Yea, Honda calls it the position light and I think it is the equivalent to our parking lights we have on cars. Maybe someone over the pond can explain its purpose.
Hi Bush:
Those small lights are generically known as 'city lights'. Europeans (drivers, auto manufacturers, regulators) have always been much more concerned about reducing glare (dazzle) to oncoming drivers than North Americans. Many years ago (40s, 50s, 60s, up to about the time that the existing standard for low beam light pattern in Europe was adopted in the late 1960s), drivers in urban areas served by streetlights would not illuminate their headlights when driving in the city. They would only illuminate the 'city lights', which are equivalent to what we older North American drivers know as 'parking lights'. You can see this behaviour if you watch any old movie or film clip that was shot in Europe up to about the beginning of the 1970s.
There are also much stricter rules governing use of front fog lights in Europe. For example, even to this day, in Switzerland, you cannot operate both low beam headlights and foglights at the same time - if you do, you will be ticketed. If weather conditions are such that you need to use fog lights, you turn on the city lights (which provide 'marker' illumination for the corners of the vehicle), then turn on the front fog lights. When you are out of the fog, you turn on the main beams and turn off the front fog lights.
Aftermarket bulbs such as the 'fake xenons' that we see teenagers installing here in North America - the ones that blind oncoming drivers even when on high beam - would not be tolerated for a moment in Europe. The first policeman to observe such a vehicle would pull the vehicle off the road and not allow it to proceed, the driver would be fined.
Michael