Headlight lens stickers for driving LHD car in UK?

[Daft Doctor]

Hi, we are heading over to the UK on holiday in our LHD Passat next week.  I casually called into our local Roady asking for some headlight lens stickers to avoid dazzling other drivers (and being stopped by the cops for so doing).  I got a virtual gallic shrug and was told I'd have to get them from VW.  Is that really the case, or do other auto parts places like Feu Vert do them?  If not, do they sell them near to Calais, perhaps at the tunnel terminal?  Any advice very much appreciated.  [:D]

[sid]

I've never seen beam deflectors or stickers for LHD cars going to UK. It seems to me that UK drivers are the only ones to worry about this.

 

[Pickles]

They ARE available: have a look on Amazon etc. Note that although the pictured product in some of the Amazon sales is for a RHD, it is reported that the actual product packaging is for LHD.

[Judith]

When I was over earlier this year, I just lowered my lights to lowest beam .. it seemed to work for as far as I can see, there are many cars in the UK with very poorly adjusted headlights.

And at this time of year, unless you are going to  be out very late, you will hardly need your headlights ....

[idun]

For years we never gave this a thought. And then when we were waiting to catch the hovercraft at Calais, someone came along and said that we 'had' to have them and actually put them on the car for us.

No one had ever flashed us in the UK before and I could not see what difference it made. These things were supposed to be reusable, but weren't and I don't think that we bothered on any other trip.

Don't modern 'good' cars have really good headlamp adjustments anyway?

[Daft Doctor]

Thanks everyone, very good advice and insight as always.  We can lower the beam down and yes, we won't really be driving in the dark.  We are spending most of our time in the Northeast and it doesn't get to lighting up time until about 10pm! [:D]

[Pickles]

[quote user="idun"]No one had ever flashed us in the UK before and I could not see what difference it made.[/quote]

It does make a difference - the reason that you may not have had a car "flash" you is that there are so many running around with badly-adjusted headlights or the new extra-bright HID lights (fine on the straight and level coming towards you: not so good when the road is uneven) that you give up after about 20 or so!

[quote user="idun"]These things were supposed to be reusable, but weren't and I don't think that we bothered on any other trip.[/quote]

Depending on the ones that you got, some simply require a bit of clear double-sided tape.

[quote user="idun"]Don't modern 'good' cars have really good headlamp adjustments anyway?[/quote]

Well, yes ... but "good" adjustment for France has a beam that kicks up to the RHS to illuminate the nearside or the road, whereas "good" adjustment for the UK has a beam that kicks up to the LHS. With modern headlights, the edge of that beam is VERY well defined, and the beam is very bright right up to the edge of the beam - on older headlights the light level near the edge fell off appreciably.

Our current car has a lever on the headlamp which changes the setting between "UK" and a flat, symmetric beam. We've been running around on the symmetric beam for over a year now - can't find the damn lever!

[Jay]

[quote user="Daft Doctor"]Thanks everyone, very good advice and insight as always.  We can lower the beam down and yes, we won't really be driving in the dark.  We are spending most of our time in the Northeast and it doesn't get to lighting up time until about 10pm! [:D][/quote]

If it's the NE then you are going to need your headlights in the fog and rain!

[idun]

DD I've been picking my son up at 10pm this week and it is just dusk then and thankfully a little cooler than it has been all day long. I'm now sat in the cool in a north facing room and still needing a fan blowing.

[sid]

Well, I'm really curious about this one, having made several trips to the UK without fitting deflectors or other expensive stick-on bits. All the ferry companies will tell you that it's a legal requirement without quoting the actual law concerned. I excuse myself as I was able to adjust my headlamps. Now I have xenon headlamps which swivel with the steering wheel; heaven knows how deflectors would cope with this. (I can still adujst the beam downwards, so I'm not worrying about it). On modern headlamps with plastic lenses it's not advisable to try sticking insulating tape or similar to mask the beam; it just creates a hot spot.

Interestingly the only French website I've found so far which mentions headlamps is this one for Le Shuttle: http://www.eurotunnel.com/fr/informations-sur-votre-voyage/conduire-en-Angleterre/  and it advises slowing down if you find that other motorists are flashing you!  As usual, the French are more concerned about practicalities, speed limits, remembering to drive on the left and so on. They won't worry about headlamps I think.

I found the regulations relating to MoT of LHD cars in UK, but nothing about visitors' cars. If anyone can point me to a reliable reference I'd be grateful.

 

 

[Pickles]

[quote user="sid"]Well, I'm really curious about this one, having made several trips to the UK without fitting deflectors or other expensive stick-on bits. All the ferry companies will tell you that it's a legal requirement without quoting the actual law concerned.

