This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Bright (Head) Lights, Small Highway

Observations and opinions on driving the roads of Harford County, Maryland and America.

Observations and opinions on driving the roads of Harford County, Maryland and America.

Bright Lights, Small City

I was driving to work through some rainy and cold weather the other day and I was amazed at the number of people who did not have their lights on. With windows often fogged up and visibility seriously diminished, every little thing helps. While turning on your headlights might not improve your own view of the road ahead, it surely helps others see you. But that dunderhead in the steroid infused pickup truck doesn’t seem to care. Neither does the driver of that SUV. After all, they can see fine and anyway, they are too busy on their cell phones to give a flip about others.

Find out what's happening in Bel Airwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

But wait, doesn’t the law in Maryland state that if your wipers are on, your headlights should be on as well? (It does!)Didn’t they pass a test to get their license? Apparently that lesson about safety was missing from their copy. Maybe they just forgot. More likely they simply do not care a bit about the overall safety of all motorists on the highway, they care only for themselves. Of course if you come too close to them on the road, or have trouble seeing them at an intersection, it must be your fault, right?

While many newer automobiles have devices that automatically control headlights based on a light sensor, some do not and require intervention. So why do these careless people ignore that little knob on their dashboards? Are they really that unaware? All we can do is hope they might read this!

Find out what's happening in Bel Airwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Interestingly, these same small brains often have no trouble turning on their bright lights at night on even the best lit roads. How many times have you been blinded by a turkey’s high beams in oncoming traffic? I drive country back roads to and from work in Baltimore and nearly every evening I am blinded by one of these goofs. High beam headlights are meant to be used only in the most isolated of circumstances. Starless overcast nights, pitch black lonely country roads without traffic, streetlights or visible road markings. Only then should high beams be necessary.

To those of you carelessly using your high beams to blind me from behind or coming at me from around the next bend, please reconsider. If you cannot see at night, you should not be driving at night.

High beams are designed for worst case situations, not for normal driving. The law says they should be dimmed when closer than 500 feet from another car (500 feet = 166.66667 yards or over one and a half football fields). Clearly these dimensions are beyond the grasp of many bright light users. Since you cannot accurately judge distances, you should not be driving at night. Stay at home and order a pizza delivery. Get off the road at night or disable the high beam pedal! You only make the night roads more unsafe.

The sad fact is that all too many of our fellow drivers on the highways of America are self-centered and have no concern for innocent citizens on the public roads. Our only hope is that they can read and learn. Turn your lights ON when your wipers are wiping. Keep the high beams OFF when you do not absolutely need them. Let your love light shine!

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?