Night driving — Colorado Permit Test

Colorado law requires you to drive with your headlights on from sunset to sunrise, or whenever visibility is less than 1,000 feet.

Headlights are as much about being seen as about seeing. The visibility figure covers fog and snow in the middle of the day.

Colorado law requires you to drive with your headlights on from sunset to sunrise or when visibility is less than 1,000 feet.

Any vehicle parked alongside the roadway, attended or not, must have parking lights on from sunset to sunrise or whenever visibility is less than 1,000 feet, and you must not drive with only your parking lights on.

A parked car on an unlit road is invisible until it is very close. Parking lights are what make it a shape rather than a surprise.

Any vehicle parked alongside the roadway, whether attended or not, must have parking lights turned on from sunset to sunrise or whenever visibility is less than 1,000 feet

If you are driving with high beam lights on, you must dim them before coming within 500 feet of any oncoming vehicle.

High beams reach further than the other driver can tolerate. At 500 feet they stop being a help to you and start being a wall of light to them.

If you are driving with your high beam lights on or your low beam lights with fog lights on, you must dim them before coming within 500 feet of any oncoming vehicle so the oncoming driver is not blinded by the glare.

When following another vehicle you must use your low beam lights, with fog lights off, if you are within 200 feet of the vehicle ahead.

Your high beams bounce out of their mirrors straight into their eyes. Two hundred feet is where that starts to happen.

When following another vehicle, you must use your low beam lights, with your fog lights off, if you are within 200 feet of the vehicle ahead of you

Use your high beam lights when driving in rural areas and on open highways away from urban and metropolitan areas.

On an unlit road, low beams show you less than your stopping distance. High beams give back the seconds the dark took away.

Use your high beam lights when driving in rural areas and on open highways away from urban and metropolitan areas

Use your low beam lights or fog lights when driving through fog at night, because using high beam lights in fog is like shining your lights on a mirror.

Fog throws the light straight back at you, so brighter means blinder. Low beams point down at the road under the fog.

Use your low beam lights and/or fog lights when driving through fog at night for better visibility.

Never look directly into an approaching car’s headlights; drop your sight below the glare and use the painted edge lines to guide your vehicle.

Looking at the light leaves you unable to see anything else for several seconds after it has passed. The edge line is still there while your eyes recover.

As the vehicle draws near, drop your sight below the glare and use the painted edge lines to guide your vehicle

Increase your following distance when driving at night or on unfamiliar roads, and slow down and stay alert in poorly lit areas.

At night you can only see as far as your lights reach, which is less than you can stop in at speed. More room is how you make up the difference.

Increase your following distance when driving at night or on unfamiliar roads

Be alert at night for vehicles and bicyclists traveling after sunset without their lights on, and look for the single front light of bicyclists and motorcyclists.

A single light looks further away than a pair, and one that is missing looks like nothing at all. Both catch drivers out at dusk.

Look for the single front light of bicyclists and motorcyclists traveling at night

When does Colorado law require headlights?

From sunset to sunrise, or under 1,000 feet visibility. Headlights are as much about being seen as about seeing. The visibility figure covers fog and snow in the middle of the day. Colorado Driver Handbook, p.16: “Colorado law requires you to drive with your headlights on from sunset to sunrise or when visibility is less than 1,000 feet.”