{"id":20219,"date":"2015-04-06T11:41:51","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T15:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=20219"},"modified":"2015-04-06T17:29:40","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T21:29:40","slug":"massachusetts-drivers-must-use-headlights-when-their-windshield-wipers-are-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2015\/04\/06\/massachusetts-drivers-must-use-headlights-when-their-windshield-wipers-are-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts Drivers Must Use Headlights When Their Windshield Wipers Are Needed"},"content":{"rendered":"

CBS Local<\/em> has the story New Mass. Law: Turn On Headlights When Using Wipers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Starting Tuesday, motorists will have to use their headlights \u201cwhen the vehicle\u2019s windshield wipers are needed<\/a>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In case you missed the link above,\u00a0 here is the link to the law AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE USE OF HEADLIGHTS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

…headlights and taillights shall be turned on by the vehicle operator at all other times when, due to insufficient light or unfavorable atmospheric conditions, visibility is reduced such that persons or vehicles on the roadway are not clearly discernible at a distance of 500 feet or when the vehicle\u2019s windshield wipers are needed<\/strong>;…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now here is a law that probably sounded like a good idea at the time, and not a moment’s more thought was given to it. When you turn on the windshield washers to clear away some dirt, must you first turn on your headlights?<\/p>\n

If, on a clear, sunny day, a truck drives by and splatters your windshield so that you cannot see where you are going, do you wash the windshield first so you don’t run over a pedestrian, or do you turn on tour headlights first so you don’t violate the law? What about birds splattering your windshield obstructing your view.<\/p>\n

Actually, if you look at the words in the law that I bolded above, this law applies when the windshield wipers are needed.\u00a0 If you need your windshield wipers, but fail to turn them and your headlight on, you are still in violation of the law.<\/p>\n

Do our legislators live in the same world we do?<\/p>\n

Then there is the issue of daytime running light.\u00a0 Most modern cars will automatically turn on the daytime running lights (drl on my Toyota) if the ignition is on. My car automatically switches to headlights if there is not enough ambient light.\u00a0 You do have an option to turn off this feature and\u00a0 run with no lights, which most people seem to do.\u00a0 For those of us who understand why there is this drl feature in the first place, are we now violating the law if we do not override the drl option and turn on the headlights when we turn on the windshield wipers.\u00a0 I wonder if our amazing legislature thought to coordinate with the car manufacturers before they came up with this change in the law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CBS Local has the story New Mass. Law: Turn On Headlights When Using Wipers. Starting Tuesday, motorists will have to use their headlights \u201cwhen the vehicle\u2019s windshield wipers are needed.\u201d In case you missed the link above,\u00a0 here is the link to the law AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE USE OF HEADLIGHTS. …headlights and taillights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-stevegsposts","czr-hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20219"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20237,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20219\/revisions\/20237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}