Driving at night made easy
Driving in adverse conditions is something all drivers do. Whether it happens to be rain, snow, fog, or even bright sunshine, it’s something that all drivers experience on occasion. However, there is a more common adverse driving condition that seems to be overlooked – driving at night.
Keep in mind that speed limits are set for ideal conditions and that driving at night is not ideal (thanks Captain Obvious), so why are drivers traveling at highway speed limits on dark roads with only their headlights to light up the road? Your headlights can’t always show you everything on dark roads.
One of the things to realize is that not all headlights are created equal. The newer the headlight, the brighter the headlight in many cases. There are a few headlight options available to drivers – from HID to LED to Halogen headlights all claiming to be the brightest on the market. With continued advancement in technology, it can be difficult to decide which is the brightest headlight bulb on the market. Whichever bulb you have, it may not be good enough to drive fast, or at the posted speed limit on dark highways.
Driving at night on a dark road we can only see what’s illuminated within our headlight spray. Keep in mind that it may take you longer to stop compared to how far your headlight spray can shine. There are many things to consider before attempting to drive at the speed limit on a dark highway. How old or advanced are the headlights? Are the headlight lenses dirty or yellow? Are the roads wet or dry? How good are your brakes? What is the quality of the tires on your vehicle? And finally, are you using high-beam or low-beam headlights?
Driving quicker than you can see, think, and respond to something visible within your high-beam headlight spray is referred to as overdriving your headlights. If you’re overdriving your headlights, by the time you see a problem ahead of you, such as an animal, road defect, or a fallen tree across the road, you won’t have enough time to safely stop your vehicle.
The sooner you can spot a problem on the dark roadway, the sooner you can respond to it. Always use your high-beam headlights whenever possible while driving on a dark highway. If it’s difficult to see well ahead with either high-beam or low-beam, reduce speed. Remember, speed limits are set for ideal conditions. If it’s not ideal, it’s time to adjust.
A common error drivers make while driving on a dark road is switching high-beams to low-beam headlights too soon. Many tend to drop to low-beam the moment the headlights of an approaching vehicle are seen ahead. That’s too soon and can drastically reduce your visibility until you reach them. The spray of light coming from your headlights has yet to reach the vehicle you’re approaching. You need the high-beam spray to see to the sides as well as ahead while traveling at higher speeds. If you switch to low-beam headlights too soon, you’ll be overdriving your headlights.
Instead, leave high-beams on until the spray of your headlights reaches the spray of the oncoming driver’s headlights. Once this happens, switch the high-beams headlights back to low-beams. If you’re concerned that someone may flash their headlights at you asking you to lower your headlight beams, it rarely happens. The main reason this doesn’t happen too often is that your vehicle and headlight spray are not close enough to them to have your headlight spray reach the driver’s face, which usually means they may not realize your high beam headlights are on. Once your headlight spray reaches their headlight spray, switch back to low-beams. The combination of your spray with their spray will light up the road enough to keep you from overdriving your headlights.