I love driving. I love the night. I absolutely detest driving at night. I used to enjoy it. The lack of people on the roads, the lack of sun burning me if I’m driving west, and not needing the air conditioning running full blast in order to keep the car cool. See, I don’t handle the sun very well. I burn easily. It makes me feel like crap. No, I don’t believe I’m a vampire, even though my sleeping habits would suggest that. Those people are nuts. No, I’m just a very fair skinned Irish lad that has had far too many bad experiences with the sun to enjoy it anymore. Turning my legs black and being unable to walk for three days… Pretty much cooking my shoulders (they were hard, and bubbly, and hurt like hell)… yeah, the sun and I don’t get along. So I’m not a big fan of driving in the sun, but it sure as hell beats driving at night lately.
It used to be that when you came to about 200 feet from another vehicle traveling in the same direction as you on the highway, you would turn off your high beams so you didn’t blind the driver in front of you. You would turn off your high beams about 400 feet from oncoming traffic. They would do the same. Common courtesy. Now, driving down the highway at night, I have yet to see one person turn off their high beams in either direction.
It’s really a pain in the ass when the jack ass has those HID headlights, because even on low beam, they are pretty blinding. And that’s not only discourteous, it’s fucking dangerous. If I’m being blinded by headlights coming at me, either from the front or behind, I can’t see the road. If I can’t see the road, I might miss a turn. I might miss a deer. Even worse, I might miss that pedestrian walking along the side. Actually, I think I would be lucky to miss the pedestrian, because then I wouldn’t kill them.
Yes, high beams are intended to help you see when there is limited light on the road, but you still need to turn them off when you are behind somebody. Not everybody has auto dimming mirrors on their vehicles. I know I sure as hell don’t, and I’m not likely to unless I go and buy a brand spanking new car, and that is very, very unlikely. I don’t have the money, I don’t have the desire, and I certainly don’t want to lose half my money as soon as I drive it off the lot.
The first thing I do when I get on the highway is turn down my dash lights. Then I flip the rear view into dim with the toggle, and then it’s time to turn off the display on the stereo. Anything to improve my night vision. And then some dick comes up behind me with high beams blazing away, and all of my prep is for naught. I might as well be staring at the sun for all I can see.
Turn off your god damn high beams when you come up on somebody on the highway. The roads will be a lot safer for it.
Meh.
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