Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Lights - bad design, or bad implementation?

A number of issues have struck me over the last few weeks, what with doing a lot of driving in the dark (dismal weather these days...). Firstly, 4x4 vehicles, and their headlights. Every time a 4x4 is driving behind me at night, my rear view mirrors blind me and the car roof is lit up like a soccer pitch at an evening game. I can't understand why this issue can't be resolved, as huge articulated trucks do not have the same problem. Are the 4x4 dipped beams just incorrectly adjusted? Do owners twiddle with the ride-height adjustment for the lights and think "I can see great now"? My own dipped beams light up the tyres and rear bumper of the car in front, but these 4x4s must be aimed somewhere about rear-view mirror/roof level. It would be nice if the police had a light intensity device with their speed gun, so that when they caught you driving over the limit they could see it was because you were trying to put some distance between you and the blinding 4x4 behind you so you could see the road ahead and drive safely. The second matter related to these new, "fashionable" rear lights you see on a lot of new cars, where the rear indicator is encircled by the brake light like it's inside a doughnut. While this may have been a "cool" idea in the design studio, if the car in front of you has their brake lights on, you can't see the indicator! Quite a few moments of "Oh, he's turning RIGHT! That's why he's swerving all over the road!". The eye seems to have difficulty distinguishing bright orange from even brighter red when it is circled, maybe a bigger separation is required in light design? The worst culprits are the new Toyota Avensis, the new Volkswagen Golf, and the Range Rover (well, the Range Rover also offends in the first issue, blinding you when behind you, along with being so wide that they cause traffic jams in Rhebogue. Another point, why do so many 4x4 drivers go so incredibly slowly over speed ramps? It's the nearest thing to real offroading the poor thing is ever likely to experience, so go for it!). There, feel better now...

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Doing the right thing

BBC's Top Gear motoring programme may not be to everyone's taste, the presentation may grate to those of a more delicate disposition, the childish whims of Richard Hammond may irritate, although this is normally balanced by the reasonable, yet slightly cynical, tones of James May. Some of the things Jeremy Clarkson comes out with may also lean towards xenophobia. But one thing is for sure, I was impressed with the show last Sunday. Along comes the news section, with a preamble along the lines of how all other news had to be ignored because of the death of a great. Here I was, thinking to myself, "Oh no, they're going to get on the George Best bandwagon...", and instead they dedicate the time to a retrospective on Richard Burns. Thank God SOMEONE felt the need to mention his passing; how his friends and relatives felt about the unwarranted focus on an old footballer who cared so little for life that he managed to screw it up not once, but twice, as opposed to on a young man (Richard Burns was only 34 when he passed away) really striving to survive, it is easy to surmise. Whoever donated that liver to George Best must be turning in their grave, thinking about the criminal waste when that liver could have gone to someone else who really wanted it and would have taken care of it. Anyway, in conclusion, I was beginning to think that no-one was going to mention Richard Burns in the media (other than specialist publications), and I am glad he got a decent send-off, with clips of him doing what he did best, driving a selection of WRC cars very accurately and quickly through a forest.

http://www.richardburns.com/