Should they all be turned off.
I personally think they should. Now apart from saving energy (not going on a global warming rant here…promise) I think the light pollution they could cut would also be great. Also personally I prefer to drive on a m/way without street lights as I think its easier on the eyes and encourages people to check vehicles before setting off as they cannot get by with one head light out.
Plus it would save a shed load of money.
I heard somewhere that the road lighting at night uses the excess electric produced by the providers and that is why it is also cheaper to use household electric at night.
It depends on the circumstances. Rural motorways rarely need lighting but I can see an argument for lighting on urban motorways and busy/large junctions.
More annoying is sitting against red lights on roundabouts at 3.00am with absolutely nothing around for miles.
I see there giving it a go in London…
Lights across the city were switched off for an hour on Thursday night to encourage London’s three million households to conserve energy.
The Lights Out London campaign aimed to have all non-essential lighting turned off between 2100 and 2200 BST.
It followed similar campaigns in cities including Sydney, Paris and Rome.
ROG:
I heard somewhere that the road lighting at night uses the excess electric produced by the providers and that is why it is also cheaper to use household electric at night.
It isnt cheap to start and stop powerstations, mostly they have to just slow the production down at night, but they are producing electricity that has to go somewhere. While logically you are saving energy by shutting them off, its costing more because your burning carbon fuels to produce something that isnt being used 
Personally I think that driving on lit up motorways is easier on the eyes and therefore safer if driving for any length of time, some of them are a little over lit though.
It’s far harder to drive to stop in the distance you can see to be clear on an unlit motorway. As soon as there’s traffic ahead or oncoming, you’ve got to knock the main beam off so as not to blind or dazzle.
How about sensors that pick up the presence of vehicles, and turn on lights say 1 mile ahead, turning them off when there’s no traffic detected? And keep junctions permanently lit?
Pop Larkin:
More annoying is sitting against red lights on roundabouts at 3.00am with absolutely nothing around for miles.
They don;t seem to bother me
PeteG:
It’s far harder to drive to stop in the distance you can see to be clear on an unlit motorway. As soon as there’s traffic ahead or oncoming, you’ve got to knock the main beam off so as not to blind or dazzle.
Why do you need main beam in a lorry with a max speed of 56 mph on a motorway ?
I never use it, whether on a motorway or A roads. I might flick it on to get a good look at an unfamiliar bend in lanes and B roads, but I don’t drive with them on permanently.
Still I suppose somebody has to compensate for all the dicks driving round with parking lights on 
I heard somewhere about a year or so ago that motorway lights are only really in places where there has been a significant problem with accidentsat night,(hence the random stretches along the M6) they are said to reduce the accident rate at night in certain areas by up to 50%.
Like i say not read from any gospel just somethin im sure i heard.
catclan:
I heard somewhere about a year or so ago that motorway lights are only really in places where there has been a significant problem with accidentsat night,(hence the random stretches along the M6) they are said to reduce the accident rate at night in certain areas by up to 50%.Like i say not read from any gospel just somethin im sure i heard.
I asked AQA and they said that “Unlit roads have a marginally higher accident rate.”
Depends what they mean by marginal. I’d say lower than 5%.
smoker:
PeteG:
It’s far harder to drive to stop in the distance you can see to be clear on an unlit motorway. As soon as there’s traffic ahead or oncoming, you’ve got to knock the main beam off so as not to blind or dazzle.Why do you need main beam in a lorry with a max speed of 56 mph on a motorway ?
For one, it’s not only 56mph heavies that use motorways at night. Secondly, if there’s no-one around to affect, why not have the most view you can get?
Still I suppose somebody has to compensate for all the dicks driving round with parking lights on
I thought that was the job of the permanent foglight brigade (don’t get me started…).
smoker:
PeteG:
It’s far harder to drive to stop in the distance you can see to be clear on an unlit motorway. As soon as there’s traffic ahead or oncoming, you’ve got to knock the main beam off so as not to blind or dazzle.Why do you need main beam in a lorry with a max speed of 56 mph on a motorway ?
