Text 16536, 63 rader
Skriven 2008-05-31 11:52:12 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
  Kommentar till text 16519 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Motorcycles (was: Measurements)
=======================================
31 May 08 11:42, Robert Bashe wrote to Roy Witt:

 RB> Roy Witt wrote to David Drummond on Friday May 30 2008 at 19:15:

 RW>> Does your BMW have the headlight on at all times? Mine does. It does
 RW>> some good, but rider observation is much better.

 RB> The law in Germany requires motorcycle riders to drive with the
 RB> headlight switched on regardless of whether it's day or night and
 RB> regardless of the weather. The idea here is also to make motorcycles
 RB> more visible. Incidentally, as far as I know there's no law requiring
 RB> automatic switching on of the headlight.

There is a law that requires a daytime running light on MCs here. Don't
recall when it went into effect, but it's beent he law for a long time.

 RB> My Suzuki 600 (1996) doesn't have that at any rate, and that's rather
 RB> a disadvantage, since I sometimes forget to turn the headlight on
 RB> when I start off.

My 2006 HD came hard wired to turn on the headlight with the ignition.

 RB> The only problem is that there are overenthusiastic politicians who
 RB> have been in the Scandanavian countries, where the weather is often
 RB> gray and dreary and the law requires _all_ vehicles to drive with
 RB> lighted headlights day, night, rain or shine - and they think that
 RB> would be just _great_ for Germany as well.

Actually, daytime running lights are easier to see, even in bright
sunshine. Not only my HD, but my 98 Camaro and my 02 pick up also have
DRLs. The bulbs aren't what you might think; they're halogen and very
bright.

 RB> They spout off, the newspapers make a big spread of it, and a week
 RB> later you see half the population driving their cars in bright
 RB> sunlight with lighted headlights. Naturally practically nobody still
 RB> sees the motorcycles in all the Christmas-tree lights, and so the
 RB> motorcycle accident rate goes up.

Germany needs to begin a 'motorcycle awareness' program for their drivers.
Texas has such a program and it's helped to make drivers more aware of us
when we're out there.

 RB> BAD, WICKED motorcycle riders... at least that's what the papers then
 RB> report.

Traveling in large groups helps.

 RB> Cheers, Bob

 RB> P.S. Austria had a law that required _all_ motorized vehicles to
 RB> drive with lighted headlights, imitating the Scandanavians. The law
 RB> was introduced some two years ago, and repealed the beginning of this
 RB> year as it was found questionable and ineffective.

Meanwhile, it's still on the books for motorcycles here because it works.

                R\%/itt



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