Daytime Running Lights (DRL)

for the 2012 C, no, the DRLs are not LED

 

Does your light switch have the DRL Off position?

 

I can't speak for Louisiana but way up here in Canada daytime running lights are mandated by law and they cannot be turned off. My understanding is that when the Canadian law came into effect at least some of the car manufacturers lobbied the US government to permit daytime running lights so that they didn't have to build different models for each market. But I have no idea what the actual legal status is and whether it's evenly applied across the entire US or not.

 

On my 2014C2, I can turn off my factory DRLs by rotating the light stalk all the way down. The factory DRLs on my car are really the highbeam halogen bulbs in low power if that helps.

 

Yes you can turn them off. On the 2016 they are the super bright headlight lamps just a little dimmer. Kinda strange in my opinion lol

 

The idea behind daytime running lights is that it makes your car more visible to oncoming drivers. That's especially important on two lane highways where you're trying to decide whether or not it's safe to pass a car and due to the high speeds you have to judge the speed and distance of oncoming traffic while it's still very far away. And they also help to get the attention of pedestrians who may not always look that carefully before crossing the road.

An Australian review suggests that there are measurable safety benefits to them. In Canada they are mandatory in all vehicles and they cannot be turned off.

 

Daylight running lights are not required to be turned on during the day in the United States. Some states (such as Tennessee) require headlights to be turned on whenever the windshield wipers are turned on (as in raining). The turn signal stalk on my 2015 C 2 has the drl as one of the options, I used the DRL during the day when it is extremely cloudy or raining.

 

I turn on my lights every time I get in the car. My car is silver and it isn't always easy to see. Having the headlights on helps with visibility for other drivers. I swapped the lights for all led. (In the 2013, the drl is a low power high beam). After I went to led, the high beam and drl run at the same brightness so it's really annoying during the day...... at night when I use my high beams its super bright.

 

In daytime conditions when we really want front lights to be seen better (think rain or very heavy overcast, both common in my coastal northwest climate zone), the DRLs consume about a tenth as much power as the headlight position. The later turns on a lot of other lights too -- tail, running, and dash illumination lights.

 

There are also some areas that require you to have either your DRL on or your headlights on, even during the day. It is for safety.

 

One thing I've noticed: a lot of cars have their front turn signals tightly integrated with their headlights; it can make it nigh impossible to discern oncoming drivers' intentions: the feeble turn signal pulses are buried in the headlight wash of light.

Also, in the last decade, I see a lot more late model BC plate vehicles on the road with no DRL's: lax import regulations of US vehicles?

 

Have you been checked for cataracts?

I'm going to need the surgery earlier than average.

During my most recent visits, I thought I saw this even more with AB plates.

 

Yeah I get into the optometrist for periodic checkup. The period usually being busted glasses. So far so good, just really myopic and needing bifocals more 'n more.

 

The optometrist gave me bifocals as a kid, mainly because they were beneficial even then, and much easier to adapt to when young than when in the 40s.

Now I'm way beyond those. If not for progressives, I'd need trifocals, like grandma used to have.