How to properly use… headlights

I never thought I would get to blog about this, but it seems to be more necessary than I thought. So here it goes. Don’t worry, I’ll make this simple.

You should only use the high (main, full, driving etc.) beam – yes, that’s the bright one – when there is no other vehicle visible on the road in front of you. Yes Smarts and motorcycles count as vehicles. Yes, hybrids too dammit, now let’s move on. This INCLUDES vehicles going in the same direction as you, coming towards you or just now passing you. This also means that if you are using the high beam and a vehicle comes up in front of you, you should switch to your low beam. And by that I mean right away, not after you searched for the track you wanted to hear on the CD player, found your gloves and finished your text message. Your finger should be on the switch at all times you are using your high beam (it’s 2009 we have hydraulics doing the power steering, stop grabbing that wheel as if it were a 16th century Spanish gallon’s helm, you can spare one finger). Assuming it’s a reaaally long straight road so you see the other car coming a mile away, obviously you do not need to switch right away. But as soon as the lit area in front of your car reaches the lit area in front of the other car, go ahead and switch. This way, you have perfect visibility all the time and no one gets blinded.

I will also suggest doing that when approaching steep hilltops or tight turns (it’s very simple… if your visibility is reduced because of the terrain, high beams won’t obviously help you, but they might blind the driver coming from the other direction which you cannot see because of previously mentioned reduced visibility).

If you are in DOUBT of whether a car is coming or not, just quickly flip between the high and low beams. That brief second should be enough for you to decide whether that is the case or not and then act accordingly. You can also use this flip when you need some brief extra light, it’s safe (again NO OTHER CARS), but you don’t feel you need to leave it on.

Finally, here’s a devil’s advocate statement. If you are driving at night on an unlit road and there is no one else on the road to be bothered by your lights, please go ahead and use the damn high beams. They are there for a reason. Also slow down, will ya?

Now because not everyone is reading my amazing blog, you WILL be blinded by people’s headlights if you drive at night, I can promise you that. Let me give you a tip or two with that also:
- Believe it or not many people have a tendency to stare into the headlights and STEER in the direction they are looking at (yes, just like flies). I got no idea why, but I’ve seen it happen many times. Be aware of it and don’t do that.
- Do not freak out. Do your best to relax and not steer (for necessary steering see next point). You might be tempted to steer away, thinking it’s safe. No it’s not, you can’t see for crying out loud, please do not that. If you are relaxed, your reflexes will do all the minor steering needed. Obviously slow down and do so as much as you need to. You WILL see the other car coming with their headlights on, so you have a lot of time to slow down.
- If there are markings on the road, most of the time you will be able to still make those out. Look at the markings, this will at least guarantee your are still driving straight and should there be a curve in the road, you are following it. Oh… and you can squint, but please keep your eyes open and/or don’t turn your face away.
- For lights coming in from the back, flipping the switch on your rearview mirror (if you don’t have one you probably have an automatic sensor so don’t worry about it) will help with that. Be careful with it though, some are not too great and may ruin your adjustment – just adjust it again after the switch. If there is still a lot of light coming in from the outside mirrors, adjust them so they point a little bit down. Enough for the light not to fall on your face. If you still need to use them, you just bend down slightly, and you will have a perfect view. It sounds more complicated than it is. Variety is possible here, such as adjusting them up or sidewise. I like to do it down, because the other are more unpredictable, you may still get some light coming it. Play around and see what works best for you. But do NOT just sit there and take the light in your eyes. It will get your eyes used to the light instead of the darkness very quickly and you do not want that. Not to mention, over long runs it gets your eyes very tired.
- Do not assume everyone is a jerk. It’s at night, it’s probably late and they are tired so they might have forgotten to switch them off. Let the other car know they are having their high beams on by VERY briefly flipping yours once or twice. Again, VERY briefly and preferably from a distance. But, PLEASE, whatever you do, do NOT turn yours on also as a way of getting back at them. Now you have two blind drivers headed for one another instead of just one – more than double the risk. (also on that, maybe it’s you that forgot… it can happen, if you see that sign from the other car, quickly check that you switched to low beams)

- Also, if you’re in for a long night drive, make sure you dim the lights in the car as much as possible (there’s ALWAYS a switch, find it) and wear sunglasses when going into a gas station. Your eyes need to be used to the dark, not the neon lights. If you are stopping for a longer time, then spend a few minutes getting your eyes used to the dark again before starting back on the road.

Disclaimer: This is my own opinion out of my own experience (probably about half of the miles I’ve driven have been at night), this has got nothing to do with legislation (although some points might overlap). You need to know the law, so read it! I am making a completely different statement.

Note: Image is from http://www.frugalyankee.com/files/christine%20headlights.jpg