— Kate Gurney, Macungie
Q: Back in the '70s I adopted the habit of 'lights on for safety' always, but I failed to get in the habit of turning them off before leaving the car. Result: many dead batteries. So when I bought my next car in 1980, I had the dealer wire the headlights the same as the radio so that they turned off when I turned off the motor. Problem solved. The manufacturers could design all cars so that headlights would illuminate whenever the wipers are switched on.
— Bill Hubbard, Bethlehem
Q: I've noticed an increase in vehicles being driven at night without headlights. With today's bright electronic instrument-panel displays and well-lighted urban streets, it is not as easy to realize you've forgotten to turn on your lights. My suggestion is to require new vehicles to turn the lights on automatically when the wipers are in use. There are so many sensors on a car at his point, making such a change would seem to be simple.
— Richard Granata, Coral Springs, Fla.
A: It's interesting that the same suggestion arrived independently from three different people. Grace Dunbar of Allentown and Bill Redline of Walnutport also wrote recently about folks who fail to switch on their headlights during rainstorms, at dusk, or even at night.
To help prevent draining the battery, the headlights on my Fiat 500 shut off automatically along with the ignition, even if I forget to turn the light switch. (The car also has daytime running lights — separate lamps that are not as bright, and that illuminate whenever the engine is running — though they can be switched off. Surprisingly, the taillights do not illuminate along with the DRLs, and that's partly why DRLs do not qualify as "headlights" under Pennsylvania's lights-on mandate in specified construction zones.)
You folks are correct, many car models are capable of illuminating the headlights automatically, using sensors that detect the fading sunlight. Some cars also use moisture detectors on the windshield to activate the wipers automatically during rainfall.
And in fact, many newer models are capable of switching the headlights on when the wipers are activated. Scott Hower, a service consultant at the Brown-Daub Chrysler-Jeep dealership in Lower Nazareth Township, said that on most of them, this feature is a programmable option that can be turned off, like the DRLs on my Fiat. In Hower's personal vehicle, a 2007 Chevy pickup truck, the headlamps illuminate whenever the rain-sensing wipers activate, but only if the darkness-sensing automatic-headlight system is turned on as well. With either of these automatic systems deactivated, it doesn't happen. This kind of selectivity generally is beneficial, allowing owners to adjust their car's options to suit their personal tastes. But it would seem that safety-related systems should be impossible to turn off.
For instance, my car issues an intentionally annoying "beep" from the dash if anyone fails to buckle their seatbelt. I'd turn it off if I could, not because I don't use my seatbelts — I do — but because in starting my usual work commute, I travel only two-tenths of a mile before stopping at a convenience store for coffee. In effect, my car forces me to buckle my seatbelt for less than a minute, literally, before detaching it again to exit the car. I think that's absurd, but statistics show most accidents occur not on lengthy vacation or business trips, but during routine travel close to home. It's probably best that I lash myself in, even for such a short trip. I sometimes grouse about "the nanny state" too, but this seems a small and acceptable imposition. Besides, I could choose to ignore the nattering noise for those 45 seconds, but tellingly, I don't. Apparently I'd sooner buckle up than put up (with the noise).
So I'll ride along with you folks: The auto manufacturers should take it upon themselves to extend this feature from some models to all of them, with no way to turn it off. No need to wait for the nanny to nag them into it. There's no possible harm in illuminating the headlights whenever the wipers are activated. The lights consume very little power, sapping mileage by an unsubstantial trace. They're well worth even a fractional safety gain.
To be honest, this isn't one of the safety issues that works its way to top-gear status in the view from my driver's seat. I rank it below most forms of aggressive driving, including that displayed by the maniacs who blow onto limited-access highways from the entrance ramps with utter disregard for the traffic pattern on the highway, in violation of state law and common sense.
But I can tell from the comments that flow into the email garage any time I turn to the subject of wipers without headlights that many fellow warriors consider it a highly dangerous practice, and I defer to their numbers. It's clear that visibility normally plummets in the rain, and again, there's no reason not to have the lights on. Yes, it is a simple matter to switch them on manually, but many people simply are not doing it.
So come on GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Hyundai, Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen, Volvo and the rest. Shine some light on safety by wiring those headlamps to the wiper switch.
Road Warrior appears Mondays and Fridays, and the Warrior blogs at mcall.com. Email questions about roadways, traffic and transportation, with your name and the municipality where you live, to hartzell@mcall.com, or write to Road Warrior, Box 1260, Allentown, PA 18105-1260.
