Why did our parents really make us believe that if we turned on the dome light in a car at night we’d immediately crash and be arrested?
Posted by dallyan@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 164 comments
Were they tripping or what? 😅🤣
Logical-Cherry9395@reddit
My parents never told me that. They said it made them hard to see because it screwed with their night vision, and could make it difficult for them to safely drive, and we could get into an accident. Which is true.
New_me_310@reddit
And I tell my kids the same thing. As a blue-eyed person, I am particularly sensitive to light, and a nervous driver anyway. My husband has no problem with it but I can't tolerate the cabin lights on at night.
I_Dream_Of_Oranges@reddit
Yeah same.
Zeke688@reddit
Right, but most people had parents like OP is describing. Mine just said it was illegal to do it. The Xennial experience is all about being lied to for absolutely no reason as a kid.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
👏🤣
Exact_Friendship_502@reddit
This isn’t a sub for people that had rational parents. We’re here to commiserate!
Logical-Cherry9395@reddit
Shit. If it helps, my mother once stopped the car on the highway and told me to get out because I believe in Evolution!
Annnnddddd....hmmm....what can I say about my dad....until he hit 73, he was the rational one, so that's a little hard to do. Oh, yes, my dad told me because I dropped out of high school, I'd never be able to do more than flip burgers at McDs. I'm an Azure Engineer.
Groundbreaking-Camel@reddit
Your parents were cutting edge.
Gen X parents told kids to cut it off “because I said so.”
Millennial parents gave a long, detailed, accurate answer that probably lost the audience 1 sentence in.
Xennial parents knew “because I said so” wasn’t enough but didn’t really feel like verbalizing the whole accurate and nuanced answer so they just made some scary stuff up so you would stop asking.
Yours hit the right balance.
Logical-Cherry9395@reddit
What can I say, they were late Boomers, graduating in 1971, borderline but not quite hippies.
Cinderhazed15@reddit
Depending on the position of the light, and the (lack of ) cleanliness of your windshield, it could create a great mirrored view of the back of the car while obstructing the view out your windshield.
My wife’s CX-5 does nothing to deflect the light from the dome in the rear, so it’s hard to see. My Highlander has the light behind a ‘hump’ in the ceiling to block most of the forward light, so it’s not too bad when it’s on.
Hntrbdnshog@reddit
I also have a Highlander but still tell my kid to turn off the light haha.
Bytowneboy2@reddit
I’m sure that’s the position that an insurance agency would also take if an accident happened. I don’t think it would go well.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
My parents always did have a flair for the dramatic.
tinglep@reddit
I was told a gang was out looking for people to kill so if you ever flashed anyone at night or they saw your light on in the car they would catch you and kill you as part of their initiation.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
Immigrant household too? 😅
tinglep@reddit
Jamaicans 🇯🇲🤣
Secret_Cabinet2348@reddit
Same reason I told my kid it was illegal, because driving with the dome light on is annoying.
Thamnophis660@reddit
My mom genuinely believes this, I use present tense for a reason. She said it's blinding to night drivers.
Added bonus was we'd fall asleep in the car easier and not have to be put down for bedtime when we got home.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
I would give anything to sleep as hard as I did in my dad’s old Oldsmobile driving home from an event. 🥲
theadamdrake@reddit
I’m still a firm believer in the ‘no dome light’ policy, that glare is genuinely distracting for me at night. My wife totally sold me out by telling the kids, ‘It’s not illegal, Dad just hates it.’ They still don’t turn it on, but I’m still mad that I lost the threat of jail time to me kids. 🤣
dallyan@reddit (OP)
Remember when parents were united against their kids? Ahhh the good ol’ days. 🤣😂
dcgrey@reddit
Because you couldn’t see. The windshield became a mirror instead of, you know, a windshield. And that era’s headlights weren’t particularly bright, at least relative to today’s nuclear flash headlights.
Gold_Area5109@reddit
So, Headlights were regulated against being too bright in the past... but since Congress isn't all that smart they didn't account for technology changing, so they made laws that applied to incandescent bulbs and regulated them based on wattage; which is idiotic when light is measured in lumens and not wattage.
goodlittlesquid@reddit
Congress isn’t meant to be smart, they’re meant to represent the interests of their constituents. This is why it’s crucial to empower regulatory agencies with experts who have latitude to execute the law. So if Congress passes a law that says ‘reduce air pollution’ the scientists at the EPA can then go and determine how many parts per million of ground level ozone is acceptable, etc. This is why SCOTUS killing Chevron doctrine a couple years ago is very bad.