I found the regulations relating to MoT of LHD cars in UK, but nothing about visitors' cars. If anyone can point me to a reliable reference I'd be grateful.[/quote]

I haven't found a reliable reference, but a good pointer is provided by the AA pages, which state:

"The legal requirement is to 'not cause dazzle to oncoming drivers'

rather than specifically to adjust/convert headlamp beam pattern."

This tallies with what I have seen elsewhere. Hence if the beam is turned down so that it cannot dazzle, or else is flat, you will meet the requirements. Which makes it read as if the offence is a moving-traffic offence rather than a construction and use offence, which also makes sense. Hence, if you don't travel in conditions requiring lights, then no adjustment would be necessary.

[idun]

This post has just reminded me how much I loved the yellow headlamps in France. Kind to the eyes of oncoming motorists and truthfully, I never ever had any problems seeing with them.

Now these superbright things, well I do not like them, something piercing about the light which cannot be good.

[Pickles]

[quote user="Pickles"][quote user="sid"]Well, I'm really curious about this one, having made several trips to the UK without fitting deflectors or other expensive stick-on bits. All the ferry companies will tell you that it's a legal requirement without quoting the actual law concerned.

I found the regulations relating to MoT of LHD cars in UK, but nothing about visitors' cars. If anyone can point me to a reliable reference I'd be grateful.[/quote]

I haven't found a reliable reference, but a good pointer is provided by the AA pages, which state:

"The legal requirement is to 'not cause dazzle to oncoming drivers'

rather than specifically to adjust/convert headlamp beam pattern."

This tallies with what I have seen elsewhere. Hence if the beam is turned down so that it cannot dazzle, or else is flat, you will meet the requirements. Which makes it read as if the offence is a moving-traffic offence rather than a construction and use offence, which also makes sense. Hence, if you don't travel in conditions requiring lights, then no adjustment would be necessary.

[/quote]

The relevant law appears to be Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, and the offence is "driving without reasonable consideration"

The CPS site says:

"Driving without reasonable consideration

The offence of driving without reasonable consideration under section

3 of the RTA 1988 is committed only when other persons are

inconvenienced by the manner of the defendants driving, see  section

3ZA(4) RTA 1988. 

The maximum penalty is a level 5 fine. The court must also either

endorse the drivers licence with between 3 and 9 penalty points (unless

there are "special reasons" not to do so), or impose disqualification

for a fixed period and/or until a driving test has been passed.  The

penalty is the same as for driving without due care and attention.

A driving without due consideration charge is more appropriate where

the inconvenience is aimed at and suffered by other road users. 

Note the essential difference between the two offences under section 3

of the RTA 1988 is that in cases of careless driving the prosecution

need not show that any other person was inconvenienced. In cases of

inconsiderate driving, there must be evidence that some other user of

the road or public place was actually inconvenienced; Dilks v Bowman-Shaw [1981] RTR 4 DC

Charging Practice

This offence is appropriate when the driving amounts to a clear act

of incompetence, selfishness, impatience or aggressiveness in addition

to some other inconvenience to road users.  The following examples are

typical of actions likely to be regarded as inconsiderate driving:

• flashing of lights to force other drivers in front to give way;
• misuse of any lane (including cycling lanes) to avoid queuing or gain some other advantage over other drivers;
• unnecessarily remaining in an overtaking lane;
• unnecessarily slow driving or braking without good cause;
• driving with un-dipped headlights which dazzle oncoming drivers, cyclists or pedestrians;
• driving through a puddle causing pedestrians to be splashed;
• driving a bus in such a way as to alarm passengers.

Prosecutors must decide which version of the offence to charge as the

section creates two separate offences and there is no alternative

verdict provision in the magistrates/youth court: R v Surrey Justices, ex parte Witherick [1932] 1 K.B. 340."

[Pickles]

[quote user="idun"]This post has just reminded me how much I loved the yellow headlamps in France. Kind to the eyes of oncoming motorists and truthfully, I never ever had any problems seeing with them.[/quote]

A French car nut that I know told me that the French banned white lights in 1937 allegedly to distinguish French vehicles from foreign (ie German!) vehicles. The law was not enforced during the period 1941-1949 due to a shortage of cadmium sulphate (used to give the yellow tint). The law was repealed by 1991.

Must admit that it would give a very atmospheric look to misty morning traffic ...

[PaulT]

[quote user="Pickles"]

Our current car has a lever on the headlamp which changes the setting between "UK" and a flat, symmetric beam. We've been running around on the symmetric beam for over a year now - can't find the damn lever!
[/quote]

On my car the lever is actually in the main beam part of the headlamp assembly

[sid]

Thanks Pickles, that would appear to fit the bill, although I'm surprised that it's an actual driving offence rather than a type of  "construction and use" regulation.

