Safe Speed Forums

I happened to catch a few minutes of this last night and they were looking at the most common illegal car modifications, one of which was underbody car lighting, people adding flashing blue lights in their radiator grill, etc.

The examples shown clearly were illegal, but I was a little surprised when they tried to summarize the U.K. lighting regulations and got them wrong.

It was stated that while moving forward you are only allowed to have red lights on the rear, white on the front, plus amber on the sides or for signals.

Only allowed red on the rear -- Correct (with the exceptions for turn signals, plate light, and reversing lights).

Only allowed white on the front -- Wrong. The U.K. rules say you may have any color except red on the front. Amber running lights as fitted on all modern American cars are perfectly legal, for example. In fact while I think it might be silly, there's nothing illegal about fitting a blue light on the front (so long as it is steady, not flashing).

Only allowed amber on the side -- Also wrong. Side markers on the rear section of the vehicle may be red.

As the show usually seems to make a big issue of pointing out the law, wouldn't you think they'd have checked the facts?

I believe that to be incorrect. There was a stupid craze for motorcyclists to use coloured headlamp covers and they were regularly stopped for using them.

Again I think that is not correct (but not something that is usually a problem for the owners of imported vehicles).

I'm sure that is not right.

I think you might have to.

Restrictions on fitting blue warning beacons, special warning lamps and similar devices

16. No vehicle, other than an emergency vehicle, shall be fitted with-


(a) a blue warning beacon or special warning lamp, or


(b) a device which resembles a blue warning beacon or a special warning lamp, whether the same is in working order or not.

That's a little different. There are the rules which specify what lights you must have, and what color they must be, then there are the rules which say what you must not have.

The lighting regulations stipulate that you must have headlights which are white or yellow, so if you change your headlights to some other color, then yes, they would be illegal.

But so long as you have the required lights of the specified color, you may have any additional lights which are not expressly prohibited. The rules regarding the color of any optional lights on the front only say that they must not be red.



The U.K. rules require white parking lights on the front, so technically if you have only amber then you don't have the required white lights (although as you say, not really a problem in practice -- I've had them for years). But the amber running lights are not illegal per se.



It's illegal to display a flashing blue light (or in fact a flashing light of any sort with the obvious exception of turn/hazard lights), and it's illegal to display a light which "resembles" an emergency beacon, but a steady blue light on the front of a car is not illegal in itself.

The 1989 Lighting Regulations from which these restrictions come also define what constitutes a warning beacon and a special warning lamp, viz.



So a steady blue light is neither a "warning beacon" nor a "special warning lamp."

I would rather suppose that a blue light fitted behind the grill of a car with a switch in the compartment is perfectly capable of emitting a flashing blue light!

Only if you sit there flicking the switch on and off. The same could be said for headlights, which are also not allowed to flash on non-emergency vehicles. The key element is that you can't just flick a switch on and the lights will flash "by themselves."

I entirely agree with paul . The clarification that amber running lamps aren't illegal if the white mandatory position lamps are in place is quite important. I disabled them on my cars because I think some people don't look properly and assume they are an indicator. I had a couple of near-misses a few years ago and decided it wasn't worth the aggro.

I think some people probably just don't look anyway and would quite likely have done the same with or without the amber running lights. I've always kept the lights on my American vehicles original (headlights excepted for left-side driving, of course).

On the lighting rules themselves, I think this is one case where they could be rewritten a little to achieve several things.

First, with regard to blue or other "silly" colors on the front, why not just change the existing "any color except red" rule so that only white, yellow, and amber are permitted? Second, while the rules are being redrafted, I'd like to see allowance made for those of us with imported vehicles so we don't get the usual hassle over amber parking lights, red rear turn signals, etc. All it would take is a simple exception, as has been done recently over license plate size.

My lights look blue to the eye, but produce a white light, (obvious when you hold a sheet of paper in front of them) is that what you mean by silly colours?

My bold

pedant mode off

_________________
Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
- James May

I believe we have had a dissection of the lighting rules before. IIRC it was in response to a thread on a police forum which attempted to define "white light".

Any colour light is allowed except red at the front and white at the rear (with the exception of reversing lights).

Anything which moves (in relation to the vehicle) or flashes (other than indicators) is not allowed.

Everything else is allowed providing you have the required lights as well, you can't fit blue filters over your tail lights for instance.

I really just meant having anything but the regular colors on the front, i.e. white/yellow/amber (when illuminated).



Yeah, I know..... I almost deleted the reversing lights reference because of the moving forward part, then figured I'd leave it in anyway to complete the list of exceptions.



I've seen a lot of similar discussions like that over the tinted headlight bulbs -- At what point does "basically white with a slight blue tint" become "predominantly blue" light? Even the cops on some forums don't seem to know the lighting laws they are enforcing, often trying to claim that any blue light is illegal on a non-emergency vehicle.



Not quite for the rear. Only red permitted other than for the obvious specific exceptions:



Plus further specific exceptions for emergency vehicles, etc.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/SI/si1989/Uksi_19891796_en_1.htm

So a steady blue (or green, purple, etc.) light is legal on the front, but not on the rear.