ILikeBumblebees@reddit
Overturning Chevron had nothing to do with regulatory agencies exercising technical expertise within the statutory authority Congress granted them -- it was entirely about those agencies trying to make their own decisions about what authority was granted to them, interpret statutes for themselves, and come up with their own opinions on legal and constitutional questions that go far outside their actual expertise.
The case that overturned Chevron, Loper Bright, was about an agency tasked with regulating fisheries, where officials well versed in marine ecology tried to read into the statute the power to raise their own funds by charging operating expenses to the fisherman.
Essentially they were trying to grant themselves the power to levy their own taxes. Whether the statute actually permitted them to do that is entirely a legal question, for which jurists, not marine ecologists, are the appropriate experts. But under Chevron, they would have been able to implement this policy without oversight.
Reversing Chevron restores oversight of the legal questions to the courts, but doesn't remove the ability of SMEs to apply relevant expertise to formulating policy that is within the bounds of statutory authority Congress has granted them. So the experts in marine ecology will still be the ones determining optimal fishing quotas.
denverblazer@reddit
Holy crap is that how that played out?? 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
YourGuyK@reddit
It's still weird to me that parents made up a lie about it being illegal when "I can't see with the light on" is both reasonable and easy to demonstrate to a small child.
PacketFiend@reddit
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dka2012@reddit
Here’s the reason I always got. In the 1970s when our parents would cruise around, rolling joints they would use that light, also known as the “dope scope”, to see what they were doing. Cops started keying in on that. So, if they saw a car of younger people with their dope scope light in, they would pull them over on suspicion. So, those parents got paranoid about having the light on as it will bring police attention and drilled that into us at a young age.
Also, my uncle was a cop in the 1980s and 90s and he said they still looked for it when he was working.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
The dope scope! That is hilarious.
Mr_Grumpy_Pant5@reddit
Wait. Are you saying this isn't true?
dallyan@reddit (OP)
Turns out it IS true based on this thread!
docchang23@reddit
When I was a kid my dad just told me he couldn't see anything when it was on...
Eventually that same car became my first car. I drove at night for the first time and tried to use the dome light. FOR REAL, I couldn't see SHIT outside the window. It was like the windshield turned into a giant mirror. It was terrifying!
I think windshield angles have gotten better since then.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
Ahaha we had the Oldsmobile cutlass. You might be right.
Toeknee818@reddit
They were tripping. I let my kid read by that light while I drive. Chillest drive ever.
CTMechE@reddit
I've heard this from so many people but my parents never claimed anything about it being illegal. They just said to hurry up and turn it off because it makes it harder for them to see.
Affectionate-Gap-761@reddit
Because it's simpler than to explain to a young child the physics and variables involved with such an action.
menunu@reddit
Because we were annoying as hell and they were just trying to get us where we need to go.
_MadGasser@reddit
You misspelled dope light.
diogenes75@reddit
My parents always used to say that too. Funnily enough, when I had a family of my own and my littlest was still in a rear facing car seat, she got upset and we clicked it on to check on her(less than a mile from our house on country roads). Son of a gun if I didn’t get immediately pulled over 20 feet from my own driveway and fussed at by the officer for having it on. Yeesh.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
Omg, the urban legend police!
diogenes75@reddit
That group of city cops pulled everyone over if anything looked the least bit out of whack. We bought an old jeep from a used car lot while we lived there, and I made the manager give me a copy of the paperwork(this was in the early 2000s. When he asked why I said it was because I would be pulled over and checked before I made it home. He said no you won’t. I said wanna bet?