I never use it, whether on a motorway or A roads. I might flick it on to get a good look at an unfamiliar bend in lanes and B roads, but I don’t drive with them on permanently.
Still I suppose somebody has to compensate for all the dicks driving round with parking lights on
Maybe because it is a facility that can be used on all vehicles and if someone chooses to use it , it is their right to do so.
paul@midway:
Maybe because it is a facility that can be used on all vehicles and if someone chooses to use it , it is their right to do so.
And it’s MY right not to be blinded coming round corners or going up hills when some-one comes the other way on main beam and takes 15 -20 seconds to realise that I’m coming towards them before they turn the lights down. It’s not just hills or corners either - even on a long straight, main beam hurts from half a mile away.
I usually count how long it takes them to turn them down, then joke that that’s the time it took for the signal to reach their brain !
Sockpuppet:
encourages people to check vehicles before setting off as they cannot get by with one head light out.
absolute rubbish - the only thing that will encourage these numpties to check and repair their lights is strict enforcement and fines.
the old bill should be out there sorting out this massive problem as it’s more dangerous than speeding.
i followed a car the other week and none of the cars brake lights were working except for the additional high level brake light in the rear window.
one eyed monsters on an unlit motorway can look almost like a motorbike coming up behind you and it can be quite worrying if it’s the offside light that isn’t working as you wonder why the biker is coming in so close when they could be in the middle of the lane.
laziness is the reason - sheer laziness, people can’t be bothered to check or even fix these simple problems of running a motor vehicle and yet they have a responsibility to check their vehicle before every journey.
smoker:
paul@midway:
Maybe because it is a facility that can be used on all vehicles and if someone chooses to use it , it is their right to do so.
And it’s MY right not to be blinded coming round corners or going up hills when some-one comes the other way on main beam and takes 15 -20 seconds to realise that I’m coming towards them before they turn the lights down. It’s not just hills or corners either - even on a long straight, main beam hurts from half a mile away.
I usually count how long it takes them to turn them down, then joke that that’s the time it took for the signal to reach their brain !
Still doesn’t make a point .You can’t chastatize everyone who uses full beam for christ sake .I use it on dark long strectches of Motorway and A road and flick it off when people are approaching .
Give a circumstance the other night , 2 people wearing dark clothing walking down the hard shoulder , it was only the main beam that picked them out , if I had decided to go into the hard shoulder for whatever reason on dipped beam they would be dead , I wouldn’t have seen them .
They shouldn’t have been there but they were.
I can’t beleive what some people post on this forum you know , some of it fits the stereotype quite perfectly .
To be honest I would go as far as saying that on a dark road with nothing in front and nothing coming the other way you should be using full beam unless there’s some other good reason for not doing so, surely the point of having lights is to give maximum visibility for safety, so why not use them, just because some people don’t use them properly doesn’t mean no one should ever use them.
I hardly ever use main beam on a motorway mainly because even in the middle of the night, theres always enough traffic coming the other way to make sure your constantly flicking it on and off. Single carriage way roads are obviously different, with the potential for bends, narrow spots etc etc etc suddenly appearing, then traffic pending I do use main beam.
This thread seems to have gone off on a bit of of a tangent.
Interesting 
johnny:
absolute rubbish - the only thing that will encourage these numpties to check and repair their lights is strict enforcement and fines.
the old bill should be out there sorting out this massive problem as it’s more dangerous than speeding.
i followed a car the other week and none of the cars brake lights were working except for the additional high level brake light in the rear window.
one eyed monsters on an unlit motorway can look almost like a motorbike coming up behind you and it can be quite worrying if it’s the offside light that isn’t working as you wonder why the biker is coming in so close when they could be in the middle of the lane.laziness is the reason - sheer laziness, people can’t be bothered to check or even fix these simple problems of running a motor vehicle and yet they have a responsibility to check their vehicle before every journey.
100% in agreement johnny. Sometimes on the motorway in heavy traffic it is harder to spot a car that HASN’T got a brake light out.
Mind you with no coppers around to pick them up on it, I can’t see the situation changing.