Drive against high-beams (headlights)

132

Neeyathi_hemmige - 7 September, 2009 | Traffic | Bangalore | Complaint | Enforcement | Enforcement

Hi Prajas, with the increase in number of vehicles plying on the road, it is becoming very difficult for people of all age groups to walk safely on the road. Congestion, whilst speeding vehices at times no traffic sense is adding woes to the pedestrian. Another thing that has gone un-noticed is that the head-lights of vehicles are run with high-beams. I think the traffic-police should bring a regulation mandatory for all vehicle users to use low or medium beams.

Why cannot the supreme court  bring a law for this.

Any opinions....


 


COMMENTS

new law, why?

silkboard - 7 September, 2009 - 09:57

I would think that such rules/laws. However, there is no explicit mention of high beam on their spot fines list (http://www.bangaloretrafficpolice.gov.in/trafic_spot_fines.htm) or in the rules and regulations document (http://www.bangaloretrafficpolice.gov.in/traffic_rules.htm)

Regardless, our traffic police pleads helplessness on enforcing most of above - they are unable to enforce. Not that they don't try. I think they do have drives against high beam (I remember they did a high beam drive on cubbon road or somewhere few months ago) and other specific enforcement items once in a while.

If you want to make a difference, you should start a project here to just quiz and question bangalore city police on their performance, plans and effectiveness on enforcement front.

  • Are 1800 people enough to enforce all traffic rules listed on the Traffic police website and manuals.
  • If their answer would be no, then have they asked for increased budgets
  • If their answer is "yes, but ...", then what are these buts (overlapping jurisdictions, gaps at RTO etc), and who is responsible for fixing these buts.

I am booked on another project here. But if you want to start one, I bet more readers will join in.

On the positive side, Traffic Police does listen, and they are very responsive on any efforts from our side to engage.

thanks for your suggestions.

Neeyathi_hemmige - 8 September, 2009 - 05:18

thanks for your suggestions. Every one knows the loopholes of RTO and the problems faced by Traffic Police.

When there is another governing body which can regulate these norms, why not?  When a law is enforced, it might as well force the vehicle users to follow the same. That way the traffic police can penalise the defaulters on the spot. They don't have to book under RTO ACT etc.

 

 

Lux Meter plus Speed Meter

Vasanth - 8 September, 2009 - 23:49

Well, traffic police always go after only one thing at a time, if they are checking speed, they wont check if driver is alcoholic, if they check alcohol, they neglect speed and negligent drivers.

We need to have speed sensors installed as part of B-Trac, just not signals. The half black sticker which used to be in place earlier, is not here now which illuminates light directly into light. In US, I don't see that much of bright headlights which is being used in Indian cars.  Government should pass an ordinal to car and 2 wheeler manufacturers about the illumination regulations and some specifications.

 

call centre vehicles to blame?

blrsri - 9 September, 2009 - 00:02

 I was at the garage to replace my fused headlamp and then the mechanic asked me if I wanted the 100W lamp instead..

He said these 100W lamps are now been used regularly by call centre vehicles since they drive at odd hours of the day..these lamps are supposed to help keep them awake!

I anyways decided to hav the regular 60W one instead!

 

Even I get irritated very much on the vehicles coming from the other side with the high beam. Our roads doesn't have a high-height divider which can block the high beam from other side of the road. Many of the roads anyways doesn't have any street lights, only light you drive on the road is with the headlight of our own vehicle, and in that case if some vehicle is coming from the opposite direction with high beam, you are almost gone, I mean you cannot see anything in front of you and we know the conditions of the road in Bangalore, you might end up in a pot-hole or hit a stone on the road or hit with a vehicle going in front of you with no back-light.

I have a suggestions, what traffic police can do about is this -

(1) First a awareness drive for 2 weeks or so to the people about low beam.

(2) Then for 1-2 weeks, they can warn people who are still going with the high beam.

(3) Finally, they shoule be ready with black paint, and start painting that black on the upper portion of the headlight of the vehicles. No fine, no other kind of blockage, just paint black.

 

Highbeam or One's own safety ?

Naveen - 10 September, 2009 - 06:16

Hi All,

I mentioned this previously a long time ago - Erratic traffic /erratic pedestrians /erratic bicyclists /potholes /unmarked & dicontinuous dividers /poorly lit streets & what have you - a great recipe for accidents !

I always used to drive at night with dipped /low-beam lights until it happened - on Hosur rd, just past Langford rd junction, at about 11.00PM. There was this truck proceeding slow right in the middle of the carriageway going south (towards koramangala) & I decided to overtake him when traffic from the opposite direction was clear. When I just overtook & cleared the truck, my car made contact with an unmarked divider that sprang out of nowhere - no light, no reflector, no sign post. The car's right front suspension & side was damaged as it had grazed the metalic fence /divider & this had shaken all of us in the car, though there were no injuries to anyone.

I had yelled at the duty-cop at the T-junction, asking him why the divider was placed about 100mtrs away from the T-junction when it should have started at the well lit junction itself, & also why there was no reflector or other marker /sign-post to indicate this ? I later noticed that they had extended the divider right upto the junction & placed a reflector on it, as it should have been in the first place.

Since then, I have become very cautious - using high-beam in the dark selectively to scan ahead as frequently as possible, whilst minimizing glare to traffic from the opposite direction.

Given the street conditions, high-beam is a must for one's own safety & the days when you could paint the upper half black are gone.

BTW Vasanth - when we visited the TMC, we were told that speed scanners are in use at few places & will be installed at many more points in the future.


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