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America's Drivers Agree: LED Headlights Are Just Too Bright

wsj.com

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Re: America's Drivers Agree: LED Headlights Are Just Too Bright

#41

Post by Lammy »

hiddencost wrote: post #32
Lammy wrote: post #26

LED everything is too bright. Headlights, house lights, store lights, street lights. Walking around my neighborhood of San Francisco at midnight feels like walking around a movie set in a bad uncanny way. I can only assume the point is better night vision for machines, because they provide the opposite outcome to me as a human.

House lights are fine, you either have old ones or bought the wrong ones.

I'm still using my stash of incandescents, and halogens for the track lights, but I don't control my friends' houses :)

Re: America's Drivers Agree: LED Headlights Are Just Too Bright

#42

Post by clort »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #14

I think UK drivers also agree. It’s like lots of people are driving around with their high beams on. They aren’t because if they were you’d wouldn’t be able to look at them at all. They are 20% too bright and all too cold.

One issue I noticed when I rented a newer car a couple years ago, was that it automatically switched to full-beam and dipped where it thought appropriate though I only switched on low beam in the first place. I was driving a winding country road with a fair amount of oncoming traffic so I didn't really need full beam. The problem is that it only dips when it has seen the oncoming headlight, whereas to avoid dazzling the driver it would be better to dip just before they come into view.

Re: America's Drivers Agree: LED Headlights Are Just Too Bright

#44

Post by usrusr »

outop wrote: post #21
Tade0 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of that, strobing. I still don't understand the point of having strobe lights on a bicycle. What is that all about?

It was found that drivers unconsciously filtered out a single small light moving like a bicycle does (weaving back and forth slowly, often towards the edge of the driveable area). Flashing lights are somewhat annoying but much safer for cyclists.

And flashing lights are not filtered out? How can traffic even exist during Christmas season?

A continuous light at least gets perceived as a path through image space. Strobes on the other hand can easily fail at getting perceived as belonging to the same unit of light source when there are many other illuminated dots (xmas crap! rain droplets!)

Re: America's Drivers Agree: LED Headlights Are Just Too Bright

#45

Post by kjkjadksj »

outop wrote: post #21
Tade0 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of that, strobing. I still don't understand the point of having strobe lights on a bicycle. What is that all about?

It was found that drivers unconsciously filtered out a single small light moving like a bicycle does (weaving back and forth slowly, often towards the edge of the driveable area). Flashing lights are somewhat annoying but much safer for cyclists.

I’ve read the strobes are bad because it makes it hard to see how close or far you are. Maybe the best thing is to just wrap yourself with some battery powered Christmas lights…

Re: America's Drivers Agree: LED Headlights Are Just Too Bright

#46

Post by wpm »

outop wrote: post #21
Tade0 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of that, strobing. I still don't understand the point of having strobe lights on a bicycle. What is that all about?

It was found that drivers unconsciously filtered out a single small light moving like a bicycle does (weaving back and forth slowly, often towards the edge of the driveable area). Flashing lights are somewhat annoying but much safer for cyclists.

Strobes are much harder if not impossible to effectively gauge the distance, bearing, and speed of. They are insufficient.

Both a bright solid light and a much dimmer strobe provide all of the benefits with none of the down sides.

Re: America's Drivers Agree: LED Headlights Are Just Too Bright

#47

Post by rapnie »

sherr wrote: post #10

In addition to cars, I'm a cyclist and have noticed that LED cycle lights, both front and back, can also be far too bright sometimes. Blinding in fact. A few years ago, I was behind a bike which had such a high powered rear (red) LED light that I had to drop back to get away from it. It reminded me of the sort of powerful red light an airport might have. For bikes, it sometimes felt like an "arms race" in brightness.

Totally agree. Bike lights also shine far into the distance, and I have the feeling that (with the old lights being weaker) didn't used to be the case. If these new overly bright LED lights shone a bit more downwards it might be an improvement.

Re: America's Drivers Agree: LED Headlights Are Just Too Bright

#48

Post by IshKebab »

userbinator wrote: post #15

IMHO it's not the brightness, it's the contrast --- a diffuse field of light at the same brightness wouldn't be quite as uncomfortable as the sharp contrast between light and dark they create, and this goes for the one whose car has the headlights and the one being shone at. In my experience, newer brighter lights also means a sharper cutoff so there's a very bright area immediately in front of the vehicle followed b…

I think it's a combination of brightness (light output), glare (the light is emitted from a smaller area), and contrast (the difference in brightness above/below the beam).

I've also noticed that these can make it worse for the driver. The road appears so bright in the beam that outside it is pitch black. Whereas with older lights you could see stuff a bit.

Re: America's Drivers Agree: LED Headlights Are Just Too Bright

#49

Post by stareatgoats »

Please, just invent eyeglasses that dynamically subdue oncoming headlights (of any type) already. Incredibly, this golden goose has not yet been plucked AFAICS (the tinted co-called "night-driving-glasses" don't work - or did I just not find the right brand yet?).
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