Re: City Lights and aiming

[Tom Nas <tnas@euronet.nl>]

Aleksander Mierzwa <alex@matrix.pl> wrote:

>As I've already pointed out in the past, I don't know where the term "city
>lights" originates from, but certainly not from Europe. The little 4W bulbs
>you refer to are European _parking_ lights.

Sorry to desillusion you, but in Dutch they're called 'stadslicht' (city
light). You're not allowed to use 'em as such, though.

 They are intended to be left on
>when you park the car in dark area, you are neither supposed nor allowed to
>actually _drive_ with them on, particularly at night. No matter if you are
>in well lit city area or not, the law everywhere in Europe requires you to
>have your low beams on. In fact, some countries (particularly Scandinavian
>ones) have laws requiring the use of low beams (or DRL, if so equipped) in
>daylight as well.

You used to be able to use 'em in built-up areas until the late '60s here.
Then they changed the law requiring dipped beams as a minimum. I've seen
pics of UK street scenes with lots of cars with only the city lights on.
The English call them 'running lights' if I recall correctly.

>Of course, if you have the Euro lights in USA, you can use them for
>whatever you like. I personally think, though, that using only 4W bulbs at
>night, even in very well lit urban areas, is plain suicidal.

Amen. Still there are plenty of idiots here running around on city lights
only...

Tom

 _______________________________________________________________________
 Tom Nas                                          Zeist, The Netherlands
 tnas@euronet.nl
 1987 Audi 90q 2.3E, Tizianrot metallic, 167,000km

         Never make predictions, especially about the future.
                                        -- Samuel Goldwyn