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Night driving

When to use headlights

You must turn on your vehicle’s headlights:

  • from 30 minutes after sunset, until 30 minutes before sunrise on the next day
  • at any other time when you can’t clearly see a person or vehicle 100 metres away.

Never drive with just the park lights on.

Important

Be aware that at night, because most road signs are highly reflective, your lights shining on them may make you think you can clearly see further than you really can. Make sure you drive more slowly and carefully at night, particularly on unfamiliar roads.

Speed at night

At night, just as during the daytime, you must drive at a safe speed. This means that:

  • on a road with lanes, you must be able to stop in the length of clear road you can see in front of you
  • on a road with no lanes, you must be able to stop in half the length of clear road you can see in front of you.

Use markers to guide you when driving at night

Many roads have reflectors and guide posts to help you ‘read’ the road at night. Some examples of these are shown below.

This road marker is a white post with a red solid band and a white retroflective strip.

Left side of road marker post

 
This road marker is a white post with a red solid band and a yellow retroflective strip

Right side of road marker indicating left-hand bend

 
This bridge marker is a post with alternate white and black diagonal lines pointing downwards.

Left side of bridge

 
This bridge marker is a post with alternate yellow and black diagonal lines pointing downwards.

Right side of bridge

 
This road stud also known as a cat's eye is white in the middle and has black and red retroreflective marking on the left edge. The right edge is black and white.

Left side of road
This road stud also known as a cat's eye is white in the middle and has black and white retroreflective markings on both edges.

Centre line
This road stud also known as a cat's eye is yellow in the middle and has black and yellow retroreflective markings on both edges.

No passing
This road stud also known as a cat's eye is blue in the middle and has black and blue retroreflective markings on both edges.

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