Not mentioned in the article; the people that have high beams on 24x7x365. What are they thinking?
Local issue; Carolina squat. Trucks lifted in the front only, back end winds up way lower than the front. Looks absolutely stupid to me but there's a lot of them out here and that puts them way out of the correctible range for headlight aiming. Seems NC is doing something about that legally, SC following soon?
I mentioned and complained about this issue about 5 months back. Going so far as to say maybe we should do away with high beams altogether because obviously we can't use the responsibly.
I got told since I'm being blinded by jackasses shining their brights in my mirror, I'm probably too old to drive and the apparently the number of people on HN who are driving in deer-infested wilderness is through the fucking roof.
But no, HN is the bastion of rationality and logic and there is no completely fucking stupid faction that dang just ignores.
A really bad one is the police lights at night. A police car on the side of the road with the lights on is so intense I can't look anywhere near it. I am convinced this is one of the reasons why those cars and officers get hit so much.
I had to look this up. Why would anyone do that? Not only does it look idiotic, but it probably messes with the crash safety technology of the car (in addition to the headlight problem).
Everyone in the car community not actively doing this also thinks it's stupid. It's objectively stupid and dangerous. The people doing it do it primarily because it's stupid and dangerous, similar to those in the "stance" community. They do it basically to get attention, even if that attention is negative, and to openly show that they have a disregard for others as for some reason American society rewards and uplifts anti-social behavior.
It's people who modify their cars to run as much camber as possible and run wide wheels with narrow tires stretched onto them so you're driving on a rubber-band width contact patch that is actually part of the tire's sidewall.
People who are into stance consider it an accolade if you can drive your car for some time and leave the stickers on the tires on (which are supposed to be removed during installation) and not have them rub off, because the contact patch is so narrow.
It's stupid, it's dangerous, and therefore it gets a lot of hate. Hate is attention, so insecure people who are afraid to actually get good at modifying and driving cars will do stance instead because it's formulaic and obvious what will get you accepted into the subcommunity and it gets lots of negative attention (which is still attention) everywhere else.
They do it for attention. Wearing a hat sideways looks stupid but for those who are addicted to attention, it is worthwhile. There's also a degree of chest thumping, showing that the attention seeker isn't afraid of defying society's expectations.
I think it's some combination of laziness or not knowing how their vehicle works. Some are coming equipped with auto high beams, but I'd wager those don't work on windy roads and therefore don't automatically dim.
On the other hand, I was driving at dusk last night to church and someone had his high beams on (still fairly light outside as the sun had only just set) and it was an older vehicle. So, I'm sure there's some laziness/ignorance to the high beam problem.
Wow - never seen a Carolina squat before - and certainly not here in the UK - how can you see anything close by in front of you? Must be hard to park in tight spaces.
I'd hate to have one of those driving around near kids or animals.
No problem! Just take up two spaces, or park in the way, if that what it takes.
On the one hand, parking is not a big issue in most places where this is a thing (though injuries resulting from vehicle collisions are.) On the other hand, this is the reaction of a culture that suspects it is being screwed out of something it thinks it is entitled to, but has no understanding of how or why it is happening, and responds through meaningless acts of somewhat aggressive defiance against responsible civil behavior. Yes, it is juvenile - welcome to the second millennium!
In the 24x7x365 case, it's basically "I want more light, so fuck you". It's the same principle for those who sit in the passing lane all the time and like to ride on the quarter of a car going at the same speed as they are, and I often meet people doing both.
Local issue; Carolina squat. Trucks lifted in the front only, back end winds up way lower than the front. Looks absolutely stupid to me but there's a lot of them out here and that puts them way out of the correctible range for headlight aiming. Seems NC is doing something about that legally, SC following soon?