"Steve Walker" wrote in message
...
The primary purpose of those lights is to be seen, and if they cannot be
seen because of other lights, then the design is bad and regulations
should prohibit it. In days gone by (eg 1970s), it was common for side
and indicator to be within or below the front bumper - well away from the
headlights. Not any more - there's probably a rule that says this is
specifically forbidden, which is utterly counter-intuitive.

Some have the indicator inside the headlamp lens and the rear indicator
inside a circular brake light. Both useless.

The indicator inside the brake light ring is VW Golf (and maybe other VWs)
at its worst. Quite how that got past even the most preliminary safety
checks during the design stage is beyond me. Likewise for indicators in the
headlamp housing, which applies to almost every car since the 1990s.

DRLs can be a problem, although most cars seem to dim/extinguish the DRL
on the side which is indicating - sometimes the absence of DRL is seen
before the flashing of the orange indicator ;-)

Another problem with DRLs is that around town, drivers see the road in
front lit up by them and as so many cars have permanently lit dashes, they
don't realise that they've got no lights on at the back.

I'd require that all dash illumination only comes on when the lights are
on - they'd notice a lot quicker when they tried to look at the speedo and
couldn't see it!

Cars with real dials are usually very hard to see at night without the panel
lights on (which come on with the side lights) which tends to enforce what
you are suggesting. The problem is with cars that have digital displays,
because those have to come on even during the day when you won't have your
lights on.

How anyone can see to drive at night with the road only illuminated by side
or DRL beats me, though for some godforsaken reason it is actually not
illegal to drive on side lights only as long as the road is lit by street
lights. Both for making myself more visible and for lighting objects from
the side as well as from overhead to make hazards more visible, I would
never dream of turning my headlights out just because there are street
lights, and I use high beam as much as possible as long as it will not
dazzle any other vehicle driver (car or bike) - pedestrians who are dazzled
have the luxury of being able to close their eyes or look away which someone
in charge of a moving vehicle can't do.