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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2367 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 25, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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now (where you can't buy a non-lifted hatchback).

Sure you can, it's called a Prius. Or a civic hatchback.

If you're sitting higher up relative to the road, your headlights will be adjusted up (relative to a lower vehicle) so that you can see further out. Thus, if you're in an CUV, your lights are going to be aimed from the factory such that you'll blind anyone in lower vehicles.

This i don't find totally convincing. Why do they need to be adjusted so you can see further out? Obviously you can always aim the headlights higher to see further (and that's what high beams do, partially), but that can't be legal.

At this point I'm a lot more aggressive about not turning my brights off when I see an oncoming car (unless I see the telltale flicker of them turning theirs off, naturally), because if they don't turn them off I'm blind when they pass.

Why are you driving with your brights on?

Why are you driving with your brights on?

Because that is what they are for? You use them at night, when there aren't any other cars traveling the same way, and when there isn't any oncoming traffic. [I don't live in NYC, where there are so many streetlights that night driving would be possible without any headlights at all.]

Why do they need to be adjusted

It's not so much that they're "adjusted" as it is that the lights are higher up to begin with. Thus, unless they're angled much further down than they would be on a normal car (which is impossible if you want to illuminate the same distance simply due to how high off the ground they are), they're going to project a brighter light into any car lower than those headlights.

it's called a Prius. Or a civic hatchback.

So you have a grand total of... six to choose from (the other two being the Mazda3, VW Golf, Corolla hatch and the Mirage, at least, until they get cancelled for the Corolla Cross and nothing, respectively). I'm ignoring the meme cars like Minis and Fiats because... come on.

It's not so much that they're "adjusted" as it is that the lights are higher up to begin with. Thus, unless they're angled much further down than they would be on a normal car (which is impossible if you want to illuminate the same distance simply due to how high off the ground they are), they're going to project a brighter light into any car lower than those headlights.

This is still not adding up.

If the light is higher off the ground and you want it to illuminate as far down the road as a light lower to the ground, it must be angled lower. If you raise the light and keep the angle constant, you will illuminate further down the road.

If the light is adjusted to keep the distance illuminated constant, I suspect that it would only be shining into vehicles at very short distances, and since you are not usually approaching vehicles head on and the lights have limited side spread, this shouldn't even be an issue. There's something else going on here.

So you have a grand total of... six to choose from

How many hatchbacks does a man need?

Why are you driving with your brights on?

It is mentioned in the IIHS article linked above that high beams are supposed to be used on roads with hardly any traffic.

Researchers from IIHS and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute found that drivers in and around Ann Arbor, Mich., didn’t use their high beams enough. Only 18% of drivers who were isolated enough to make use of their high beams did so.

Yes, that's true. I'm assuming that he doesn't live out in the sticks, but perhaps I'm wrong.

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