This week’s column is complimentary to local drivers for what I perceive to be a significant improvement in using full headlights during rainy days. Having written nearly 900 columns on vehicle and traffic laws and traffic safety over a period of more than 17 years, I cannot drive anywhere without noticing things other drivers do right and, unfortunately, do wrong.

Although I admit I have not done even a cursory tally on what percentage of drivers are using full headlights when driving in inclement weather, I am invoking a tried-and-true statement that “perception is reality.”

May 5 was a rainy day — not hard rain, but rainy all day. In my various trips in and around Malone that day I was impressed with what seemed to me to be a large percentage of drivers using their full headlights. Whenever windshield wipers are needed, not only is the use of headlights a good idea, it is required by law — not just daytime running lights (DRLs) but full headlights, including taillights.

Over the years I have chastised drivers for not using headlights when required by law. It’s not just when wipers are on — it is also when visibility is less than 1,000 feet, including conditions of fog and snowstorms. While such conditions might not require wipers, they frequently include situations where it is difficult to see oncoming vehicles and for other drivers to see you.

In some instances, headlights are not required by law in New York state, but drivers with common sense always turn on their headlights for safer driving. A good example would be at dusk. Legally, headlights are not required until half an hour after sunset until half an hour before sunrise, but it can still be dark around these times, especially during winter months when the sun’s angle is quite low.

All this headlight discussion would not be necessary if the federal government enacted legislation similar to what the European Union did decades ago, and what Canada did in the 1990s — mandate that all new vehicles sold be equipped with DRLs. Let’s go a bit further and mandate that full headlights illuminate whenever wipers are on, and that vehicles have an electric eye that turns on full headlights at dusk. My 2016 Subaru Legacy came equipped with all of this, as are most vehicles from foreign manufactures.

Even if such legislation were passed within a year, it would still take close to 20 years before most existing vehicles are replaced with vehicles equipped with this technology. Politicians, are you listening?