They pulled me over to check the papers and make sure we had actually bought the vehicle before we hit half a mile into the city limits. They were notorious for that. It’s funny now- was a giant PITA then, and nobody felt any safer or anything.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
smaller towns and some states make their livelihood off of that bs! Its def not for safety.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
They were right!!
jibegirl@reddit
Coz it flooded the car like fluorescent tube lights
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
older cars? Mayb we just had junk cars but ours wasnt even like a sad bathroom nightlight. And it was just going to be on for a sec while looking for something we dropped! I think they were just repeating a knee jerk reaction
capthazelwoodsflask@reddit
I guess I'm in minority but that never happened. Yes, my parents didn't like the time I left the dome light on and my dad was late for work because the battery died and he had to jump the car.
Outside of that, now that I'm a parent and have life experience, I get annoyed when my daughter turns the light on at night. It's distracting for me, and usually if she has the light on, she's doing something distracting, too.
TheJasperCollective@reddit
It's definitely wild to me that parents use this and "stop talking or the fish won't bite" instead of just telling us the truth. "It creates a glare and makes it hard to see" "I came out here for a peaceful day on the lake and your undiagnosed ADHD is annoying me."
dallyan@reddit (OP)
Not the undiagnosed ADHD. We really all had the same childhood, didn’t we?
TheJasperCollective@reddit
Also realized I was autistic just a couple years ago. 😹
herseyhawkins33@reddit
Oh their reaction was INSTANT! It was crazy 😂
Ti47_867@reddit
Have tried driving with a 1980s 1000-watt dome light on?
ithinkitsnotworking@reddit
Those old cars had stadium lights in them.
buffysmanycoats@reddit
Every time this comes up people say that they aren't bothered now when someone turns an interior light on, completely forgetting that the lights back then were as bright as the fucking sun.
Logical-Cherry9395@reddit
That glares right into the rear view mirror and the driver's eyeballs. YES. I think the first car I had that didn't do this was my 2016 one.
JennJoy77@reddit
And now the headlights of oncoming cars blind us briefly for a few seconds instead!
Floundering_Dad_43@reddit
Well they had to be designed to overpower the dome lights that kids were turning on in the cars, duh
Worth-Trade9381@reddit
Most people don't know that dome lights are the reason so many hitchhikers disappeared in the 80s.
Floundering_Dad_43@reddit
Brother, link me a creepy article about this right now please
Worth-Trade9381@reddit
Investigators at the time attributed the windfall of dome related disappearances to the translucent yellow glow that attracted young road running co-eda to what ended up being a death trap. Mostly due to all the shitty little kids that wouldn't stop turning on the damn light and making their parents turn this damn car around right now.
Source: cold case crypto files
MyNameIsSat@reddit
Briefly for a few seconds? Where do you drive? I want to go where you are lol!
Here its like staring into the sun. Everyone is running around with the brightest after market headlights they can get ahold of, they dont understand how to install them, so when they did they screwed up and have them pointed upwards, they leave their brights on and never swap to dims, and thats if they arent driving trucks with a million extra lights on top of normal headlights...
Floundering_Dad_43@reddit
I think the evolution of windshield glass plays a part here too.
Jean_Paul_Fartre_@reddit
In a 1980’s K car station wagon no less!!
Titanbeard@reddit
My parents Reliant wagon was cream of the crop, brother! It was a tank.
TheDodoBird@reddit
For real though, in high school I had an old beater Delta-88 Olds, and that fuckers dope-scope was so bright it was like the sun in my windshield at night!
Most-Silver-4365@reddit
And could that with crappy sealed beam headlights.
Captain3leg-s@reddit
And headlights that have the same luminosity as a small candle!
quickstop_rstvideo@reddit
I guess my dad is the only one that just said it is hard to drive with that on, so we don't turn it on while driving at night.
err404@reddit
“It illegal” is parent speak for “because I said so” when they don’t want an argument.
ailish@reddit
My parents really did teach me that, and I actually haven't even tried it as an adult. Reading through these comments apparently modern cars aren't a problem anymore?? I can't wait to try it next time I drive at night lol.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
Don’t! I can’t be responsible for you going off the side of a cliff like Toonces!!
ailish@reddit
If I do go off the side of a cliff, I'll be screaming, "damn you dallyannnnnnnn!" the whole way down.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
ailish@reddit
A perfect representation of what me and my family will look like!
ScottClam42@reddit
Unrelated, but memory unlocked!
