[Oldgixxer]

Originally Posted by tturedraider

A side issue. Of all the places I have lived I’m finding Chicago drivers are the worst I’ve ever encountered. This is just one example of many!! On my ten mile drive I encounter at least four people driving down city streets with their high beams on and between two & four with no lights at all. Not even DRLs. A lot of these are cars I know are equipped with automatic headlights. This is not an exaggeration. I have this same experience every single time I drive home after dark. If this is happening every time I drive this one ten mile stretch of city street I can only imagine what it’s like all over the city.


edit: regarding bad driving. I have to admit I wonder if the bad driving I’m experiencing is truly a Chicago thing or if it’s more universal as the world has gone exponentially further to hell in a hand basket over the last ten years.

I agree with what everyone else has posted and in addition:

The drivers in South Carolina are equally terrible,I pride myself in my driving ability after learning how to drive in NY(right outside NYC) and spending 38 winters navigating through snow,ice,etc and not a single accident nor speeding ticket and I never drive the speed limit..That being said,the absolute ignorance and lack of ability as well as consideration for other drivers is off the charts,and not in a good way. I purposely stay off the roads as best I can during the daytime,I do a lot of driving at 3-5am and 9 out of 10 cars drives with their brights on,I'll flick mine at them to let them know,if they don't respond and turn the brights off then I simply turn my brights on and blind them back

The Ford trucks like mentioned are everywhere here,as well as the LED light bars and lifted trucks which blind the hell outta me. After welding pipe for 30yrs my eyesight isn't what it used to be and the idiot drivers at night w their brights make it worse.

[Fell Spoke]

Originally Posted by Fredcohiba

It’s annoying and dangerous. The older I get the more it affects me. It’s already hard enough to drive at night, with glasses and then to be blinded by oncoming traffic.

Completely agree with you. I am also enraged by the new brake lights that burn out my eyes. You stand behind this at a traffic light at night, then you don’t see anything if you don’t turn away.

[Rafichicago]

One more thing to add. Post accident vehicles have rarely properly aligned headlights. This happens because most states don’t have proper annual inspections on vehicles like most European countries do. So bad tires bad suspension components misaligned headlights and especially Chicago area where I live notoriously bad shocks in vehicles are nightmare. I see at least once a week vehicle with broken tie rod on the side of the road just because someone didn’t care about replacing $50 part. Oh well.

[Silence*]

I used to love driving at night before all this LED nonsense, but back then the only thing you had to worry about was cars with HID's in non-projector headlights. Sure they were bright, but they weren't laser focused like modern LED's are. The new Honda's seem to be the worst offender for this, I was absolutely blinded by a new Accord on a rainy evening last week. On that note, A friend of mine had a M340i last year with the LED lights and said they were pretty much useless on a rainy night - he much preferred my 435i with standard Xenon's.

Also the new Toyota/Lexus SUV's with tiny LED brake lights that shine DIRECTLY in your face while stopped behind them... those little lights are WAY too bright for their own good.

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by Rafichicago

One more thing to add. Post accident vehicles have rarely properly aligned headlights. This happens because most states don’t have proper annual inspections on vehicles like most European countries do. So bad tires bad suspension components misaligned headlights and especially Chicago area where I live notoriously bad shocks in vehicles are nightmare. I see at least once a week vehicle with broken tie rod on the side of the road just because someone didn’t care about replacing $50 part. Oh well.

As many of you know I moved to Chicago from Texas and they do so many things so much better than Illinois, if only it wasn’t like living in a blast furnace for six months out of the year. And, of course, no Texas city is as cool as Chicago. But, back to the point. Every vehicle in Texas is required to have an annual safety inspection where they check the operation of the headlights (operation and proper aim), taillights, brake lights, brakes, wiper blades, etc. The inspection is $13 and service stations and auto repair shops do it, so there is literally an inspection station on every street corner. A few years ago, to ensure every vehicle is actually inspected every year, they tied it to renewing your registration. You have to show proof of the inspection before you can renew your registration. (side note: you also have to show proof of insurance to renew your registration.) In Chicago they only test the emissions system and they only do that every two years by plugging into the OBDII port and there literally is not a single testing site in Chicago proper. You have to go to a suburb to have the test done. A city with a population of 2.7 million people does not have a single testing site. It’s unreal.