I was pedaling the 10-speed thru my neighborhood tonight around 8:30 PM, so it was getting darker than it should've been for a lightless-bike to be out, but I live on the edge that way.

Saw something I remembered seeing in the early spring this year: a mercedes sedan parked on a quiet side-street in a line of cars, it's driver-side taillight & front parking light ONLY on. No one around, car locked up tight. I assumed it was some sort of convoluted safety device, a 'Look! My car's parked here in the dark!' sort of thing.

Problem with that was that tonight I saw one of their R-minivans doing the same thing... in a residential driveway.

Is this indeed a 'safety' feature? Is it optional, and can it be overridden... or does half the car's parking lights stay on all night long?

This topic was discussed on C&G a few months ago--I think it was FlyBrian who brought it up. You can set half the parking lights on so that if you're on some dark country road, the lights near traffic can be left on.

You're observing the German version of parking lamps. Under their StVZO, cars are permitted to have driver-activated low-intensity parking lamps on either the left or right side of the car. The purpose is to have some illumination for oncoming vehicles on narrow, unlit Old World streets. This presumes that oncoming vehicles are only using town lights (our parking lamps) for forward illumination, which may or may not provide adequate forward lighting for the driver.

Whoever owns the cars you saw clearly hasn't read their Ownerpedia...

Wow... those wacky Europeans.

Balthazar: you ride a 10 speed? I'd rather drive your 2/4 speed COE.

I was pedaling the 10-speed

Take that, Lexus! 2 more than the LS! :AH-HA_wink:

Edited July 11, 200718 yr by ZL-1