Motorway is pitch black

[Unfortunatelynot]

Why and when did the highway agency decide to turn the motorway lights off?
AIBU to think driving at 50-70mph in the dark feels treacherous?

Reading comprehension is a dying art.

Those of us complaining about specific motorways are not talking about long stretches between junctions. They are not lit and never have been. Nobody wants lights all the way from Birmingham to Glasgow on the M6/M74.

What we are complaining about is that there are parts of the motorway network which are unlit at junctions, slip roads, intersections. On the part of the M53 I was on I definitely did not see cats eyes as guidance. Signs were not reflective. Yes, I had to use full beams for a short while (nobody coming the other way, I'm not an idiot).

Oh, and when I was driving it wasn't between midnight and 5am. It was about 9pm.

Yeah, when I was driving my 20 year old Skoda it was basically like having two dinner candles on my bonnet. If it was raining hard I didn’t feel safe driving above around 50mph (don’t worry, I wasn’t in the middle lane…) Had some really white knuckle drives on the M4 on rainy nights.

Try breaking down on an unlit section of the M5 in Gloucestershire. At 17. In the middle of the night. Before mobile phones.

Most of the M40 through Oxfordshire has never been lit.

This is the area I’ve lived in most of my life, and I learned to drive and did my early driving on those country lanes. You just get used to relying on your own car’s lights and driving to the conditions, and the same applies on motorways.

Perhaps it’s different for people who only usually drive in towns, but it’s really very possible to drive confidently in places with no lighting, lanes or motorway.

The thing with motorways is you are all going in the same direction so as long as your headlights are on and you are concentrating; should be fine?

I did! I drove an old Mini for years at that age and it would just stop on occasion.

I have found that it’s not so much a lack of lighting, as a combination of no lighting, stretches of missing cat’s eyes and a lack of bright white lines.

There's a stretch of the A23, which is pretty much indistinguishable from the M23, where the white lines are really worn. I gave a friend a lift to Gatwick early one morning, it was dark and rainy and it was impossible to see the road markings. It was truly awful, all you could see was the sheen from the headlights reflected by the wet road surface.

And I say that as someone who's very used to driving on unlit roads. Most of the roads round my way are unlit except in the town centres.

Where it is more challenging is where the white lines are so faded it is hard to see them at points. It makes a real difference when they are bright white.

What’s dangerous is the combination of a growing number of people illegally driving on full beam when it is dazzling to other road users; cars that have their dipped light setting set too high and have very bright, modern lights, so dazzle a lot of people even when not on full beam; people who do not have any comprehension of lane discipline, or are otherwise dreadful drivers incapable of safely changing lanes and therefore stick to a middle lane, driving well below the speed limit throughout their entire journey, getting in the way of faster cars; and motorways that are no longer reliably maintained, so can have damaged surfaces and debris which are dangerous to encounter at speed in the dark. Other than that, it’s all fine. 😂

Motorways aren't too bad in the dark as they have cats' eyes. I have to drive on the A65 through the Yorkshire Dales most mornings and that's hard in the dark - there are no street lights, no lights of any kind, blind corners and my headlights are dog shit. I find that really hard.

France doesn’t either, it’s really weird after driving here in the uk!

THIS. Motorways are perfectly fine with high beams. And if you're close enough to see another car, then the regular headlights from both are more than sufficient.

I hate it op.
some parts have more light from surrounding areas but when you’re surrounded by trees it’s hard to navigate much in the distance. It almost seems to suck any light from the road.

Doubt they want to change it though, saves money and I understand the light pollution aspect.
If anything the gov will be happy probably with less cars on the road.

I am someone in a tiny old car and this this this!

Who needs lights on motorways when cars headlights are brighter than the sun 😮

Sounds like the cause of the accidents is people using beams when they shouldn't. Even dipped headlights are way too bright these days. If manufacturers put a limit on how bright dipped headlights could be and everyone dipped their headlights when there is oncoming traffic things would be a lot safer.

The only motorway I know of with lights (except perhaps at junctions) is the M25. All others are unlit, just like A roads. It's not like they've taken the lights down, they were never there in the first place.

No, wrong way round, the powerful headlamps are THE problem

Jesus, if driving in the dark or seeing passing headlights makes you fall asleep then get off the road.

This thread is making me genuinely terrified of how many drivers are out there who have a license but are utterly unable to steer a car safely unless they are in bright daylight with the exact driving conditions that they need.

I think it’s fine to reduce light pollution but also it means I don’t drive at night anywhere, I refuse. Not because I can’t but because I don’t want to hit any animals, it’s too sad to see the huge range of roadkill 😕

on my last long drive I saw dozens of foxes, badgers and dead dear and rabbits

Lots of A roads (dual carriageways) have no lighting at all.
The A1(M) has no lights except in built up areas, and a couple of locations where it's going through towns, and it stretches from London to Scotland.

Not as bad as driving across the New Forest after dark. We took the 'scenic route' back from my brother's house one year. No cats eyes, no lights, and an awareness that there's a LOT of wildlife around, some of it quite large.

It was rather discombobulating.

I live near Birmingham and the street lights where I live go off automatically at 12 midnight and come back on again at 5am if required - ie if it is still dark. I think the motorway lights are the same. I don't often drive after 12 midnight so I can't say. When the street lights are off there is so much light around it is almost like daytime especially on a moonlit night. I think to describe it as "pitch black" is exaggerating and the picture in this thread is very misleading. Even out on the moors there is enough light to see by. - You could drive more slowly OP, take care.