The Earth is not flat, the Moon is not made of cheese....

[alfaitalia]

Have you ever wondered why the British drive on the left? Probably not...but this is why!!!

There is an historical reason for this; it’s all to do with keeping your sword hand free!

In the Middle Ages you never knew who you were going to meet when travelling on horseback. Most people are right-handed, so if a stranger passed by on the right of you, your right hand would be free to use your sword if required. (Similarly, medieval castles staircases spiral in a clockwise direction going upwards, so the defending soldiers would be able to stab down around the twist but those attacking (going up the stairs) would not.)

Indeed the ‘keep to the left’ rule goes back even further in time; archaeologists have discovered evidence suggesting that the Romans drove carts and wagons on the left, and it is known that Roman soldiers always marched on the left.

This ‘rule of the road’ was officially sanctioned in 1300 AD when Pope Boniface VIII declared that all pilgrims travelling to Rome should keep to the left.

 

[kiwigtx]

LED and Halogen style 'lamps' (or globes as some call them) are NOT directional.

After further discussion with my personal mechanic and great friend here in NZ, I found out last night that some LED headlight lamps ARE directional - in that they can be switched to have bias towards one direction or the other.

When I say 'lamps', I mean what you guys commonly refer to as 'globes'

 

[kiwigtx]

A few years back I was threatened with having my car confiscated when I forgot to put the beam correctors on it when I was stopoed in Germany....it was daytime to.

Thank you.

I was fortunately only stopped once by Police in Europe....half way up the Norwegian west coast...a hundred or so clicks short of Tromso....for speeding. Instant fine means instant fine in Norway....pay up on the spot. The Cop pulled out a "Click-clack" Visa Imprint machine, and took my money there & then. At least he smiled while doing so.

 

[Brandy]

After further discussion with my personal mechanic and great friend here in NZ, I found out last night that some LED headlight lamps ARE directional - in that they can be switched to have bias towards one direction or the other.

@CHARGERSTEVEN is trying to convince me he's right. I'm done. I cant explain it differently.

 

[kiwigtx]

I'm wondering why Japan? it got somehow associated with UK on at certain history moment?

It maybe something to do with the fact that the Japanese HATE the Chinese with a passion, and will never do anything that the Chinese do....I can understand that to a degree.

 

[MarPar]

 

[kiwigtx]

@Slantsixdan needs to stop by. May be he was the one that contacted Kiwi. He is a automotive lighting professional.

No...not him. I won't name the guy publicly....only to save him from further embarrassment.

 

[kiwigtx]

View attachment 959572

Is that the Tomato Sauce & Fromunda Cheese Moon?

 

[Charger Dana]

......and there are different headlights manufactured in this world for different applications in different countries.

What is this “different countries” of which you speak? Must be fake news.
Thank you for adding that, I had never thought about those types of differences. In Canada we are increasingly seeing many affordable Japanese Domestic Model (JDM) cats and they are right hand drive. So preliminarily you’d think “Cool! It’s a Toyota, we have Toyota’s, no big deal.” Until you start buying parts... shockingly once that wheel crosses the longitudinal axis... some parts are DIFFERENT!!!

For gosh sakes, the next thing you’ll tell me is that English isn’t the only language spoken on our flat Earth.

 

[kiwigtx]

What is this “different countries” of which you speak? Must be fake news.

Contrary to popular belief, life does indeed exist outside of the Continental USA.

 

[kiwigtx]

For gosh sakes, the next thing you’ll tell me is that English isn’t the only language spoken on our flat Earth.

I got some bad news coming...

 

[Brandy]

Was? Ist?

 

[Jerry Hall]

Not me, as my posts above show, my thoughts are very shallow.

You can dround in those shallows to, or maybe suffocate.

 

[Cranky]

I came from Mars.....

 

[toolmanmike]

I pity the folks that came from Uranus!

 

[Aarons Air]

 

[Lefty71]

Parts of Canada drove on the left until the 1920s.

PARTS??!!! Oh boy! That must have gotten interesting at times.

Was'nt there a specific cut-off day when they squared that away, which did cause chaos??

 

[Cranky]

Green cheese....

 

[Slantsixdan]

No, I'm not the one who contacted Kiwi, but he's just about 100% correct on all this. Some headlamps (projector or reflector, halogen or HID or LED) have an adjustment that lets them produce a left-traffic or a right-traffic beam, while others in Europe have a half-baked "tourist solution" that drops the beam very low and/or chops off the hot spot for temporary use on the other side of the English Channel—this is not the same as the up/down and left/right aim adjustment which all headlamps have. And yeah, Japan-market vehicles in Canada make this particular safety problem, among others; see here (and the "unscrupulous dealers" link it contains).

Contrary to common myth, in terms of low beam and high beam pattern specs, the U.N. ("ECE", "European", "E-code") headlamp standard allowed or required everywhere outside the United States is not categorically superior to the U.S. ("SAE", "DOT") standard. Both standards have room for headlamps ranging from awful to excellent. Sealed beams are no fun to drive with, but many H4 conversion lamps are differently but equally lousy in objective safety/performance terms (that is: how well you can actually see what you need to see, not how well you feel like you can see—these two things are often far out of line with each other because of how the human visual system works vs. how it feels like it works).

Start zooming out from just low and high beams, and the picture gets more complicated: the rest-of-world vehicle lighting standard is superior in some pretty major ways, but the U.S. standard is superior in other ways.

There are lots of other common misunderstandings about car lighting and specifically headlamps, but I gotta go eat.

 

[YY1]

What bothers me most about vehicle headlights is that more and more importance seems to be placed on brighter lights to assist the driver with no regard whatsoever for those in oncoming vehicles, who may be blinded by the ever increasing brightness.

I can't believe NO ONE has considered this.