Talking of traffic stupidity...

[theodog (Jeff)]

To obtain one's car licence, one should first complete a "Stay Upright" motorbike road safety course and do a mandatory 12 months on the bike. If you pass this your probably still alive and can move onto cars.
After 10 years driving I did this course and obtained my bike licence, best thing I ever did (for myself and other road users).

BTW I ride a 250cc and drive a MX5 and 70 Series Landy (not mentioned in a previous list), and have no problem with my masculinity.

Best advice; "Assume ALL other road users are idiots and act accordingly. It's no good being right and dead." Stay Upright presenter.

[Exfso (Peter)]

Originally Posted by DarkArts

There's a lot of that around.

I frequently ask myself how some got their license.

It seems to me that, rather than apply close scrutiny of competence through the court system after the driver has done something incredibly stupid ... and maybe killed someone in the process ... getting a license ought to require demonstration of much greater skill and better judgement in the first place.

Easy answer, they got them out of a weetbix packet years ago

[DarkArts]

Originally Posted by FlashDrive

I .....the modern new cars have ' blazing ' white lights even on low beam ...

That is an annoying and (I think) dangerous problem.

It's not just 4WDs sitting higher and/or with heavy loads, there's also the problem of DIY LED conversions where the owner replaces the halogen bulb in a reflector with an LED module. These aren't usually direct replacements, though, and spray light all over the place because the light-emitting 'zone' is not as compact as the halogen filament and reflects at different angles.

In the ACT years ago, one used to have to get headlights tested (for brightness and dipped angle) at every roadworthy inspection ... and they were far more frequently inspected. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen anymore.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

The first cars I can recall with blinding lights were AU Falcons, horrible things then and they still are.

Modern cars with LED or HID lamps should actually be less of a problem as they are self levelling if they are factory fitted. At least if my ute has a load in the tray it should be no worse than normal as the lights adjust themselves lower to match the rear suspension compression. it actually took a little getting used to in the first car I had with HID lights as they would be a quarter of a beat behind over bumps so the light pattern did not quite follow what the nose of the car was doing. Some do seem to be aimed overly high out of the factory, a couple of utes I see (Hiluxes) are painful even up in my block of flats on wheels, they must be horrid to meet in a sedan.

LED and HID conversions however are rubbish and should get the chop. The optics of a halogen light are simply wrong for an LED or HID lamp, the light source is a different shape so they just throw glare everywhere and for their output provide poor lighting anyway!