Vehicles without headlights at night

[thebears]

I don't know if this has been discussed before. It appears to me that it has become to some extent normal practice for some motorists to avoid using headlights at night. Does anyone on this forum understand why some motorists are doing this and do you think it is becoming a road safety problem?

There have been a few incidents I've noticed. On the way to Tha Yang in the early hours, I went to change lanes into the right, to overtake, and there was a car in the right lane just a few meters behind, without lights, which couldn't be seen in the rear-view mirror or side mirrors. There's no way I could reasonably see it and monitor it's presence for some time on an unlit highway section. I had to swerve back into the center lane. However, when it became close, I saw a very dim blue light within the headlights, but so dim that it could barely be seen.

Another, coming from Hua Hin past Palm Hills last night, a pseudo SUV/mom-and-pop type people carrier thing without lights front and rear (new-looking vehicle). I gave a toot-toot on the horn and pointed as I passed. The driver tooted back but did nothing. We were both driving around 80 km/h in darkness.

I don't know about others, but from where I come from, driving without lights would be seen as socially unacceptable, almost like the social taboo that drink driving has become. Is it me being abnormal, or have others felt the same?

[HHTel]

A Thai guy once told me years ago after I'd bought a new bike where the headlight was on permanently as are all bikes now, to take out the headlight bulb because it saves petrol. He told me that's what Thais do.
With the aid of Google, I found out he was correct. Not using lights will save around one teaspoon of petrol every 10,000 kms! But he believed it was saving him money.

[thebears]

1 tsp of petrol? Wow. Well, I did wonder if the Thais believe that using the headlamps represents a significant cost, so yes, what you say is probably part of the answer. They do have some bizarrely naive and uninformed ideas at times.

I suppose we could argue then, that those bikes with permanently-lit headlights have encouraged owners to remove the bulbs and therefore have had the opposite effect to road safety. To some extent they are a nuisance, because we don't necessarily want the lights on during the day.

[VincentD]

The majority just don't bother to check as they expect the bulbs to last the lifetime of the vehicle (usually motorbikes) Quite common to have them whizzing around with no visible tail light, or they have something in the front basket that completely obscures the front light.
Dek waen (boy racers) will remove the lights on purpose to make it more difficult for the BIB to see (and therefor catch) them.
As for the four-wheeled variety, many have found out that when their fancy HID bulbs go (they do!) it costs an arm and a leg to replace it so they don't. So what you may think is a motorbike in your rearview mirror (or the oncoming lane) is really a lot wider than you'd expect.
Ditto those LED head and tail lights..
(Sorry.. pet peeve..)

[usual suspect]

Most Thai's turn off their headlights around 5.45 am...That's when they can see without them....And do not turn them back on till 6.45 pm...(same-same)...They have no f****g concept about see and BE SEEN!
OK..Lets move on to motorcycles..You'll notice an increase in m/bikes without h/lights at weekends....mainly due to the speed-merchants taking the L/h casing off & removing the coil for the alternator...this results in them running on total loss, but providing the battery is charged up...not having the headlights etc, with the copper-coil removed.. will give them about 15% more power, so they can blast around town like Joe-F*** overtaking every other vehicle ...Oh..& if they die well it's a case of Som-nam-nah.. (sorry folks...Rant over)

[handdrummer]

In Europe, in the early 1960's, drivers turned their headlights on and off every few minutes. They thought it would save electricity.