Tool for Enforcement of Lighting Laws?

SubLGT

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Idaho, USA
Police have radar guns for enforcement of speed limit laws, and they also have an instrument for checking legality of window tint. Is it feasible, and useful, to have a portable instrument to determine total output of headlamps?
 

Alaric Darconville

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Stillwater, America
Police have radar guns for enforcement of speed limit laws, and they also have an instrument for checking legality of window tint. Is it feasible, and useful, to have a portable instrument to determine total output of headlamps?

No. Total output isn't that great a metric in the first place.

It's much easier to look under the hood and see if the lighting system has been tampered with (HID kit, LED 'drop-ins') than to try to use instrumentation except for maybe something to determine if the light color is out of the acceptable range of white.

If they're going to purchase such a device and use time and money to train an officer to use the device, they could just train them to look for the hallmarks of light tampering.
 

Lynx_Arc

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Tulsa,OK
Police have radar guns for enforcement of speed limit laws, and they also have an instrument for checking legality of window tint. Is it feasible, and useful, to have a portable instrument to determine total output of headlamps?
As for window tint, from what I've heard some put something behind the tint and see if they can read it for their "checking" but around here unless you tint all your windows very dark they usually don't bother you unless you are pulled over for some other traffic violation. I have tint on my windows darker than I think legal when I had it put on instead of getting 70% like I asked I got 90% tint and I often have to roll down my windows at night to see in the dark when turning corners that have dark streets with a lot of overhead light pollution.
 

Alaric Darconville

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I have tint on my windows darker than I think legal when I had it put on instead of getting 70% like I asked I got 90% tint and I often have to roll down my windows at night to see in the dark when turning corners that have dark streets with a lot of overhead light pollution.
Wow. Get that fixed. You're much less able to see than you think. 10% light transmissivity on your front door windows is way too low.
 

Lynx_Arc

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Wow. Get that fixed. You're much less able to see than you think. 10% light transmissivity on your front door windows is way too low.

I don't think it is actually 90% probably closer to 80% and in the bright sunlight it is wonderful especially when it is over 100 degrees outside. I've seen people use limo tint..... Yikes!
 

Alaric Darconville

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I don't think it is actually 90% probably closer to 80%
20% transmissivity is still too low. Also, until you test it objectively, you're just guessing.

There's a reason there are tint laws-- it's not so you're burning up on an August day, it's so they're not peeling people off the Broken Arm Expressway on a December night.
 

Magio

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Jul 30, 2016
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I hate how state laws reguarding window tinting vary by state. Ifound a good deal on a car in Florida and when I came back to my home state the windows were illegally dark. I left them like they were till I sold the car. Some states allow 20% light transmittance on the front windows while others don't.
 

-Virgil-

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Just because you "can" do something (no law against it) doesn't mean you "should" do it.
 

TechGuru

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TEXAS
No one "needs" really dark tint just good quality tint with very good UV and IR blocking.

I think vehicle inspection stations need to have a optical beamsetter and check headlight aim and intensity at the yearly inspection.

Cops do need to look out for the obvious illegal HID and LED low beam conversions, but those of use doing things like the 9006/9012-9005/9011 conversions would slip right past that.
 
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