In college, I was driving a couple friends somewhere down a highway at night - no memory of where we were going, but it doesn't matter. We're in the right lane going maybe 5mph over the speed limit and quickly approaching a small sedan that has their dome light on. They had to be going 20mph under the limit. The car is still 100 yards ahead of us but based on a hunch I say out loud "whoever is in that car is smoking weed and they're not good a it". Just a passing comment, but I get in the left lane and start passing the car, and as I look over I see 3 HS aged kids smoking a glass bong! It was the only moment in my life that I questioned whether clairvoyancy is real. I was right about not being good at it... 20mph under the limit with the dome light on while driving on an interstate?? I hope those kids learned not to smoke and drive without hurting someone.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
Dad skilz in full efect
AnglingLegend@reddit
Because it’s a distraction, and they really just wanted you to sit down and shut up. Stop touching Everything, and breaking everything they pay for. Just sit and be….
dallyan@reddit (OP)
It’s like you knew me as a child…
CalliopePenelope@reddit
It’s the parental/adult mindset of “Tell kids the worst case scenario will always happen to terrify them out of annoying/potentially dangerous behaviors.”
Like my kindergarten teacher who, whenever she saw a kid leaning back a tiny bit in their chair, would always tell them that they’ll fall over and break their heads open.
To be fair, turning a light on when driving in the dark was pretty annoying for the driver in the era of SUPER BRIGHT dome lights.
Careful_Farmer_2879@reddit
Because kids don’t listen otherwise. They. Don’t. Listen.
1block@reddit
Accurate that to a kid, being arrested is the worst possible scenario rather than the family driving blind off a cliff.
Impossible-Limit-314@reddit
In everything we do. Hell, even Santa Clause. “Yeah this old man is gonna scoreboard your ass ALL YEAR and reconcile all the stuff I didn’t manage catch by not giving you shit. Ok, now let’s pray and think about Jesus…”
DDrewit@reddit
It causes reflections on the inside of the glass. It’s not that complicated.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
Oh I know that. But why were they so dramatic about it and were they the only ones?
magsli@reddit
It's not dramatic.
Having to explain the reasoning and nuances in depth to kid whose brain hadn't fully developed critical thinking is convoluted.
The easiest way for a teen lizard brain to understand anything like that is to literally just say - it's illegal.
That one statement says it all: "you are underage. I am responsible. I own and pay for the car. It is a financial and legal liability. Turning it on could kill the battery. Then I'll have to pay to replace or fix it. Turning it on will affect your night vision. Why- because more details around human biology. You as a teen aren't yet an experienced driver and this could cause an accident that involves other people's lives. We could get sued. You could hurt or kill someone and/or yourself. You could go to jail. That would kill your future, affect our jobs, our reputation, and our financial stability and mental, psychical and emotional health. Our lives could be over. We might have to deal with a dead child. We might have to spend a lot of money or go broke in the process. The car could be totaled and then we'd have to deal with costs and insurance and the insurance prices could go up. We'd have to pay money for a new car. Your license could be revoked and we might have to ware time to shuttle you around. The list goes on...The consequences can snowball and are too great."
It was a way to scare you enough to simply not do it.
I'm curious, did your parents say this about other stuff that involved assets?
dallyan@reddit (OP)
I know. This post is more tongue in cheek than anything. I have mental images of someone turning on the light and the car going toonces-style over a cliff.
magsli@reddit
Toonces NOOOO! lol : )
dallyan@reddit (OP)
CorwinAlexander@reddit
Because, early on in child development, an easy lie is more effective than a long, detailed explanation that handles all the interjections of "why‽.
In my own parents' example, they told us the lie for a little bit, but then sat us down at home to provide the more detailed answer about why we don't turn the dome light on while daddy's driving
magsli@reddit
Exactly!
Shadowdane@reddit
Gotta remember headlights in 80s cars were rather dim compared to anything on the road now. Made it a lot harder to see.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
Yes, I’ve learned that from this thread. I don’t drive much since I live in a public transport city.
Vermalien@reddit
Because THEIR parents told them the same thing, and THEIR parents before that, for time immemorial. I remember my Grandpappy once told me of when he was a little boy, traveling in the family coach. Old Great-Grandpa Beuford would yell “BLOW OUT THAT DOME LANTERN, BOY! Ya want old Sherrif Jones to arrest Ya for spookin’ them horses into a ditch?”
