Regular reader, KeithS, send me this message this morning:
You can rely on the EU never to give up on a bad cause…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/3075189/EU-resurrects-daytime-running-lights-plan.html
You’re not wrong Keith. Back in October 2006, Federal Europe said that it wanted every vehicle to have its lights on at all times. They said it would save lives but motorcycling groups inundated the British government with letters telling them that it was, to put it bluntly, a fucking stupid idea.
You see, the problem is that kidney donors motorcyclists usually ride around with their lights on all the time so that they can be seen more easily. Ok, they quite often ride around with main beam on blinding drivers and making it very tempting to open your door at an inopportune moment (I don’t recommend doing this, I just said it was tempting) but that’s another rant. This works because, unless it’s dark, the only people who have their lights on in broad daylight are old men in cloth caps who drive everwhere at 40mph with their fog lights and wipers on and let’s face it, they need avoiding just as much as motorcyles.
The kidney donors motorcyclists said it would mean more motorcycle deaths. The British government agreed but said that it is unable to protect its own citizens because they will have to abide by the EU Directive.
Interestingly, one of the worlds largest manufacturers of car headlight bulbs is the German firm, Osram. What are the odds of Osram being in the lobby group trying to get this bastshit idea implemented?
Technorati Tags: Federal Europe, Osram, Motorcycles, Headlights
I’d say somewhere between high and certain.
And shows that they don’t even believe their own propaganda about the human impact on climate change; where the fuck do they think the energy to power the lights comes from- batteries?.
I’ve been doing some digging around with figures available on the net and it would appear that it takes about a tenth of a litre of petrol an hour to provide the energy to run the lights; doesn’t sound much, but the average car use in the EU is knocking on for 10,000 person-kilometres per year, there’s a fucking awful lot of cars and people, mostly travelling in daylight, and it’s got to add up to a fair few fucking million barrels of oil if this batshit scheme goes ahead.
Not to mention the carbon footprint associated with making the bulbs.
Yeah, but the money from purchasing these bulbs will be going to the German economy, so its all good.
Oh, Mr Parr…for shame…
You missed out Volvos..who’s lights run as soon as the ignition is live..:)
I run with sidelights if the weather is dull – not concerned about fuel usage/carbon footprint though, as they’re LED units.