"Bruce" wrote in message
...
113
You MUST
- ensure all sidelights and rear registration plate lights are lit
between sunset and sunrise
- use headlights at night, except on a road which has lit street
lighting. These roads are generally restricted to a speed limit of 30
mph (48 km/h) unless otherwise specified
- use headlights when visibility is seriously reduced (see Rule 226)


The second-sub-clause hints that you might perhaps (but does not
overtly suggest or say that you MUST) use headlights on roads with
speed limits higher than 30 mph, even if lit. So the use of
sidelights on a lit motorway would appear to be perfectly legal.

I was once stopped by the police and given a friendly, unnofficial caution
for driving on sidelights instead of dipped headlights on a road with street
lighting. At the time I didn't know that driving on sidelights alone was
ever legal and I'd done it accidentally rather than deliberately when I
hadn't turned the switch far enough - I'd just set off and the street lights
were bright enough that it wasn't immediately obvious that the road wasn't
being lit by my headlights.

Normally I wouldn't dream of driving on just sidelights: the extra
reflection of headlights off white lines, cats-eyes, road signs, kerb edges
etc is a good reason for using headlights even when there are street lights,
especially in the gap between one lamp-post and the next.

I'd love to know how anyone can drive with *no* lights at all on an unlit
motorway at night, as I've seen several times. Unless they've got
night-vision goggles on :-)