plaskon@hplabsc.UUCP (Dawn Plaskon) (02/10/84)
I assume that the dipped headlight laws (and what are dipped headlights?) are related to the long dark winters prevalent in the northern climes. Is this true? If not, why was the law passed?
minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow) (02/14/84)
Dipped (low-beam) headlights are required in Sweden year-round. (Maybe all of Scandinavia by now -- I remember it was mandatory during part of the year in Finland. The law basically says that your lights must be on when you are driving. There were several reasons behind the law -- because of the angle of the sun, it is very hard to tell when twilight really ends and people dark-adapt quickly enough to just plain forget. Also, the low angle of the sun makes it awfully hard to see oncoming traffic if the sun is in your eyes and their lights are out. More importantly, they found it prevented accidents. Greyhound has found the same thing here, by the way. Another thing that is required in Sweden but forbidden here is headlight wipers. This cleans the headlights whenever you use the windshield washer. This is a wonderful accident preventer in the sloppy winter months in a country where every fifth car has studded snow tires. They are forbidden here because of a law dating back to the thirties that was passed to force use of sealed beam headlights. Martin Minow decvax!minow
mike@erix.UUCP (Mike Williams) (02/17/84)
> I assume that the dipped headlight laws (and what are dipped headlights?) > are related to the long dark winters prevalent in the northern > climes. Is this true? If not, why was the law passed? The dipped headlight law in Sweden means that you have to drive with dipped headlights (or special more powerful sidelights) all the year round - even in the long light summer! It was argued that dipped headlights made cars easier to see in full daylight as well as by night. When overtaking one is supposed to be able to spot car coming in the opposite direction more easily. I don't know if this is true or not. In any case it is very difficult to produce any statistics to support or disprove this view. Anyway it costs very little - fuel consumption is slightly increased and the headlight bulb manufactures make a slightly higher profit. BTW we don't use sealed beam headlights very much here so the cost of replacement bulbs is quite low!