Originally Posted by
jputnam
Actually, there is a good reason for DRLs that can be shut off, and there are times when it is illegal to use your headlights in daylight.
When cars are loading onto ferry boats around Puget Sound, they're going up and down ramps while being directed by deckhands. Headlights can glare-blind a deckhand and lead to accidents. So, for safety reasons, it's illegal to drive onto a Washington State ferry boat with your headlights on at any time of day.
If your car does not have an override position for DRLs, you can usually make it legal by keeping your parking brake very slightly engaged when putting the car in gear -- for most makes and models, that fools the DRL system into keeping the headlights off.
Very few people seem to know that workaround unless they've been chewed out by an annoyed deckhand. They mostly want cooperation, not enforcement -- I can't recall ever seeing anyone actually ticketed for using their headlights on the boats.
DRLs run at a much lower wattage than the regular headlamps and uses the high beam bulb. So in your above situation, a properly set-up headlamp assembly's DRL should not be a problem. The purpose of DRL is to be seen not light up the road in front of you.
In Europe, cars come with rear fog lights. Again this is to make the car visible in dense foggy area.
To say that DRL on cars make motorcycles less visible is rubbish. It's about as stupid as saying cyclists wearing reflective vests now make the roadside workers less visible.
Visibility is visibility.