#(esp when there are 18 wheelers on the road with u who literally by the laws of physics cannot quickly stop or rapidly decelerate)

[tchaikovskaya]

while my mind is on headlights and my patronizing gripes about them, i'll add this: if it's raining hard in the middle of the day (like *insert the unfortunate idiom of domestic abuse* kind of rain when its still very bright out), and you're driving in somewhat dense/heavy traffic, do not put your fucking high beam lights on. the light bounces off of the rain droplets and makes visibility a billion times worse. for goddamn everyone around you. which makes everyone else put their high beams on bc they cant see SHIT. creating a dangerous and eyeball-searing feedback loop.

when you're driving in rain, esp on a lower-speed road, having your lights on is important secondarily [primarily is your own visibility obvi] for a) letting oncoming traffic see you, and b) letting cars in front of you see you in their rear view mirrors. some people even say that if its bright enough u can/should use fog lights to mitigate the whole light-water reflection effect, but iirc those usually dont light up the car's tail lights, which are important for cars behind you to see you. however i maintain that unless you're driving on a highway/interstate or some other "higher-speed" roadway with few stops/lights/intersections, if the rain/snow/fog is so bad that you can't see a car like 4-5 car lengths in front of you until they hit the brakes and you're Right There and you need to stop or significantly slow down, you're either driving way too fast for the conditions or following way too close. :))))