|
About Me
I'm the Pickups host here at Edmunds CarSpace.com - be sure to check out the Pickups forums if you have or are interested in one!
Recent Posts
Categories
CarSpace
The Big Rigs
We're gonna talk about the big ones... trucks and buses that require those 3 marker lights front and rear. Everything from dual rear wheel pickups to class 8 trucks to the bus that takes you to work.
 Simulated image of a black hole.
But there are black holes a lot closer to than the ones in outer space... these are the people who drive around at night with most (if not all) of their lights out. And I don't mean the guy who simple forgot to turn them on... I mean the vehicle on the highway with one or two dim headlights and nothing else lit.
I was "lucky" enough to be behind one of these dolts in a full-size van on my way home from work tonight. Headlights worked, but he had no parking lights, marker lights, or tail lights. However, when he changed lanes, his turn signal lights worked just fine... so it wasn't the bulbs themselves.
I regularly check my exterior lights since I basically am on the road every weeknight - I work noon to 8 pm, so unless I am heading home early, my lights are always necessary for the trip home. And of course, I drive a dually pickup which is certainly larger than any car. Thus, my lights are important to make sure everyone can see all the corners of my vehicle as well as the side fenders. On any vehicle I've owned, a bulb has never been dead more than 24 hours. Why others don't seem to think this is important certainly eludes me.
Once in a while, give your vehicle the once-around at night with the lights turned on. Make sure that they are all functional and at full intensity. No sense in being the next black hole on the highway.
 School has opened around the country - yes, some places started last month, but it's a done deal everywhere now.
My office is a few blocks away from a school, and with my hours, I usually am on my way back to the office after lunch around 2:30-3 pm.
And every September, it seems as though drivers either forget over the summer or are just increasingly becoming less tolerant of school children who aren't picked up by their parents and shuttled door-to-door.
When the school bus driver activates the amber flashing lights, prepare yourself to stop in a matter of seconds... when the bus stops, the flashing lights switch to the red units and the arm swings out, STOP. Don't roll up on the bus at 5 mph, don't ease towards the kids as they cross the street... STOP. And for crying ouyt loud... NEVER PASS THE BUS. Where I used to live, the landlord had a handicapped child, and a small lift-equipped bus came to the front door every day to pick up Josh in his wheelchair. Mind you, this is a tertiary street, one block long. The bus driver, really nice older gent, would stop the bus, lights flashing, and position the lift while the father brought Josh out. I was watching this daily ritual one morning when some genius in a Honda Accord attempted to pass the bus... on the door side. The bus driver, who just missed getting picked off by this loser, absolutely freaked on the car driver.
When i was a kid taking the bus, in the early and mid 70s, this wasn't as bad. But the last couple of years, I have seen people approach a stopped school bus, lights flashing, stop arm out, children actively boarding or getting off, and seen some of the dumbest moves by drivers. One idiot actually blew his horn at the bus immediately in front of him, apparently annoyed that the process wasn't fast enough for his liking.
Same for crosswalks attendaed by crossing guards... when they walk out into the street with their Stop sign raised, you can't proceed. Period.
Bad enough we've lost courtesy to other adults on the road, but give the kids a shot at it, ok?
Not a sudden thunderstorm that blows through in 20 minutes... but a good all-day rain.
It's been a law in New Jersey for over 10 years to turn all your lights on whenever sky conditions require windshield wipers. And yet far too many people don't bother. With tire spray, rain, and fog, it's REALLY easy to come up on some small car (especially silver/gray/white) with almost no warning it was there because the driver is running "dark".
Check my CarSpace guide titled Driving in Bad Weather - See and Be Seen to avoid getting rear-ended when you least expect it.
 I call them the Black Holes.
It amazes me that after all these years, people still forget to turn their lights on. This is more common in cities where the (often unnecessary) high-intensity orange street lights basically cancel the effects of headlights.
But it's inexcusable on a highway... I've driven home from work (I'm done at 8 pm), I get on I-80, and unless it's winter when it's dead-dark, there will always be someone on the road who thinsk they can see just fine.
HEY DUMMY... WE CAN'T SEE YOU!
It's really all the orange and red lights that keep you safe in the road, not just the two big white ones up front. When I turn the maximum lights on my truck, there would be 6 white lights (head, fog, and the small license plate lights out back), 9 orange lights, and 9 red ones. When the sun gets low, you really need to turn them all on, folks... it's really not so much that your headlights won't illuminate the road, but so everyone else can make out your vehicle in less than optimal conditions.
And yet the near-misses of people who should seemingly have been able to see a 21-foot 4-door dually covered in that many factory lights is sometimes scary.
|
|
