Do you ever get freaked out driving at night?

[dnguyen1963]

7 years ago a friend and I made a trip down to Abingdon VA from DC to pick up a parts e30, swapped in some engine mounts, and then drove back. The seller was your average teenager and took until 3pm to respond so we could leave. At about 4am on the way back, we were approaching NoVA and up ahead was an overpass. For some reason, my tired mind registered the black underneath the dimly lit overpass as a solid black wall. For about 2 solid seconds, I couldn't react, my mind desperately scrambling in between why engineers would put a solid wall across the highway and that what I was seeing was not true. After I few seconds, I realized it must not be true, removed my foot from above the brakes which was was ready to start mashing, and back to the accelerator. Panic sloooowwly subsided and I hesitantly kept going forward.

It was very scary to me in that first instant.

Must have been one hell of a smoke joint...

[marshallnoise]

The only time I get freaked out driving at night is back roads where there isn't much lighting, as you noted, but when its been raining and the road is super black asphalt. In a car I was not too terrified, but when on my motorcycle I would get freaked out. Especially with the rain, traffic coming the opposite way, dark as hell, lights hitting my helmet/mask causing refracting lights, all the while coming out of the Badlands on a winding road. Yeah, that freaked me out.

[jrossowvue30]

I used to love night driving, but in the last year or so my eye sight has gotten worse at night. My eyes seem to not adjust to light, or lack there of, the same way they used to. Oncoming traffic basically blinds me and it takes a minute or two and sometimes longer for my eyes to readjust. Even if I'm not being blinded by oncoming traffic and if it is a dark road I have a hard time seeing what is ahead of me. If it's raining I'm going based on memory if its a road I travel often.

I know most people say the lower on the kelvin scale your lights are the better but I find in my e36 which has 6000k HIDs allows me to see far better than the stock 4300k HIDs that are in my e60. It is almost as if the blue hue of the 6000K lights puts down enough contrast for my eyes to pick up. I tried putting yellow Lamin-X on my e60 and although it did help put a yellow hue to the light output it didn't help my eyes out at all. It amazes me that crappy DJ auto projectors allow me to see better than my e60's active headlights allow.

[Kershaw]

7 years ago a friend and I made a trip down to Abingdon VA from DC to pick up a parts e30, swapped in some engine mounts, and then drove back. The seller was your average teenager and took until 3pm to respond so we could leave. At about 4am on the way back, we were approaching NoVA and up ahead was an overpass. For some reason, my tired mind registered the black underneath the dimly lit overpass as a solid black wall. For about 2 solid seconds, I couldn't react, my mind desperately scrambling in between why engineers would put a solid wall across the highway and that what I was seeing was not true. After I few seconds, I realized it must not be true, removed my foot from above the brakes which was was ready to start mashing, and back to the accelerator. Panic sloooowwly subsided and I hesitantly kept going forward.

It was very scary to me in that first instant.

[e30strokr]

I love driving at night specially when its 80-90* outside.... however one time I visited a friend in Madera CA, somewhere and I was lost on this road that I couldn't see any lights....and I decided to turn around... all I saw where tombstones.. I was inside a cementery with no markings from the main street ......

[AndrewBird]

I'm used to driving with snow covering the road and "erasing" the road almost completely, so a dark road doesn't bother me. I also have better than 20/20 vision and exceptional night vision.

[TobyB]

driving at night in the rain

on fresh asphalt with no markers.

I've had problems with that before.

In Reno.

t

[DER E30]

Nope, I love driving at night. Some killer lights make a difference. I do have an awesome bixenon retro on my e30 with fogs and middle factory bright lamps on when brights are engaged...

Need to get the M3 to have all on at the same time also...

[Stanley Rockafella]

Yea, that's happened to me esp. at night as the GF hates driving at night.
Usually happens when I forget what the last road sign indicated for the next turn

[ThatOneEuroE30]

The only time i don't like like driving at night is out on country roads cause it can be very difficult to judge where your turn is.

[CarsonE30]

The only things that freak me out at night are oil pan land mines.

This is me even though I have a skidplate. It's the sound that makes me cringe every single time.

[Exodus_2pt0]

I love driving at night, it is my preferred time.

That said, when I was a young dumbass I was banging this chick who was going to WVU. It was a 3 1/2 hour drive out there, and I would often make the trip at random hours in the early morning.

On the long stretches through the mountains I would regularly cruise at 80-90mph at 1am and go 20-30 minutes or longer without seeing another soul. You start to wonder when you go that long and cover that much ground without any sign of others.

[flyboyx]

driving at night in the rain really sucks. otherwise, i think its a matter of having good headlights.

our 135i has great lights and i say night driving is really pleasurable. my f350 and e30's do not and you can't see more than about 200' ahead of you. that is much less fun.

i don't know about the freak out thing.

[ak-]

The only things that freak me out at night are intersections and oil pan land mines.
If I'm driving something else, it's just intersections that make me uneasy.

[Bearmw]

Not typically. However doing the graveyard shift on a nonstop drive from Massachusetts to Ft. Lauderdale in a 1980's Malibu wagon I must have started to doze because when I saw a lot of bright lights from road construction ahead I locked up the brakes momentarily but then realized the construction was like a mile or two ahead and no other cars around. My panic braking woke up everyone up and then we decided to switch shifts.