111–120 of 133 posts
This is so much worse now that crossovers are the default car in the US. I seem to be the last person in America driving a car that isn't a tank and have never understood why everyone loves those massive machines so much.
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Well... if you just take 2 minutes to read the article, you will see that a mother killed her own son in the driveway. That alone should be enough to get SUVs off the road, in my book.
Yup, and I still don't know how she was able to do that, knowing that he was there. If you know that you can't see well out of your vehicle, make sure the kids aren't anywhere near it when you're driving. Hell, when my kids were young, they weren't even allowed to be outside on the same side of the house that I was mowing.
Why let them outside at all? An eagle could snatch them or something, you never know
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This is one of the things I really like about driving a minivan. Excellent visibility compared to just about any other vehicle, including sedans. A combination of higher sitting position with larger windows and sloping hood really opens up sight lines. My son has a Mazda 2 and I hate driving that thing. Feels like the columns and ride height really kills visibility.
100%. I have a Mazda cx-5. Visibility sucks looking left & right because the A frame is so thick. My thought: demand a certain level of visibility from car manufacturers, and they can figure out how to design around it. Like, I must be able to look left and see the pedestrian 3 feet away from walking into my car. Blind spots like that in the front are ridiculous
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I remember having to take my car in to adjust the aiming of the headlights after it didn't pass inspection. So we used to take things like this seriously. I just had my car inspected last month, I don't even remember them hitting the horn. I'm guessing they pretty much just shove a sensor up the exhaust pipe and call it a day while accepting your payment.
No shoving sensors required, the data is all in the ECU accessible over OBDII interface. The car knows if it’s compliant in real time using the sensors it already has.
Same in europe, since a few years. It should be illegal, but there you are. There is the possibility (as said by an apologetic driver) that it sometimes may be a badly functioning automation ("Too high? Oh but it's automatic").
My observations from the UK, formerly almost 'Europe': Boomers need cataract operations! A huge part of the car dependent population are elderly. These folks need ten times the light to see anything when compared to the seventeen year old learner driver (that doesn't go out at night, because their driving instructor clocked off hours ago). My thoughts regarding this are somewhat anecdotal, however, I have heard a mys…
Also, as a cyclist myself I commend your bravery for riding without lights. It's in the driver handbook so it's missing from the TFA and the discussion here, but the lights on the vehicles are not just to see something but to be seen as well. Especially on a bike.
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How often do you come across kids sitting on the ground in a parking lot? If they want to make a point about visibility at least have them standing up.
Well... if you just take 2 minutes to read the article, you will see that a mother killed her own son in the driveway. That alone should be enough to get SUVs off the road, in my book.
I will say, while there's now more overly bright headlights of varying degrees of blinding, it's better then when every truck started buying HID headlights and putting them in normal headlight housings. Felt like there was a period of time where headlights were either the normal tone, or a super bright light hitting you from all directions
- glare for older people might be due to deposits in their lens, which can be corrected by cataract surgery. The deposits make oncoming headlights like a dirty windshield at sunset. (disability glare)
- glare for people with good vision is all the light focused at the same point on your retina and is sort of painful. (discomfort glare)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glare_(vision)
some cars have matrix/adaptive headlights now:
https://www.notateslaapp.com/news/2059/tesla-matrix-headligh...
Blindzone Glare Elimination Method can help address some of this https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/blindzoneglaremi... It doesn't help at all with head on traffic, but glare via my side mirrors has been reduced greatly since I implemented this.
I do this on long drives, but always have to put it back to normal when it's time to park. It would be neat if cars would implement some sort of automatic switch between this configuration and the straight-back mode when reversing.
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Forget about EVs. Most regular SUVs should be taken off the road. Look at this example: a dozen kids aligned in a neat row in front of the SUV and the soccer mom drivers can see none of them! https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/driveway-danger...
How often do you come across kids sitting on the ground in a parking lot? If they want to make a point about visibility at least have them standing up.