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
Tru tru
THAC0-Tuesday@reddit
Cause life ain't no GAME, sit and stare some more
dallyan@reddit (OP)
LivingCamel3326@reddit
My kid always turns on the light and I always tell her “hey turn that off, the police will put me in jail!”
dallyan@reddit (OP)
😆😆
Appropriate-Food1757@reddit
So you don’t turn it on a fuck with their ability to drive at night. And also dead car batteries.
I think our parents generation just chose stupid lies instead of saying “I can’t see as well when I’m driving and also I don’t want you to forget it’s in and then we get stranded and need a jump” they would say “I will go blind and run over a pack of cute baby seals and you will go to juvenile detention and the death of the seals in on your hands”
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
Eyes on the road
dallyan@reddit (OP)
Haha my dad did the same!
Odd-Tie1555@reddit
Some of y'all parents did you dirty.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
/cries in immigrant household
QuietNene@reddit
Our parents were all Russian spies and that’s where the microphone was hidden
dallyan@reddit (OP)
My parents WERE immigrants. You might be onto smtg there.
magsli@reddit
This makes me think that OP drives with the light on as an adult and doesn't understand why it needs to be kept off.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
I actually don’t drive because I live in a city with great public transport. But I do know why it shouldn’t be turned on. I just never got why they were so dramatic about it. Now I do!
pondslider@reddit
In my early 20s I got pulled over by a state trooper on the thruway for driving with the dome light on. I’d just forgotten to turn it off and didn’t notice. He didn’t arrest me or ticket me just came up to my window and yelled at me to turn it off and left.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
Dang. So it really was illegal. Makes sense.
DrMcJedi@reddit
Because it’s true…and I tell my kids the same thing.
Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit
But its just for a second;
charlie1331@reddit
Because it happened to me. I turned the light on, we crashed and died, and then my dad turned the car around just like he’d been threatening to do for the last 200 miles
dallyan@reddit (OP)
I hate it when that happens.
sgrams04@reddit
In older cars this was more of an issue. You couldn’t see out side windows and rear view mirror became useless.
Nowadays with LEDs and such, it isn’t an issue. I let my kids read with the lights on during night drives. Makes for a happier car ride…
dallyan@reddit (OP)
Yeah we had one of those ginormous old Oldsmobiles. They were soooo comfortable. It was like a couch in the backseat.
_Xee@reddit
My dad just showed me you can't see shit outside when the light is on.
edasto42@reddit
The basis of the ‘law’ surrounding this is based on fact. The light being on can signify distracted driving which is illegal and a ticketable offense.
Paramedickhead@reddit
Because Boomers are incapable to telling the truth.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
Technically my parents were greatest gen but just barely. 😁
_haha_oh_wow_@reddit
They probably told you it was illegal because they didn't want to deal with you whining about it: The real reason is it makes it hard to see at night and driving safely is far more important than kid you being able to do a coloring book or read or whatever.
FastFooer@reddit
If your parents used the scare tactic rather than explain the why, it’s because they thought it was the fastest way to stop or because they didn’t have the patience… nothing more.
sircastor@reddit
It was an annoyance and it messes with how their eyes have adjusted to the dark.
So why not that, and some made up thing about the law? Probably because you’ll listen to an appeal to authority rather than just a request.
avgsmoe@reddit
My kids leave the light on and I'm the type to use blue light filters and have the brightness down low when its dark. The visual noise really bothers me. I have had to tell them it's not aloud because it was becoming a problem.
CyDJester@reddit
Because glare and bight vision impairment are real. It’s the same reason your dash has a backlight dimmer.
knochback@reddit
Gives police probable cause to pull you over
Ill-Bullfrog-5360@reddit
Old domes lights fucked up your night vision that’s it
Bushwazi@reddit
Because any lights on behind the driver suck…to this day
Vegaprime@reddit
Beach seat days, dad was probably getting a handy.
Conscious_Home_4253@reddit
For the same reason we weren’t allowed to open the sunroof. It might not work someday.
Bulky_Goat_9624@reddit
In fairness, I’ve said the same thing to my kids. It can be pretty distracting
rabbittdoggy@reddit
I mean my parents told us it created a glare on the inside of the windshield and made it difficult to see out…
WritingNerdy@reddit
Because it’s awful trying to drive with light in your rearview mirror, especially now I have astigmatisms in both eyes.
