On Fri, 3 Jan 1997, Todd Mullins wrote:
> constabulary. As far as I'm concerned, any cop who tickets a driver for
> having lights that are TOO SAFE is an idiot.
I ran unapproved quartz halogens on my everyday car from 1982 or so
through 1994. No aiming nubs, no DOT mark, just good lighting. Nobody
ever bothered me here in VT--they went through some 12 state inspections
and by innumerable police cars without even a comment.
I personally think the sharp low beam cutoff is easier for oncoming
drivers to deal with than standard US lights. Only one driver ever seemed
disconcerted by them. I was about 150 or 200 feet behind another car
going home down a bumpy road, and at a stop sign a young woman leaped out
of the car ahead, came back, and began yelling at me for flashing my high
beams on and off. Took me a minute to figure it out--I had 150 lb of salt
for the water softener in the trunk, which brought the low beam cutoff
about to the bottom of her rear window. When I hit bumps, the cutoff
jumped to her mirror and the change was so sudden and dramatic she thought
I was flashing my high beams at her.
I explained it to her, and then told her: Young woman, if I really was
flashing my high beams at you, then either I am some kind of nut or I am
trying to alert you to some problem. In either case, it may not be real
sensible to jump out of your car at an intersection in the boonies 10
miles from anywhere and shout at me. If I'm trying to alert you to
trouble, you are out of line. If I'm a nut, I might do you real harm.
However, I did pay more attention after that to where the light cutoff
fell on the car in front.
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
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