Daytime running headlights: gas-hogs.
Take a drive down any road and you will see more vehicles with daytime running headlams than you will see without. They are a noted safety feature. But why do we need more light when it’s already light out? To burn more gas, that’s why.
If daytime running lights were on all the vehicles in the U.S., we would burn an extra 406 million gallons of gas each year. That’s only a couple gallons for each vehicle, but in total it is more than all of the vehicles in the country burn in a day. At $1.50 a gallon, that’s $600 million per year. Looking at it another way, an extra 8 billion pounds of Carbon Dioxide would be added to the atmosphere by this law.
Perhaps we should rethink the daytime running headlights. I personally do not see the point in having them. I don’t see the added safety benefit. I would see the benefit for lights that automatically come on when the ambient light gets to a certain point.
Eh. It’s only a couple of gallons a year. At $3.00 a gallon, that still isn’t much. Until you add everyone else with daytime running lights like Howstuffworks did. Then it could become quite the problem.
Technorati Tags: gas, daytime running lights, howstuffworks
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Carl said,
Wrote on July 27, 2006 @ 10:39 am
While I think there are better safety methods than driving lights, they can help in aiding other cars to see you with the lights especially in times when people should know better and just have their lights on. This is the reason Motorcycles need the light on at all time, for the cars to see them better, not for the cyclist to see better.
Through a Glass Darkly said,
Wrote on July 27, 2006 @ 12:11 pm
Very interesting post.
Sam said,
Wrote on November 19, 2006 @ 2:44 pm
I think that we all should do more to save gas and conserve energy. otherwise energy prices will continue to rise and then nobady will be able to afford gas or other forms of energy