I always understood that yellow headlamps were introduced for exactly this reason; to avoid dazzling other road users. Great idea, eh? They didn't dazzle so much simply because the strength of the beam was reduced! Hopeless.  I remember each year sitting in the car park at the ferry terminal in Dover, painting the headlamp glasses with that yellow lacquer and using a brush the size of a nail varnish applicator! Took ages!

 

[Pickles]

[quote user="PaulT"][quote user="Pickles"]Our current car has a lever on the headlamp which changes the setting between "UK" and a flat, symmetric beam. We've been running around on the symmetric beam for over a year now - can't find the damn lever![/quote]

On my car the lever is actually in the main beam part of the headlamp assembly[/quote]

I have a diagram that shows me where it is, but unfortunately I do not have arms like those of an octopus - and even armed with the picture I STILL can't see the damned thing!

[Pickles]

[quote user="sid"]Thanks Pickles, that would appear to fit the bill, although I'm surprised that it's an actual driving offence rather than a type of  "construction and use" regulation.[/quote]

I was surprised at first, but when I looked into it, this was the only possibility. The EU treaties and the UN convention on Road Traffic (1949) set minimum standards for motor vehicle construction and require that vehicles that are legal and registered in one contracting state be temporarily accepted on to the roads of another contracting state, and the only requirement in terms of dipped headlights is that they do not dazzle other road users. The UK cannot in general impose different construction regulations on temporarily-imported vehicles (OK, there are probably some exceptions to this), so it has to fall back on the Road Traffic Act to enforce the "no-dazzle" rule.

[dwmcn]

DD,

If you know where to put them, can't you just use the ones for British cars?

David

[idun]

[quote user="Pickles"][quote user="idun"]This post has just reminded me how much I loved the yellow headlamps in France. Kind to the eyes of oncoming motorists and truthfully, I never ever had any problems seeing with them.[/quote]

A French car nut that I know told me that the French banned white lights in 1937 allegedly to distinguish French vehicles from foreign (ie German!) vehicles. The law was not enforced during the period 1941-1949 due to a shortage of cadmium sulphate (used to give the yellow tint). The law was repealed by 1991.

Must admit that it would give a very atmospheric look to misty morning traffic ...

[/quote]

I have heard variations of those things over the years. I did like them for night driving.  France used to have appalling road death/accident figures, they really were dire. So I suppose that we shall never know if these yellow lights made the roads any safer, but it felt it to me.

[sid]

[quote user="idun"]
I have heard variations of those things over the years. I did like them for night driving.  France used to have appalling road death/accident figures, they really were dire. So I suppose that we shall never know if these yellow lights made the roads any safer, but it felt it to me.
[/quote]

The light from them was so pathetic it's a wonder there weren't far more accidents! I have bi-xenon lamps now, and there is absolutely no comparison; at least I can see where I'm going. France is very dark at night out in the country.  

France still has poor accident statistics, but it's not due to headlamps or speed, it's plain poor standards of driving. You see it every day.

 

 

[idun]

Sid, I drove for about 15 years on yellow headlamps and was not blinded

by on coming traffic and could see perfectly well. What I am wondering

is why you are implying that you couldn't, and then I got to thinking that  maybe you didn't, as you may

never have driven a french car  at all or very much, and you would simply be seeing it from a

white head lamp driver point of view.

And France's accident/death

statistics are far far better than they were, probably because people have been forced into respecting the speed limits. Bad drivers are everywhere I'm afraid.

[Rabbie]

[quote user="dwmcn"]

DD,

If you know where to put them, can't you just use the ones for British cars?

David

[/quote]That wouldn't work at all. The ones for RHD(British) cars cut off the light that goes to the left. For LHD(French) cars you need to block the light going to the right when driving in the UK and Ireland.

[SC]

[quote user="dwmcn"]

DD,

If you know where to put them, can't you just use the ones for British cars?

David

[/quote]

Troll alert?

[Ron-sur-Marne]

ECE regulations for lighting have been modified, so that current cars have a "flat top" beam, with no difference between left and right drive vehicles.

The date at which different vehicle manufacturers applied this varies, but I do know that my 2007 (07 reg) Vectra has flat top beams.

If you have half a day to spare, Google UNECE regulation 112.... I think the date of proposal of modification was 2004, but I can't find the date of application - which would vary from country anyway.

I don't suppose that the UK ferry/port scammers who like to sell you "deflectors" will not like to make this information too well known.