, in this case who is brighter.

Do you see any reason why a IT cab should have aux lamps? Some have extra lamps like a rally car. When driving through the night in a city, the stock lamps with stock bulbs are more than enough.

[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by tharian

It again comes to, who is mightier, in this case who is brighter.

In USA, they would not pass the safety testing. Ditto in UK, they would fail the MOT.
In India, I wish there was immediate challaning and what's better - having the police break these irritating searchlights.

[Simple_car]

The high beam problem is here to stay until the law changes; and I am not referring to fining the offenders etc.

I am referring to the MV Act which has restricted the wattage of bulbs to be used in cars. Till then we will continue to get pathetic lights in all cars sold in India.

Further, the manufacturers are also partly to blame since they are not designing the headlights to spread the beam properly. Till date the best OE lights in any cars sold in India, in my experience, has been the new Ford Fiesta (I am not referring to the one being currently sold with the so called aston martin-esque face). Sadly, the high beam on that car are useless.

Also, to be brutally frank, we all know that it's more vital for us to see ahead on our roads compared to what is underneath. So, high beams are in my opinion very important in our scenario.

Till the infrastructure, the law and awareness changes, this problem (along with many others) is there to stay.

The best solution for most of us would be to avoid night travel as much as possible, and use the public transport as much as possible if night travel is necessary.

Originally Posted by tharian

They don't have any reason to drive on high beams, nor does anyone else, in city limits. It again comes to, who is mightier, in this case who is brighter.

Do you see any reason why a IT cab should have aux lamps? Some have extra lamps like a rally car. When driving through the night in a city, the stock lamps with stock bulbs are more than enough.

I would like to disagree. I have been driven around in the indica/go cabs (private and fleet operators), and all of them had poor OEM lights. Heck, I couldn't see more than a few metres ahead with those lamps. It's not possible for most of us to drive, let alone expecting those drivers.

Also, there are innumerable pockets in any city in India, where the street lighting is poor, and even veteran drivers will require high beams. So, those AUX lights are very likely to be for that purpose. Remember, most of the cabbies are likely to be ferrying people who are staying in parts of city where infrastructure is not developed fully.

Yes, as with anything in this country, a lot of people do abuse it, but on the whole the tata cabbies do require the high beam.

Thanks,
Simple_car

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by tharian

They don't have any reason to drive on high beams, nor does anyone else, in city limits. It again comes to, who is mightier, in this case who is brighter.

Do you see any reason why a IT cab should have aux lamps? Some have extra lamps like a rally car.

Originally Posted by Simple_car

Yes, as with anything in this country, a lot of people do abuse it, but on the whole the tata cabbies do require the high beam.

I agree with both of you on this point of Aux lights on a local run Indicab.

The whole issue I see is, drivers buy these lights and install it blindly without checking their alignment, focus point ams parallelism w.r.t to road.

I have seen many cases where the lights point towards the trees or first floor of a building. This fails the whole point of installation. No one checks all these but just switches these lights ON and drives with total mental satisfaction.

I can see some kind of awareness in Hyderabad City towards 'No High Beam', as roads are well lit hence the need to use high beam is diminished. Worst of the lot are Tata dump trucks and Eicher vans.

Originally Posted by Simple_car

Further, the manufacturers are also partly to blame since they are not designing the headlights to spread the beam properly.

Spot on.

Worst setup till date in stock is SX4 and Ertiga out of the lot of cars we have owned at home. My Karizma had a better low bean so the need for high beam doesn't arise but in these two cars is too weak. Dang, the design!

Anurag.