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Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

bbc.com

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Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#121

Post by Sunspark »

mihaaly wrote: post #49

Wild west of light usage makes cycling habits in UK bad as well. Several thousands of lux lights are pointed towards the oncoming cyclsts switched to strobe mode. Rear light are comparably strong and distracting by all the very creative patterns of flashing. People seem to pour out the children of safety with the dirty bath water of flashing lights. Yes, you want to be noticed, yeah, you made it! By dazzling everyone…

Those flashing lights aren't even road legal in Germany. I never set mine to flash and I'm not in Germany.

I believe flashing lights are actually less safe as it encourages the driver to look AWAY from you. I certainly don't keep staring at a flashing light.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#122

Post by ghusto »

> A study commissioned by the Department for Transport (DfT) found 97% of people surveyed found they were regularly or sometimes distracted by oncoming vehicles and 96% thought most or some headlights were too bright.

1% said they were sometimes distracted by incoming vehicles, and that was fine.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#123

Post by lucianbr »

donatj wrote: post #85
Aachen wrote: post #78

Where I live, it's customary to let other drivers know by flashing your brights when they're blinding you or if there's some other issue with their vehicle like a broken tail light or such. Maybe less now that you can't easily change the bulb yourself but as a principle In recent years I've started being unable to tell who's intentionally blinding traffic and who's just got misconfigured lamps (shining at eye level i…

When I got my Honda van with stock LED headlights about a year ago, people started flashing me that my brights were on. After the first couple times I started flashing my actual brights back. They make the stock headlights too dang bright.

I'm the one who's flashing you. I'm flashing you because your headlights are bothering me. Showing me that you can bother me even more does not make it better.

Still, obviously, nothing you can do, or the driver in general. And I guess the manufacturers aren't incentivised. Regulation is the only thing that I can think of that will work.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#124

Post by Aachen »

HPsquared wrote: post #15

A lot of this is due to differing heights. There are more tall vehicles with headlights that are high off the ground, which dazzle drivers of regular cars. Even if the dip angle is the same (1% gradient or so), this can still dazzle most people nearby.

Vans and other bigger vehicles, that have the lights mounted higher than usual, are indeed particularly bad, but I don't really want to get into an arms race of taller and taller vehicles just to be able to see at night. Better that the manufacturers just angle it down a bit more if they want to put the lights up that high

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#125

Post by iso1631 »

thedougd wrote: post #108
everdrive wrote: post #10

I understand that currently this is sort of a collective action problem, but I'm a bit baffled why people ever thought they needed brighter headlights in the first place. In the city, it's so bright that you don't even need headlights to see whatsoever. When cars started automatically dimming the dash via a light sensor, there was actually a period of time where I totally forgot to turn on my headlights because thing…

Smartphones, infotainment systems, and large LCDs in the cabin are killing drivers' night vision.

I find it easier to drive my wife's modern car with all that than my 2005 car which has barely any internal lights (dim light around the speedo, dim light on the radio)

You're not wrong, but it's a minor contribution at most.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#126

Post by k1rd »

everdrive wrote: post #10

I understand that currently this is sort of a collective action problem, but I'm a bit baffled why people ever thought they needed brighter headlights in the first place. In the city, it's so bright that you don't even need headlights to see whatsoever. When cars started automatically dimming the dash via a light sensor, there was actually a period of time where I totally forgot to turn on my headlights because thing…

I remember light used to be much paler and became brighter around the 2010. just go drive in an old car (20+ years) and a new car.

You are right also especially that there is a good side to it: in countryside roads you will able to see pedestrians/bicycles that don't use refractory lights better. Surely you are blinding everyone else.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#127

Post by mapt »

everdrive wrote: post #10

I understand that currently this is sort of a collective action problem, but I'm a bit baffled why people ever thought they needed brighter headlights in the first place. In the city, it's so bright that you don't even need headlights to see whatsoever. When cars started automatically dimming the dash via a light sensor, there was actually a period of time where I totally forgot to turn on my headlights because thing…

Just because this is YC, I thought I should pitch in -

A high-trust society that solved coordination problems through legislation, could solve this with a win-win technofix solution where everybody's headlights are as bright as the sun and nobody suffers ill effects.

That technofix solution is polarized headlights, and right-angle-polarized night driving glasses or windshield tints.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#128

Post by lawn »

barbazoo wrote: post #113
tw04 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must not live where there’s wildlife… I can tell you it’s basically impossible to see deer at night without your brights on until you’re basically hitting it.

This can also be adjusted to by reducing speed.

You have to go so slow that you double the length of the trip, which is a big deal when a 2 hour trip turns into a 4 hour ordeal.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#129

Post by taeric »

everdrive wrote: post #10

I understand that currently this is sort of a collective action problem, but I'm a bit baffled why people ever thought they needed brighter headlights in the first place. In the city, it's so bright that you don't even need headlights to see whatsoever. When cars started automatically dimming the dash via a light sensor, there was actually a period of time where I totally forgot to turn on my headlights because thing…

I confess this is why I just assumed my eyes were going bad. I am getting old, and this shift seemed to have coincided with about the time I moved to a more rural area. In the city, I don't know that I ever used "brights" on my cars. In rural, it helps to see when there are basically no road lamps.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#130

Post by monegator »

The headlights are most definetly not too bright.

Instead, they are too high, because the idiots with new cars rely on the automatic beam positioning which is always too slow.

Or they are fitting led bulbs in an halogen fixture and never bother to make the adjustments

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