Night Driving - Driving in the dark

Night driving

Driving at night is nothing to be afraid of.  Your perception of distance and speed will be negatively affected the first few times that you do try it, but once you have some experience under your belt you will wonder what you were worried about

Setting out.

Before you set out on your first car journey in the hours of darkness it is important that you understand one thing. Your perception of distance and space will be different than under normal lighting conditions. For example the approaching vehicle will be nearer than you think it is and that gap in the traffic that you thought was safe seems not to be a few seconds later.

When you first leave the house if it is at all possible give your eyes a couple of minutes to adjust to the different level of light that you have walked into.

Under streetlights.

When driving under streetlights look into any areas of shadow that exist between the pools of light. Pedestrians and cyclists can be hard to spot especially as black seems to be such a fashionable colour.

Streetlighting comes on independently. Be careful if only some of the lights are illuminated. One broken light can create a pool of semi-darkness at night.

In the country.

If your journey takes you outside of a built up area you will go through another transition. As you are driving towards the last street light the darkness ahead will look like a wall. As you enter it you will be very aware of the limited area of visibility offered by car headlights. You will have no peripheral vision at all, neither will you be able to see any distance.

Remember that you must be able at all times to stop your car within the distance that you can see to be safe.