kscarrol

Not taking sides in this foglight discussion, but what does this statement mean? That having lights on helped you judge the distance correctly? And by that do you mean because you had DRL on or becuase the car pulling from the sidewalk did?

rodneyremington

[/quote]
Ironically I agree with you that daytime running lights are an intrusion into my private decision-making, but you are dead wrong if you think that some guy smashing his head on the road because he didn't wear a bike helmet doesn't hurt you. Visit an ICU ward sometime in Florida. Count the number of head injuries from bikers. Add up their hospital bills not covered by insurance and paid by the state. That's millions of taxpayer dollars being smashed on the highway. Those expenses covered by insurance are subsidized by other policyholders, again costing us all money.

I would be perfectly fine with no helmets if the driver would sign a waiver refusing any medical car if they have a head injury while riding.

Ricracing

[/quote]
Ironically I agree with you that daytime running lights are an intrusion into my private decision-making, but you are dead wrong if you think that some guy smashing his head on the road because he didn't wear a bike helmet doesn't hurt you. Visit an ICU ward sometime in Florida. Count the number of head injuries from bikers. Add up their hospital bills not covered by insurance and paid by the state. That's millions of taxpayer dollars being smashed on the highway. Those expenses covered by insurance are subsidized by other policyholders, again costing us all money.

I would be perfectly fine with no helmets if the driver would sign a waiver refusing any medical car if they have a head injury while riding.
[/quote]

Yes, I agree on this. The helmet and seatbelt issues are close to each other. The seatbelt also helps to avoid headinjurys.

And the fact is, a car with the headlights on can be observed much earlier than a car without, not to mention a motorcycle.

Freedom is one of the most important things in life, but what do you do with your freedom after you banged your head into the dash or concrete street, when you did not wear the seatbelts or helmet and did not see the car coming because it did not have its headlights on?

norham

[/quote]
Ironically I agree with you that daytime running lights are an intrusion into my private decision-making, but you are dead wrong if you think that some guy smashing his head on the road because he didn't wear a bike helmet doesn't hurt you. Visit an ICU ward sometime in Florida. Count the number of head injuries from bikers. Add up their hospital bills not covered by insurance and paid by the state. That's millions of taxpayer dollars being smashed on the highway. Those expenses covered by insurance are subsidized by other policyholders, again costing us all money.

I would be perfectly fine with no helmets if the driver would sign a waiver refusing any medical car if they have a head injury while riding.
[/quote]

Yes, I agree on this. The helmet and seatbelt issues are close to each other. The seatbelt also helps to avoid headinjurys.

And the fact is, a car with the headlights on can be observed much earlier than a car without, not to mention a motorcycle.

Freedom is one of the most important things in life, but what do you do with your freedom after you banged your head into the dash or concrete street, when you did not wear the seatbelts or helmet and did not see the car coming because it did not have its headlights on?
[/quote]
Am I missing something here? What has crash helmets/safety belts gotta do with original question. If the contributers want to discuss different state/country laws or the cost to various health authorities of medical costs then start a subject up on that, don't digress into personal/abusive comments about unrelated matters, this is the only gripe I have about this forum you search for help on a subject and you find one with several pages of replies and believe you are going to get the help you need only to find that members are carrying on conversations/showing pics about unrelated matters. I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
Now what was the question again???????????

stafli

I beleive this whole discussion is more or less country & culture specific. Is it up to me if I want to use headlight & setbelt & helmet etc? Considering seatbelts; Well, if you live in a country where the taxpayers will pay for your emergency healthcare, it's clearly not up to you. If you pay for your own emergency healthcare - it's up to you! In Sweden, almost everything related to healthcare is to a big extent paid by taxpayers - that's why there is "self protecting laws" like this; Bikers must wear a helmet, cyclists under the age of 15 must wear a helmet, seatbelts even in backseat (in a major crash, the driver will otherwise be saved by the airbag and then killed by the person sitting behind him).

I beleive Canada had the same reasons to make a law to use headlights at daytime as Sweden (dark winters). Especially the headlight law is not completely up to yo as it prevents (if it's dark or you have a stealth colour on your car) others to get messed up in an accident with you.

A positive effect; When using headlights all the time, you won't get moist into your headlight projectors (THOSE are defenately more expensive to replace than the bulbs...)

vern

Not taking sides in this foglight discussion, but what does this statement mean? That having lights on helped you judge the distance correctly? And by that do you mean because you had DRL on or becuase the car pulling from the sidewalk did?
[/quote]
Pardon me but what does Foglights have to do with the subject matter???
cheers
vern

Member545

"Foglights" has to do with a long standing discussion on foglight use when it is not foggy. Some people leave them on all the time. Iceman has a really negative opinion on this. Kscarrol was just pointing out this could be another deeply divided topic.

kscarrol

Member545 is correct! Some time ago there was a very heated discussion on whether using foglights just for looks could affect the vision of on coming drivers and whether it was dangerous. Seeing the direction this thread was taking, I was simply trying to inject a little humor. I'm afraid some of the newer members may not have seen that discussion and therefore didn't understand my weak attempt at humor. My apologies.

tomwid

Great point. But to ME, and I am only speaking for myself, I would rather PAY my own medical stuff, sign a waiver, or whatever else to have the freedom to choose. Then at least we have a choice right?

SDS

[/quote]
Ironically I agree with you that daytime running lights are an intrusion into my private decision-making, but you are dead wrong if you think that some guy smashing his head on the road because he didn't wear a bike helmet doesn't hurt you. Visit an ICU ward sometime in Florida. Count the number of head injuries from bikers. Add up their hospital bills not covered by insurance and paid by the state. That's millions of taxpayer dollars being smashed on the highway. Those expenses covered by insurance are subsidized by other policyholders, again costing us all money.

I would be perfectly fine with no helmets if the driver would sign a waiver refusing any medical car if they have a head injury while riding.
[/quote]

Yes, I agree on this. The helmet and seatbelt issues are close to each other. The seatbelt also helps to avoid headinjurys.

And the fact is, a car with the headlights on can be observed much earlier than a car without, not to mention a motorcycle.

Freedom is one of the most important things in life, but what do you do with your freedom after you banged your head into the dash or concrete street, when you did not wear the seatbelts or helmet and did not see the car coming because it did not have its headlights on?
[/quote]
Am I missing something here? What has crash helmets/safety belts gotta do with original question. If the contributers want to discuss different state/country laws or the cost to various health authorities of medical costs then start a subject up on that, don't digress into personal/abusive comments about unrelated matters, this is the only gripe I have about this forum you search for help on a subject and you find one with several pages of replies and believe you are going to get the help you need only to find that members are carrying on conversations/showing pics about unrelated matters. I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
Now what was the question again???????????
[/quote]
As the originator of the subject topic, and if anyone is interested in knowing what I decided, I am having the DRL programmed today. For me, it was not a matter of having my freedom stripped because, hello, I was given the option to have them programmed on or to leave them off. I simply could not decide if I liked the look of driving around with very faint lights on during the day. In the end, as someone mentioned, I decided that I would not be seeing the lights on and if they can provide the slightest amount of extra safety then why not? As another poster mentioned, I leave my lights on "automatic" function , however there are periods of time when it's not quite dark enough out to activate the headlamps. My car is Black Sapphire Metallic and I live in Annapolis, Maryland. (some posters wondered about that). Thanks for all of the passionate discussion, as a newbie it's nice to know I can spark such a discussion.