We need headlights on at night so we can see where we’re going, but even during the day driving with lights on makes it easier for other people to see you. Instead I’ll propose that we turn our headlights on all the time. Thirty minutes after sunset seeing 1000 feet these are rules that don’t help much. First of all, who checks the time of sunset before driving in the evening? And who is a good judge of 1000 feet while driving? It’s hard to judge 1000 feet while standing still. Now that I’ve given you a science lesson and an explanation of the law, let me tell you why that’s all semi-useless. Since people are harder to see than cars, I’d interpret that to mean that if you can’t see a pedestrian from 1000 feet away, you need to turn on your headlights. In addition to turning them on before dark, headlights are required any time conditions are such that you can’t see a person or vehicle from at least 1000 feet away. There’s more to the headlight law though. Then tell me how that works out for you.Īround here, civil twilight lasts about 40 minutes, so the law requiring headlights to be on 30 minutes after sunset actually makes some sense. But if you ever overstay your welcome in a park that closes at dusk, tell the park ranger you thought the sign was ambiguous and that you interpreted it as astronomical dusk. Civil dusk, the transition from civil twilight to nautical twilight is what we normally think of as dusk. There are also three kinds of dusk, each corresponding with the respective phases of twilight. Twilight is broken down into three phases: civil twilight, when it’s still bright enough to see without additional illumination nautical twilight, when we lose the ability to see details and objects look more like silhouettes and astronomical twilight, which to most of us looks just like night but isn’t quite dark enough for astronomers yet. Twilight is also the name of a book (and movie) that caused the town of Forks to be inundated by teenage girls hoping to spot a vampire. We have twilight because after sunset, sunlight reflects off our atmosphere to illuminate the earth until the sun has moved (I know it’s the Earth that’s actually rotating, but from our perspective) more than 18 degrees below the horizon. (Astronomers will tell you that sunset is when the geocentrical center of the sun is 50 minutes of arc below the horizon, but they’re just showing off their big, sciencey words.) Dusk is when it actually gets dark. Sunset is the moment when the top edge of the sun meets the horizon. If you doubt that, just ask an astronomer, a photographer or the law. While we often use “sunset” and “dusk” interchangeably, they’re actually two different times. The law doesn’t used the word “dusk” it uses “sunset.” On a side note, wouldn’t it be great if our correctness was judged on how many words we got right instead of the overall level of accuracy of a statement based on one incorrect word? Okay, maybe that’s a terrible idea, but anyone with good grammar could be factually wrong a lot and still have a high correctness score. And based on the word count in your question, you’re roughly 95 percent right about the law. Wouldn’t it make more sense to require headlights before it gets dark instead of after? And if someone doesn’t have their headlights on at night is it okay to flash my lights to let them know?Ī: You’re absolutely right about it making sense to turn headlights on before it gets dark. Q: I recently found out that headlights are required 30 minutes after dusk.
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