I don’t see many cars with just one light out, but I see countless cars driving in very poor light conditions with no rear lights on and just daytime running lights (DRLs) on at the front. DRLs and digital dashboards have resulted in the unintended consequence of adding a new danger on our roads.
In the past, drivers knew that they didn’t have their headlights on because their dashboard was dark. When you were struggling to see your dashboard you had an obvious prompt to put your headlights on to illuminate it. In turn, this illuminated your rear lights. Whilst DRLs are a good idea, they have a major design flaw IMHO in that they don’t illuminate the rear lights as well. Many drivers don’t realise this. Furthermore, digital dashboards are always illuminated, even with all exterior lights off – so no obvious prompt anymore. Finally, although the majority of cars have auto headlights these days, some don’t activate in poor weather and many drivers don’t have the headlight switch on the correct setting to activate them anyway!
Whenever I am driving at dawn or dusk or in poor weather conditions, a high proportion of cars are running on DRL’s alone, with absolutely no rear lights on at all. Yesterday in the daytime I was driving on the motorway in a blizzard. Visibility was terrible, yet I saw many cars with no lights on. They were virtually invisible.
I would like to see all cars, motorbikes and commercial vehicles have DRL’s that are always on, can never be turned off and include rear lights. Until that happens the countless idiots on our roads continue to place themselves and others at considerable risk.