Aargh...Nomenclature

In the UK, and most of Europe - those lights are known as side-lights, a hangover from when they were mounted close to the sides of the car, outside of the headlight itself. If you turn your sidelights on, you get dim front lights, and rear lights lit - useful at dawn/dusk or inclement weather to help people know where you are, and not so in the dark for seeing where you are going.

Parking lights OTOH, normally are side-selectable. ie on my old Mk1 Golf (AKA Rabbit in the US), if I left the indicator stalk turned to the left and turned the ignition off, the front left sidelight (by this time integrated into the headlight unit), and the rear left light would remain on. And vice versa for right, the idea being that if you parked on the side of the road at night, you'd leave whichever side was sticking out lit.

Now over here in the US, we have what's known as DRL - daytime running lights, which are basically front sidelights with no rear lights - which come on with the ignition. What an arse-about-face idea. Whilst it may help pedestrians see me coming during a dull day, it doesn't help me see the car ahead in similar circumstances, and since I see about 1000 times more cars on the roads then pedestrians, I know which is more useful. I've fitted my 2000 Golf with a Latin American headlight switch and disabled DRL. This allows me to turn on sidelights on dull days - and get the benefit that the absent-minded McDonalds-munching, cellphone-talking driver behind stands a better chance of seeing me. I'd better stop now before I start ranting about the idiots who insist on fitting 1MCandela front foglights to blind everyone else on the road without realising that they're screwed if they ever drive in fog since they don't bother with rear foglights...