ALERTNESS AT NIGHT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 254, 26 October 1937, Page 9

ALERTNESS AT NIGHT

COURTESY SHOWN BY DIPPING > VALUE OF BLIND ON REAR WINDOW. In heavy traffic at night on any of the main highways leading out of the city the motorist is faced with a set of difficulties which are not mitigated as time goes on, and for which no really satisfactory solutions have yet been offered. The motorist docs not take his life in his hands every time he ventures forth after nightfall; far from it, but the dangers existing on the highways in the hours of darkness are sufficiently great to make an attitude of constant alertness essential. The question of glare still remains the most pressing, mainly because many motorists will not make use of the equipment fitted to their cars for the purpose of helping other drivers. Every modern car is fitted with a dipping switch for directing the headlight beams downward and away from the eyes of the approaching driver. Although its use may involve a certain momentary slackening of speed by the driver travelling fast, there is no hardship in that. The safety of other road users is of far more importance than the convenience of someone in a hurry. Passing a car with dipped headlights can be done in reasonable comfort, and every should make a practice of using his dipper when another car approaches. Most cars of to-day are fitted with very powerful lights, but although these are a great comfort to the man behind the wheel on a clear, open stretch of highway, their dazzling qualities are sometimes quite astonishing, so that undipped they are a menace to other road users. Rear Window Blind.

It is regrettable that the manufacturers of some of the most popular models on the road have seen lit to omit from the standard equipment the roller blind on the rear window. Some of the worst dazzle comes from behind, the headlights of following cars striking through the rear window and reflecting back into the driver’s eyes from the windscreen and rear vision mirror. That this is a real menace will be corroborated by every experienced motorist, but it can be eliminated completely by covering up the rear window. Prevention of dazzle from this source is the main purpose ‘of the roller blind, and its elimination, in many cases to effect a small manufacturing economy, cannot be condemned too heartily. In dealing with dazzle from all sources the precautions the motonst should take are, first, to cover up the rear window with a newspaper or rug if no blind is provided; second, to slacken speed when another car approaches, and studiously to avoid looking at its headlights, steering close to the left-hand verge of the road, and concentrating attention on it. Fast driving at night is something to be avoided. In the first place it is obviously unsafe to drive at a speed higher than that from which the car can be stopped within the visible space ahead. Although many headlights may allow a speed of 60 miles an hour to be maintained, it is too easy for the lights of other cars or overhead lamps to throw conflicting shadows into this lighting space, and in a flick of an eyelash the margin of safety is gone. Again, in city and suburban streets the overhead lights and neon signs cast alternate patches of brilliance and shadow in which pedestrians become lost to sight. Steady, cautious procedure, unless the whole roadway is clearly illuminated far ahead, must be the motorists’ watchword.

Finally, on country roads a sharp lookout must be kept for pedestrians in dark clothing and cyclists without lights; their faculty for materialising out of nothing almost beneath the wheels of a car is the cause of more frights to drivers than any other single thing.