The High-beam menace
Do you own/regularly drive a motor vehicle?
If you do, and if you are not under eighteen and have basic education, you probably have taken your driving/riding test, and have hopefully passed, and now possess a license. The government thinks you are not a liability to other road users.
Proud? Wait a second there, joy boy. The next time you take your vehicle out after sunset, you will probably switch on your headlamp. And continue riding/driving.
Has it ever occured to 80 per cent of road users that they can switch their headlamp's high beam off when commuting within city limits? We do live in a metro, almost all areas are very much well lit enough.... and these high beams are given for a purpose, and that is for use on highways, even then with proper use of the dipper function.
My question is, there are so many people with the high beams on, how could they possibly not be inconvenienced by another road user blasting down towards them with his high beams aimed right at their eyes? This is no minor issue I am talking about. People could be killed because of the carelessness of some braindead call taxi driver double-declutching his under-serviced over-miled garbage-bin Indica into third, while simultaneously swearing at an errant cyclist in the opposite lane, while himself bearing down on a couple of old guys on commuter bikes who are so blinded by his high beam blast that they have no idea which direction they are heading.
By some miracle, the Indica misses the bikes by a hair's breadth and continues on his journey, his car-receiver crackling with white noise.
The basic rule of night-time commuting in Chennai: when you cannot see where you are going because you are temporarily blinded, say a small prayer, and just drive straight ahead.
I've had so many close calls, both on car and bike, that I've lost count. Once, when on my bike, I was assaulted by an autorickshaw coming towards me with, you guessed it, high beams on. I slowed down and started to move left and away from the auto. Just as it passed me, I realised there was another auto with no headlights, right behind this guy and on the wrong lane. After a spot-lesson on bike dynamics following emergency avoidance maneuvers, by god's grace, I am still alive.
Since there is no point trying to ram some sense into people, because they dont give a damn anyway, I have come up with a solution. The companies themselves should arm their new cars with this feature: one that allows the high beam to be enabled only at speeds in excess of 80 or 90 kmph. This way, our problem inside the city will be solved, because, well, who is going to do anything above 60 anyway?
Another possible simpler option is for enforcement. Police catch people without helmets; why cant they catch dumbasses with their cars and bikes on high beam? Its much much more dangerous than the other stuff the safety-preachers talk about, and its happening everyday.
Something has to be done soon.
If you do, and if you are not under eighteen and have basic education, you probably have taken your driving/riding test, and have hopefully passed, and now possess a license. The government thinks you are not a liability to other road users.
Proud? Wait a second there, joy boy. The next time you take your vehicle out after sunset, you will probably switch on your headlamp. And continue riding/driving.
Has it ever occured to 80 per cent of road users that they can switch their headlamp's high beam off when commuting within city limits? We do live in a metro, almost all areas are very much well lit enough.... and these high beams are given for a purpose, and that is for use on highways, even then with proper use of the dipper function.
My question is, there are so many people with the high beams on, how could they possibly not be inconvenienced by another road user blasting down towards them with his high beams aimed right at their eyes? This is no minor issue I am talking about. People could be killed because of the carelessness of some braindead call taxi driver double-declutching his under-serviced over-miled garbage-bin Indica into third, while simultaneously swearing at an errant cyclist in the opposite lane, while himself bearing down on a couple of old guys on commuter bikes who are so blinded by his high beam blast that they have no idea which direction they are heading.
By some miracle, the Indica misses the bikes by a hair's breadth and continues on his journey, his car-receiver crackling with white noise.
The basic rule of night-time commuting in Chennai: when you cannot see where you are going because you are temporarily blinded, say a small prayer, and just drive straight ahead.
I've had so many close calls, both on car and bike, that I've lost count. Once, when on my bike, I was assaulted by an autorickshaw coming towards me with, you guessed it, high beams on. I slowed down and started to move left and away from the auto. Just as it passed me, I realised there was another auto with no headlights, right behind this guy and on the wrong lane. After a spot-lesson on bike dynamics following emergency avoidance maneuvers, by god's grace, I am still alive.
Since there is no point trying to ram some sense into people, because they dont give a damn anyway, I have come up with a solution. The companies themselves should arm their new cars with this feature: one that allows the high beam to be enabled only at speeds in excess of 80 or 90 kmph. This way, our problem inside the city will be solved, because, well, who is going to do anything above 60 anyway?
Another possible simpler option is for enforcement. Police catch people without helmets; why cant they catch dumbasses with their cars and bikes on high beam? Its much much more dangerous than the other stuff the safety-preachers talk about, and its happening everyday.
Something has to be done soon.
posted by islero88 at 9:32 AM
2 comments
