To think that you should always use your headlights when driving in the dark?

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Now that it's getting darker much earlier in the afternoons, I've started seeing quite a sizeable minority of people each day driving either only with sidelights or with no lights at all when it's already properly fully dark - dark enough so that (thankfully) virtually every other driver does have their lights on. I don't know if it's just in my area or if people are doing it everywhere?

Am I missing something important here, or do they just have a death wish? How difficult is it to turn a knob and put your lights on? Do some people genuinely believe that headlights are strictly only for night time - and if it's 3:30pm, you don't turn your lights on because it's still only the afternoon, even though it's far too dark to see properly or be safely seen without them?

AIBU to think that it should be 3 or even 6 points on your licence for dangerous driving, unless your lights have just that moment failed on you and now don't actually work? Just why?

They forgot. They would get pulled over by the police, if the police passed them. It really doesn't need a post.

Don't think I've ever noticed a car without headlights when it's dark enough to need them...but maybe I just didn't see them

I think it’s because there are so many automatic headlights now. People just forget or don’t notice for a while if they haven’t come on.

I think at least some of it is a side effect of how car design has changed. It used to be that the speedo etc in your car were actual physical dials that only lit up when you turned your lights on. Once it started getting dark outside you realised you could no longer see your speedo and so got a reminder that you should turn your lights on.

Now most new cars have instruments that are just pixels on a screen you don't get that reminder - they're always lit up and so they're always visible. That makes it easier to carry on driving once it gets gloomy without your lights on.

At least, that's how I rationalise it when I spot the brain-dead idiots who drive along without lights on in the dark. Fuckwits that they are.

I dont think forgetting is a good enough excuse. Its very dangerous and worse case scenario could cause death. If you're getting behind the wheel you must be responsible.

I think lots of cars have automatic lights so if you switch to a different car you can forget. I don’t see it often though.

It’s not dark at 3.30pm though, unless you’re very far north.

Obvs some extreme conditions might warrant it but I haven’t had mine on during the school run here.

Cyclists all in black with no lights are a far bigger and frequently seen menace. There needs to be a serious education campaign about safe cycling.

Many cars have automatic lights, and permanent mandatory Daytime Running Lights. Other drivers can see you in the dark in any vehicle newer than 2011 due to DLRs so people only put the headlamps on when they need to see themselves.

Oops!

And if somebody 'forgot' that they'd had several pints before driving?

How can you forget that you're supposed to be able to see the road ahead of you, or indeed your dashboard?

This is it - it sounds absurd, but it's the reality!

My automatic lights don5 usually turn on at 3.30 unless it’s also very overcast and rain8ng.

Except DRLs only show to the front, so you can't be seen from behind so someone could hit you from behind because you aren't visible.

Definitely dark enough at 3.30 in the midlands to need lights, especially on a dull day like today.

I’ve not noticed it where I live. I don’t have to turn my lights on it automatic. Maybe the drivers around here also have this feature.

Here we are - I'm another who lives where it isn't dark at 3.30 so the auto lights don't come on, but these 4 lights are always on on my model of car.

But isn't the point of automatic lights that it doesn't matter if you forget - because the car will already have turned them on itself?!

Most automatic car safety features tend to err on the side of caution, sometimes to the point of annoyance - if anything, you'd expect them to come on when it's still quite light; not wait until it's really, really dark.

This posters means if you switch to driving a non-automatic-lights car you might forget to put them on.

In most city driving I don’t need my headlights to see where I’m going. My car has permanent side lights so I can be seen by others. I do use my headlights (more than necessary probably) but it certainly wouldn’t be dangerous on my commute if I didn’t.

Midlands - and it was properly dark today by then. It was rainy and gloomy too, which didn't help; visibility was very low indeed without lights, hence why virtually everybody had put their lights on.

This is my point, though: it doesn't matter what time it is, if it is seriously dark, it's very basic driver ability to know when to put your lights on. If it isn't dark, then perfectly normal not to put them on!

It was dark enough to need headlights at 3.30pm on the south coast today

Ia few years ago, I didn't notice DH had turned off the automatic lights as I was in a really brightly lit area. I only found out when a nice UN peacekeeper pulled me over to tell me.

I live in the English countryside now... you can't see outside the car without them on country lanes

If someone manages to hit my white car from behind in a town centre with streetlights, at 3.30pm, then they were going to hit me anyway.

Yes, until you drive a car that doesn’t have them. We have 2 cars and one does, the other doesn’t.

I’ve not seen this at all to be honest. I think most modern cars have lights on “auto” that switch themselves on when the light dims.