Dolly1232@reddit
My mom told me it was illegal in the 80’s and 90’s. I didn’t believe that, but I never turned that light on.
FoppyRETURNS@reddit
Boomers gotta Boomer
Evendim@reddit
My parents never told me that, they just honestly said it made it hard to see while driving. That much is definitely true. It is annoying AF.
CorwinAlexander@reddit
My parents started with the easy lie but shifted to the proper explanation before we figured out the lie — I've always respected them for that
Wodentoad@reddit
I think it was one of those commonly held false beliefs. Kids have had the lights on in the back of the minivan which doesn't bother me, but it's way back. In my mom's VW Bug, it was a single bright thing that lit up the whole inside and my mom is not a confident night driver.
Evendim@reddit
Maybe in the US? I am an Aussie 😄
Journo_Jimbo@reddit
It’s wild that, that long ago, car companies had the technology to put in a switch that would directly inactive a father’s ability to see.
MistaRekt@reddit
LOL. I never heard about the blindness or crashing, though I was told it was safer to have it off, for the night vision.
I thought my parents had super-vision.
Journo_Jimbo@reddit
It’s because they ate all their carrots 🤣
CorwinAlexander@reddit
Hilarious since the "carrots improve night vision" thing was a cover story for the development of RADAR in WWII. (Carrots do improve vision, but only in cases of vitamin A deficiency. They don't improve vision in people with sufficient nutrition)
MistaRekt@reddit
I can get behind that.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
Where is Ralph Nader when we need him?!
gxslim@reddit
The hero we need, not the hero we deserve.
An Unreasonable Man is a great biopic on him
MLDaffy@reddit
Good call! Haven't heard his name in a while. He definitely could have handled that. Seatbelts and dome lights. Sounds like a country song.
dallyan@reddit (OP)
I just checked and he’s still alive!
CantFindMyWallet@reddit
My dad told me to keep the light off because the it created glare on the inside of the windshield, making it difficult for him to see out. Which is true and a valid and easily understood reason to keep the light off.
sounds_like_kong@reddit
And if you left it on you’d 100% have a dead battery in the morning
CorwinAlexander@reddit
I had forgotten about that. So true
Goldhound807@reddit
I mean, it can mess with the driver’s ability to see.
Oldschooldrool@reddit
Having it on while driving wasn't actually probable cause for the police to pull you over and search your car full of 6 teenagers for the pinched 1/8th of shitty brick weed you definitely totally didnt have in the car on the way to the "campout", right?
Not_a_Rockstar_Dad@reddit
Yeah I’m old know and can’t see with it on.
Trashman82@reddit
As an adult, I finally understood. That shit is distracting
Ticksdonthavelymph@reddit
I drive BETTER with it on. It makes the brightness from assholes and their white high beams less intense. I am 100% safer with it on
jjmawaken@reddit
I don't like when my kids turn it on either. I tell them it's distracting and makes it difficult to drive (which is true).
Nervous-Rush-4465@reddit
It suddenly reduced the drivers vision. You had to be there.
Murky-Science-1657@reddit
My mum would say it’s illegal and to to turn it off.
Epicardiectomist@reddit
It's annoying to have it on when you're driving. Instead of seeing as much of what your rearview mirror can tell you about what's behind you, you have illuminated faces and backseats muddying it up. It's like watching TV when the sunlight is directly on you in your chair. You see some of the TV screen, but mostly it's just an illuminated image of you in the chair.
Rather than try and rationalize that with a child, I too just say it's illegal to drive with it on.
Glendale0839@reddit
My dad would immediately freak out if I turned it on at night while he was driving. I knew it could be distracting or make it tougher to see at night, but never thought it was as bad as the cardinal sin he made it out to be.
5iveOClockSomewhere@reddit
It back lights you and makes it easier for the snipers to pinpoint you
graveybrains@reddit
Because the windshield is glass and the light reflects off that glass impairing the driver's ability to see through it, and anything that impairs a driver's ability to see is grounds for a ticket.
Driving with the light on at night also qualifies as 'suspicious behavior.'
Shadrach77@reddit
Mine did not?