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Guess we were all so busy
By roadman on Tue, 04/07/2015 - 3:20pm
focusing on whether or not "RoadRunner" was about to become the official state rock song, that we overlooked this new law - effective today - that quietly slipped through:
http://blog.mass.gov/transportation/uncategorized/new-motor-vehicle-ligh...
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Comments
good!
Can we also enforce the law that headlights be used at night? Every evening on my ride home I see at least one car driving around stealth. And I frequently see (usually Priuses) driving on the Mass Pike sans lights!
Agree with your frustration about 'stealth' cars
However, given that the instrument lights on newer cars are always illuminated regardless of whether or not the headlights are on, I can see where a person used to driving an older car might not immediately switch their lights on at night.
And I'll confess that it's happened to me personally on a few ocassions in the past year driving my 2012 Focus, though I haven't driven very long before realizing my lights were off.
Some models have different lighting levels
I know it is time to go to full lights in my VW because the instrument cluster is dim enough to be bothersome, and the little "DRL" for "daytime running lights" becomes much more visible than the rest of the instrument cluster as a subtle reminder.
European vehicles have been equipped with daytime running lights for several decades, and I've long been in the habit of just switching mine on anyway.
Know what is totally and completely bizarre: this new law does not at all change that "half hour after sunset/half hour before sunrise" strangeness - meaning, on a clear day one can legally go stealth at times that you really should have lights on!
If you can't see cars on the
If you can't see cars on the road a half hour after sunset then you shouldn't be on the road. Sunset is when the sun passes the horizon, not when there is no more sunlight. There is still a fair amount of daylight for a good 45 minutes after sunset.
I'd be happy if they even cracked down on speeding
Or blinkers or tailgating or double-parking or blocking the box or texting will driving or rolling through stop signs or jay-walking or biking on the sidewalks...
No, lets add another law the police will never enforce and drivers will forget in a week.
Uhm
Any statistics on Priuses? Maybe those eco-nazis think that they're using less electricity with their lights off. (Probably not.) I think this is a pretty gross generalization)
(I do, however, see a lot of cabs driving around with their lights off at night, but I think that's because cabbies are idiots.)
On a Prius, if you leave the lights on all the time, they'll shut off when you get out of the car. (Unless you don't get out the driver's door—i.e. if you climb out the passenger door or something.) Then they're on all the time, and you're always more visible, and complying with the law (and you don't have to remember to turn on the lights when the sun sets, or when you go in to a tunnel, or when you are driving at night on a well-lit street, etc.). Should be a feature in all cars, IMHO, or just make like Canada: lights always on, by law.
Are Priuses the new bikes?
Here's all you need to know about the headlights law
Two words: Surchargeable Offense.
The gift that keeps on giving. Those insurance company lobbyists and their clients in the Great and General Court are nothing if not predictable.
Then why isn't
texting and driving a surchargable offense as well? I find it hard to believe that the communications lobby and their clients have more clout with the Legislature than the insurance lobby and their clients do.
I'm surprised
this is just becoming a thing now. I grew up in NY and these were always part of the law (it's actually 1,000 ft visibility there).
I wonder if they'll enforce these better than they do using your signal/blinker/blinkah.
1000 feet
Yeah, but how are you going to enforce that? Have cops carry around a 1000 foot tape measure? That doesn't sound too realistic.
Though in seriousness, the lack of blinkers is just selfish, asshole behavior. I'd be curious how many pedestrians get flattened and pushed back up onto the curb by drivers failing to signal.
First, it's 500 feet visibility, not 1,000 feet
Second, on Interstate Highways and freeways, the length of each white skip line and the gap to the following one is 40 feet. So if you can't see at least 14 skip lines in front of you, your headlights should be on. Easy enough for a cop to figure out as well.
First off
I was making what I thought was an obvious joke, but I was referring to the 1000 feet that Chris mentioned in New York.
Also, I was joking.
Yes, I realize you were joking
But I'm sure somebody out here would be asking "That's a good question. How do you accurately measure 1,000 feet (or 500 feet) on a highway?" anyway.
Ah, okay. Fair enough.
Ah, okay. Fair enough.
Same here- from NY. I just
Same here- from NY. I just assumed that it was already the law in MA and the cars with wipers on and no lights were just in the same category as those with no lights on at night, no front red plate, and (maybe) one brake light that works.
That said, when I was interning for an assistant district attorney in Central New York a while back, I overheard two cops talking about whether they'd ever written a ticket for having no lights on when it was raining. Neither had. The court clerk asked why and one responded: "I'm not going to stand in the rain to write that ticket."
Sounds about right
I'm a CNY native myself, and it does seem like the headlight thing is enforced about as often as blinkers are here, especially on the Thruway and 81. You've confirmed my suspicion as to why, and I'm sure it'll be the same way here after the newness wears off.
I think this law will serve
I think this law will serve many purposes, one being to get a better view of a car coming down the road in very cloudy foggy rainy conditions and another would be law enforcement pulling over cars without having their head lights on in rainy weather and might find drugs in cars especially on interstate highways. With all the heroin deaths in this state, A great way to catch drug dealers who drive without headlight on in rainy conditions.
