If you don't turn on the lights at night, to put it bluntly, you have bad driving habits. Either you forget to turn on the lights, or you don't think it is necessary to turn on the lights.
Then some friends asked: Can they see the road clearly at night without turning on the lights? Don’t you think it’s very dark in the car?
In fact, this is just like turning on the lights in the middle of the night and it won't stop you from playing with your mobile phone. It doesn't necessarily feel dark if you don't turn on the lights.
Why do some people always turn on their headlights?
- Eyes adapt to darkness and bright street lights, allowing you to see clearly without turning on the lights
Xin Desheng and others published a paper in the journal "Optical Technology", "Research on Driver's Dark Adaptation Tester".
As mentioned above: When people stay in a bright place for a period of time and then enter a dark room, their visual sensitivity gradually increases from very low. This process is called the "dark adaptation process."
Just like when you turn off the lights and go to sleep, you can't see anything clearly at first, but after a while, even without turning on the lights, you can basically distinguish the general objects or outlines in the room.
Moreover, the lighting effects of street lights in the city are pretty good. Without driving lights, the outside is relatively bright.
As CJJ 45-2015 "Urban Road Lighting Design Standards" stipulates: the average illumination of trunk roads and expressways is 20 or 30lx; the average illumination of trunk road intersection areas is 30 or 50lx.
How bright exactly? Refer to GB 50034-2013 "Architectural Lighting Design Standards": the illumination of the ground in the hotel room floor corridor is 50lx.
In other words: the lighting brightness of the street lights is about the same as the brightness of the hotel corridor. Although it is incomparable with the brightness during the day, you can still roughly see the cars and people around you.
- New car dashboards have backlighting, making people forget to turn on their lights
In addition, the backlight of the instrument panel will also make people forget to turn off the driving lights, especially in newer cars.
In the past, many old cars had no light on the dashboard without driving lights, so it was just dark, such as the 2010 to 2013 Chevrolet Sail.
At night, the dashboard is pitch black, and you can't even see the number clearly. It just reminds us, "Hey," let's turn on the headlights, otherwise, we won't know the number.
But now many new cars, and the dashboards of new cars have backlights even if the lights are not turned on. You can see clearly even when it is dark, but they no longer have a reminder function.
In addition, the street lights outside are relatively bright, so it is really possible that you will forget to turn on the lights.
How dangerous is it to drive without lights at night?
If you occasionally forget to turn on the light once or twice, it is not a big problem, but if you forget to turn it on often, it is actually very dangerous.
Weng Ji et al. published a paper in the journal "Journal of Illuminating Engineering", "Research on Visibility of Urban Road Lighting".
As mentioned above: from 18:00 to 21:00, that is, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm, the national average number of traffic fatalities per hour is 1.3 times that of other time periods.
The important reason for causing accidents is that the visibility of road lighting at night is much worse than during the day.
You can see clearly outside without turning on the lights, but others may not be able to see you without turning on the lights.
Moreover, if you forget to turn on your headlights and are caught by the traffic police, you may be deducted points and fined.
The "Road Traffic Safety Violations, Codes and Penalty Scoring Standards" on the official website of the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau stipulates: Failure to use lights according to regulations will result in a deduction of 1 point and a fine of 100 yuan.
What should I do if I always forget to turn on the light?
Regarding the problem of forgetting to turn on the lights, there are actually ways to avoid it. Let me share a few for everyone to understand.
- Get into the habit of circling your vehicle for inspection
The first thing is: develop the habit of checking the car lights, similar to what is taught in driving schools. Before driving, turn on the car lights and walk around the car to check the lights, tires, and whether there are any scratches on my paint surface by naughty children. of.
If there is a kitten or puppy next to the car, we can all pay attention to it.
- Turn on the lights with other cars
If it is inconvenient to look around the car, we can also observe other cars on the road. When you see others turning on their lights, pay attention and look at your own dashboard to see if they have turned on.
Just like before you go out, you look out the window and see that everyone is holding an umbrella, so you should bring one too, right?
- Auto mode to turn on headlights
In addition to the two methods just mentioned, we can also use the automatic mode of the headlights. Now many domestic cars worth over 100,000 yuan are equipped with automatic headlights as standard. With the "AUTO gear" on, you don't have to worry about it. .
Li Xin and others published a paper in the journal "Automotive Practical Technology", "Case Study on the Application of Light Sensors in Automatic Headlights", which stated: Vehicles use light sensors to detect the brightness level of light.
When it gets dark, it turns on the lights, and when it gets bright, it turns off the lights, just like a mobile phone automatically adjusting the screen brightness. This technology is not particularly difficult, it can be done.
- Modify a set of "automatic headlights"
If you don't have automatic headlights, you can also consider retrofitting a set of "automatic headlights".
In fact, it is not to replace the entire headlight, but to replace it with a small switch with a light sensor. It is cheap on the Internet and can be bought for 1 or 200 yuan.
But I can’t sell this thing at home now. Friends who want to buy it can search for it.
I have previously made a video called "How to upgrade automatic headlights by yourself, turning low-profile into high-profile in seconds".
I bought two types of automatic headlights and tested their effects. I also took an installation tutorial. Friends who are interested can take a look.
Driving without turning on the lights at night is mainly due to bad habits
Generally speaking, if some people don't turn on the lights when driving at night, it's mainly because of bad habits. In addition, the street lights and dashboards are bright enough to give us the illusion that we have turned on the lights, which makes it easy to forget.
It's not difficult to avoid it. Check the lights in advance, or when driving on the road, you look at others driving, and subconsciously dial or turn it on, and "oh" it's already on.
Of course, the simplest one is automatic headlights. This is a question of "money".
If you have a car with halogen lights, should you upgrade the headlights?
When it comes to car lights, many friends think that their original halogen bulbs are not bright enough and want to change them to xenon ones. They are handsome and LED ones are awesome. So how inconvenient is it to modify them?
Just change the light bulb? Or is it like some old masters said: "This lamp of yours is cut into pieces, including the bowl and the lampshade..." What exactly is it? Are there any safety risks? Is it easy to use? How long can it be used?
This thing of mine is not bright enough, so I want to shine the high beam back on it, and I am almost blinded by it. If it is legal and compliant, how should we fight against the murderer when we encounter a high beam dog?
- Keywords: car lights
It's very simple to know these, just follow "Spare Tire Talking Cars" and reply to the keyword "car lights".
Every day, I will give you a piece of practical car information, text, audio, and video. Just choose the version you like. "Spare Tire Talking about Cars" is waiting for you to play.
references
[1] Xin Desheng, Liu Zhu. Research on driver’s dark adaptation tester [J]. Optical Technology, 1999.
[2] CJJ 45-2015. Urban road lighting design standards [S]. Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People's Republic of China
[3] GB 50034-2013. Architectural Lighting Design Standard [S]. Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People’s Republic of China, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China
[4] Weng Ji, Chen Zhonglin, Liu Bo, Lin Yong. Research on visibility of urban road lighting [J]. Journal of Lighting Engineering, 2005.
[5] Road traffic safety violations, codes and penalty scoring standards. Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau Public Security Traffic Management Bureau
[6] Li Xin, Long Jian, Fu Yiwei, Ren Xiaolong. Case study on the application of light sensors in automatic headlights [J]. Automotive Practical Technology, 2017.
