Commuters: See The Light

I realize your time is valuable so I'll start by cutting to the chase: Drive with your headlights on, even in daylight. If you already knew this, don't bother to continue reading. Otherwise, I urge you to continue and understand the importance of driving with your headlights on. As you should already know, headlights make it easier for you to see the road in darkness. It is also obvious that it allows oncoming cars to see you in the dark. A lot of people turn on their headlights once they can no longer easily see the surrounding environment. Something that many people don't consider is that other cars have trouble seeing them without their headlights on. This is especially true during dusk due to the sun being in the eyes of Western facing drivers. I propose that all drivers keep their headlights on at all times. I can't come up with a good reason for not doing so besides the chance that you may forget to turn your headlights off. This shouldn't be a problem for owners of modern vehicles because they have mechanisms for notifying the driver that their headlights are still on.

On a slightly different note, I have seen many cars drive around with their parking lights on. Yes, PARKING lights. What is the point of doing this when you could just as easily drive with your regular headlights on? I'm not sure if it is because these people see others do it or if there is a valid reason for doing so. I don't think I need to describe the possible consequences of cars driving with their parking lights on. I'll leave that to your imagination.

Update: 3/26/08
Rob from Late Night PC Service wrote in to give a little bit of information on why some people drive with their parking lights on instead of their driving lights. Here's what he has to say about the situation:

All of Canada (afaik) and some states in the US require daytime running lights (DRLs) for the reasons you described in your post. A year or so after they first became mandatory in Canada you'd see a lot more cars with one headlight out because they just used standard lights on full brightness all the time as an easy way to meet the new rule. Since then they've developed bulbs that have a lower power, always-on filament and a brighter one for the night-time use. On my car (Canadian) somehow the manufacturer decided that the parking lights were fine to use instead of actually turning on the headlights. No idea why and I'd rather they'd just used the regular headlights. When the DRL law first came in I thought it seemed dumb but now I drive a lot in Michigan where people don't have them and I do notice a difference - DRLs do help with visibility in many conditions you wouldn't really think of.