OT: Petrol consumption

Deziens of group are prone to *THINKING* !

comp.dsp discusses seismic events, resonances of woodpecker skulls, and psychotic posters.

Why not "taking/giving" gas?

DUCKS for cover. OH NO, I'm just a baby owl.

Sounds bureaucratically stupid to me. Turn headlights on to add glare ?:-)

...Jim Thompson

It is not "bureaucratically stupid". My job has me driving primarily 2 lane (though NOT quite rural) roads for >80,000 miles/year between Springfield MO and Little Rock AR.

Having headlights on if wipers required is a *GOOD* idea.

Around here (Arizona) rain is mostly spit, so the same rational does not apply.

...Jim Thompson

Glare at least tells a driver that something's there. A dark cat on a shiny black road with little backscatter is so unrevealing that I would hold an oncoming unlit car responsible for a collision with one making a left turn in heavy rain. When the rain is light enough for intermittent wipers, it matters no more than near dusk. Another time your lights need to be on is when the road is beautifully lit by the sun low in the sky behind you. Oncoming cars need your lights to see you in their glare.

Jerry

A dark car. CAR!

Jerry

-- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Hey at ~ 3AM I encountered a dapple gray horse going same direction as I but in opposite lane.

It was an amazingly good color match for pavement given my head lights.

It looked like a strange patch of fog till it looked at me ;}

Then again a 911 dispatcher in wee hours once quizzed be to ascertain if I could distinguish between a stray bovine and a deer. So I've a YANKEE accent and was traveling a back country road in Arkansas in wee morning hours.

Then again when calling same dispatch center in wee hours All I said was "I'm on 235 near Bruno" when I was interrupted by "where's the horse now?" ;]

you haven't lived until driving rural AR & MO on graveyard shift.

The son of a neighbor was killed in Missouri when he hit a deer just before dawn. It went through the windshield, decapitating him, and critically injuring three other passengers.

...Jim Thompson

There might have been a slight grade on the way to the airport. Even a 1 degree grade can add substantial load to the engine, since you are always accelerating up hill. You also likely lightened the car (by the weight of your wife and her luggage + burnt fuel), which very significantly helps. Driving at a differnt speed, and passing cars will have a big effect, and if cruse control was used or not.

As others said humidity and temp also have a factor.

The only way to compare is to do the same trip in the same conditions, with the same brand and type of gas (with the same composition and additives).

My employer requires staff to go through a "defensive driving" course. The session i attended was lead by a >20 yr veteran of AR State Police.

He told of hearing dispatcher send officer to "report of deer in car" Considering hour, he (as supervisor) should respond as would probably be a DWI.

Deer WAS in car. It had jumped off bluff and came thru a convertible's roof. Deer died. Antlers were adjacent to driver's head. Driver lived.

Even in the 1950s the operators of Greyhound Buses had discovered that asking their drivers to keep their headlights on lowered their accident rate.

If you have ever driven where summer heat causes the mirage of water ripples on the highway you will certainly appreciate having the headlights on for the oncoming cars.

krw wrote: (snip)

In California, it is illegal to drive with your parking lights on. (I always remember that, as I got it wrong on my practice driving test.) As I understand it, if conditions require more light, you need headlights.

-- glen

Even before WWII blackout regulations, it was illegal to drive with headlights on in New York City, except in the "rural" parts of Queens and Staten Island where street lights were few and far apart. IIRC, headlights didn't become legal until '49 or '50.

Jerry

Most car-deer accidents aren't fatal (other than for the deer). Moose, on the other hand...

...Jim Thompson

The local TV station aired a show on deer/moose/horse collisions. In one of the clips a live moose was in the backset of the car looking out what once was the rear window. The moose had to me cut out with "the jaws of life" but they didn't mention the condition of the driver.

It is in Illinois and IIRC NY too. They're *PARKING* lights, not running lights. When I moved to NY, all cars parked in the street had to have a "lantern" lit marking them.

That was the reasoning in IL. If you need lights, you need headlights.

...

When was that? At least until 1941, no cars were permitted to park on the streets overnight.

Jerry

(snip on driving with parking lights on)

Since I did live in IL for a while, and didn't remember this rule, I looked it up in the rules of the road for IL on the web. It could be a new rule, though.

I did see that when wipers are needed then headlights are required, and parking lights are not enough, but otherwise I didn't see any rule against them.

-- glen

Something that should be explained to the idiot drivers in New England. Back there they think that turning on their parking lights in (daylight) foggy conditions does something useful.

If heavy fog, they can be much better than headlights - they don't glare so much, and it makes it possible to see the car. :-)

Cheers! Rich