If my wipers are on
If my wipers are on intermittent can I tell the cop that I only need to turn the lights on while the wipers are actually moving?
Not sure if you're joking, but
I'm seriously wondering if there's some sort of provision in the law for when you're cleaning your windshield with the wiper fluid on a day when there is otherwise no reason to have your wipers on.
If a cop sees the wipers moving, and your lights aren't on, can he just pull you over? Will you have to end up wrangling with them about whether your wipers were really "on" or just cleaning something temporarily?
I'm all for road safety, but I'm wary of "gotcha" laws that give cops more easy reasons to stop and hassle me.
Conviction thrown out
Not that I'd want to go though the process but it seems unlikely any judge would accept cleaning one's windows on a sunny day as grounds for pulling someone over.
If the police want to pull someone over it isn't hard for them to find a minor violation such as changing lanes without signaling, failure to stay within marked lanes, failure to come to a complete stop, seatbelts, etc.
People like to blame cyclists as being huge lawbreakers but most drivers do something technically illegal every few miles in the city. (As do many cyclists & pedestrians.)
Signed into law by Mini-Me on
Signed into law by Mini-Me on his last day.
I wonder which insurance company will soon welcome him to their board of directors?
I've been out since 6 this morning
and everyone seems to be obeying this new law.
Maybe
They are like me and already assumed it was always the law.
Or are like me
and recognize it's just plain common sense to use your headlights when it's raining hard enough for you to need to turn on your wipers.
So necessary!
because its so much harder to see a car, truck, or bus in inclement weather than a bicycle or pedestrian (with no lights, reflectors, and in all dark clothing)!
I see many future contested tickets based on opinion of whether or not a vehicle is visible enough
Hodor
Hodor, hodor.
Hodor.
Hodor.
Translation:
Badbike, badbike.
Badbike.
Badbike.
If you're going to be a one-note instrument you might as well take advantage of current pop culture to try to seem hip.
Not nice Tachometer...
What has Hodor ever done to you?
On the other hand, maybe Bran can warg his way into Mark's single tracked mind and have him ride a bike.
Mark K from Arlington, MA
Did you find out yet if that guy in Kendall that chopped up his buddy is a bicyclist yet?
For decades, in racing, we've used rain lights
not headlights, but what most people would call tail lights so drivers can know there is a vehicle ahead through the spray. Even on the street, its seeing tail lights that counts in rain.
I made the point about poor visibility of pedestrians and cyclists because cars are already pretty visible while a much bigger problem is not being able to see pedestrians at night and police who don't enforce existing lighting laws on cyclists.
NY beat us
As you drive into NY they have signs about this law. It always made a ton of sense to me. Glad we got on the boat.
Good law, surprised it took
Good law, surprised it took so long to pass. It's simple common sense but a lot of people seem to lack that.
My car, 2005 basic edition
My car, 2005 basic edition Chevy Impala, is actually quite good about turning the lights on as soon as it starts getting a little dark out. I am so used to it taking care of the lights that with the new law I have to be very careful during sun showers. I thought it was pretty standard in newer cars for the lights to turn themselves on but I see lots of new new cars without their lights on in the dark, it seems odd to me.
AFAIK, "Auto headlight on"
is still not a standard feature on most cars. And the cars I've driven (mostly work cars and rentals) that do have this feature still require you to position the headlight switch in the "auto on" position for it to work.
Back in the days where nearly every basic cable station had a "Shadetree Mechanic" type DYI car repair program, it was common for one or more of the episodes to cover how to connect a relay into your wiper motor so your headlights would automatically turn on when you turned your wipers on.
Just seems like common sense
Just seems like common sense to me that the default should be "on" when a little dark with the option to turn it off. I have yet to figure out how to get the headlights to turn off fully when I exit the car. Currently they are on a 15 second timer from the moment I leave the car, so I constantly get people yelling to me that my headlights are on. My neighbors are convinced that my headlights turn off when I am a certain distance away from the car , as opposed to being on a timer.
Just seems like common sense
that people should know how, and be required to, to just manually turn their headlights on and off. You know, like drivers had to do for decades before the auto industry decided to force more expensive to fix gimmicks like "auto headlights" on us.
And DLRs are probably the one of the most pointless gimmicks of all.
well hold on just a second
I was curious about Daylight Runner Lights (headlights, not accessory lights) and if this would apply and work for this law. (since the car I drive has them, plus an "auto" mode)
But I saw this..
and this:
So essentially DRL wouldn't apply and "Auto" probably wouldn't work either, unless its dark enough to trigger the sensor to the "full on" position, so you're going to have to remember to turn ON the headlights anyways.
ugh.. just ugh.
I don't know how "quiet" it was
I heard about it at least a couple of weeks ago.
First I heard about this new law
was when I read the MassDOT blog earlier today. No mention of it whatsoever this morning on radio news or from the traffic reporters.
Insurance Agency e-Mail
We got e-mail about two weeks ago.
Followed within a day by a forwarded e-mail from my MIL.
Interesting
My insurance is usually good about e-mailing me about stuff like this. Never heard a word about this new law though.
My town cops...
...put out the word a month ago or more, and then again this week.