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-   -   Jharkhand: Using headlights to be made mandatory during the day (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/193166-jharkhand-using-headlights-made-mandatory-during-day.html)

The Jharkhand Government has decided to make it mandatory for all vehicles plying in the state to keep their headlights on, even during daytime. The decision is said to have been taken to curb road accidents by making the vehicles more visible to other road users!

Source: TOI

Don’t welcome the decision. 2 wheelers should be made mandatory to have their lights on but cars have a much larger footprint and are easily visible.

On highways though, I do welcome the move. But inside the city it’ll be like diwali.

How about asking other road users to keep their eye open! With our clear weather conditions 10 month in a year, how helpful would this be? On a bright sunny day, is it easier to spot a car just because the headlights are on?

Well said! I always keep my low beam on when on the highway, even if it's during the day. But not that sure about the city, although it will help increase your visibility to others (e.g. in the IRVM or ORVM of the car ahead of you).

The government should just go ahead and make DRLs standard. That's how the law runs in many countries (headlights mandatory at night, DRLs compulsory in the day).

Same here, I also keep the headlights on during daytime highway runs. It improves visibility of the car several time over. Really important on undivided roads as well.

The EU norms for headlights are more due to snow and increased hours of darkness possibly. Though not the case for India, but still, IMO DRL/keeping headlights on is important.

Agreed GTO. It is high time we moved towards making DRLs mandatory in India. I am sure there are some stats on the changes in accident statistics in Scandinavia. Maybe they need to be highlighted here.

For those of us who have driven on single lane highways and state roads this makes sense. Headlights 'on' will significantly increase 'presence' of the vehicle. Agreed that within city limits not much will be achieved. DRLs are the answer. But in states like Jharkhand, people would travel a lot between small towns which would be connected with single lane roads that also double up as state highways if not national highways.

This is a good start and I hope other state governments learn and improvise from this.

Several years ago in 2003-04 when DRL mandate was relatively new I saw in Sweden that there were lots of older cars on road with main headlights switched on to comply to DRL regulation.

DRLs can be mandated only on new cars through ARAI or some other agency however state laws can enforce keeping some light on to increase visibility.

Seeing that there is no law for mandatory scrap of older vehicles I think even if DRL is mandated it will take at-least 2 decades for them to become universal

I, somehow, am not able to agree with this !! Logic is below:

A child on his/her birthday, looks brighter and special in the school among other students if he/she wears color dress/party wear. Reason: All other students wear normal uniform. Birthday baby wears special party wear.

If every student in the school wears party wear that are equally special, how do you identify the birthday baby? What is so special about birthday baby?

Logic is very analogical to Daylight DRLs and self explanatory.

I can vouch for DRL being mandatory during the day.

When I am driving my car, I immediately notice other cars with DRLs (even Mahindra DRLs, though weak make the car easier to spot).
When I am being driven, I realise, that the cars around me have spotted me and are more receptive to my manoeuvres or horns.

I don't want to talk about DRLs. What worries me is the fact that most people would just switch on the headlamps, which are by default in the high beam mode.

No You won't . Thing is that sun is giving thousands of times more lumen output than any headlamp so pupil of your eyes are contracted accordingly and it does not hurt. During the night or in artificial lights the High beam is too distracting because pupil of your eyes are adjusted as per artificial lights.

As an experiment turn on HL of your car in high beam during day time and stand some 20 meters away from it and check.

There have been a number of studies carried out on the effect of DLR. ultemately they all seem to point in the same direction, it does have a noticeable effect on the number of accidents.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytime_running_lamp

Just google DLR accident reduction on similar and you will find numerous papers in various countries. Admittedly, all western countries, but I think the principle of it, you become more noticeable to other road users would apply universally. Its also down to how our eye/brains work and how they can be "tricked"into noticing something earlier and or better.

As usual there are a few conspiracy theories out there as well. Ranging from its all a ploy by the oil companies as we burn more fuel, or a very clever marketing trick from the collective head light bulb industry as we go through more bulbs. Take your pick.

In several countries in Europe DLR is mandatory as well as certain States in the USA. Although not mandatory in my home country the Netherlands, it is strongly encouraged, so most cars will run with DLR.

Jeroen

I would welcome this move. Having DRL's / HL on during day time would increase the chances of a pedestrian seeing a vehicle. Many a time a cursory look at dusk / dawn and you would not be able to see the biker lurking in the shadows. Now you would be able to see the shadow lurkers. Many drivers in India have the habit of turning of the headlamps at the first light even before proper sunrise and would keep their headlights off well into sunset. They think that the headlamps are for them to see. I disagree. In addition to the visibility that you get, the headlamps are there for other users to see you.

In our basement parking lot, there are many folks who drive with the headlamps off as it is fully lit with tubelights, amongst this, there are folks who are carefree in their walking happily talking on their mobiles using headsets. These folks have no situational awareness as they are listening to audio using both their ears. Having the headlamps on would let them know that a car is approaching them as they have to open their eyes to see where they are going. The same holds true in our roads as well. With the constant chaos, many pedestrians are using headphones with overpowering volume to drown out the road noise. The only way to get their attention is via headlamps rather than via horns.

At least the law should be that “DRLs to be mandatory, and for those cars without DRLs headlights should be switched on"

Quite unimaginative rules coming up off-late often by state legislations, literally without even looking at the feasibility/practicality aspect. The Singapore style taxation for Chandigarh is another example.