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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

#161

Post by DannyBee »

everdrive wrote: post #138
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.

We have quite a lot of wildlife around us; deer, moose, coyotes, hedgehogs, pheasants, nearly non-stop turkeys. It really hasn't been an issue. It's not as if you cannot see with normal, old-fashioned headlights. That's what I'm confused about; the problem with headlights at night is that they have a distance. So rather than being unable to see, what you actually get is less reaction time. ie, rather than seeing 'til…

I agree with all of this. For wildlife, using long distance IR or something to augment makes more sense than higher brightness normal lights , given how falloff works.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#162

Post by danw1979 »

jpfromlondon wrote: post #148
delaminator wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Out in the country, you still don't really need brighter headlights. I guess you don't actually drive at night in the countryside then. You need lights to see where the road is, not where pedestrians might be - on none existent footpaths

I do, and old school yellow high-beams were plenty on a 205 to do 80+mph down b-roads back in the 00's, I would happily go back to that if it meant I could avoid being blinded every ten minutes.

I’d be happy with other drivers just turning their main beam off slightly faster than 5 seconds after they have seen me.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#163

Post by Aachen »

lucianbr wrote: post #123
donatj wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"Nothing they can do"? I've never owned a car so genuinely don't know but surely you can buy whatever lights you want for it and/or correct the alignment?

I helped a friend with aligning the headlight after changing the bulb some years ago, I hear newer cars don't let you change the bulb yourself necessarily but then surely the mechanics can be asked to do this when they change it anyway, or upon the next inspection or so?

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#164

Post by tikkabhuna »

DannyBee wrote: post #133
barbazoo wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This can also be adjusted to by reducing speed.

Sure but you should be able to safely drive the speed limit under normal (Ie not pouring rain, snow, etc) conditions. Night is a normal condition.

Bear in mind that the UK has a “national speed limit” of 60mph for much of the countryside. This is very much a limit, a maximum, and you’re expected to drive to the conditions of the road. If it’s perfect weather conditions and twisting roads not wide enough for 2 cars, you shouldn’t be driving at the speed limit.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#165

Post by 867-5309 »

afavour wrote: post #132
lan321 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slow down is kind of the general tip, but I find it kinda BS. I can drive slowly focusing on the bushes on the way to/from work in bumfuck nowhere, or I can get some beacon of god aux LEDs for cheap and turn night into day.

"I can get some beacon of god aux LEDs for cheap and turn night into day" they said, in a topic entitled "Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright"

don't forget "bumfuck"

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#166

Post by macNchz »

everdrive wrote: post #91
delaminator wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Out in the country, you still don't really need brighter headlights. I guess you don't actually drive at night in the countryside then. You need lights to see where the road is, not where pedestrians might be - on none existent footpaths

I live in the woods in the northeast US, and also grew up in the 80s-90s in a very rural area and I've owned a number of cars when I was young, some with comically dim lights. You really don't need the bright lights. You never have. Slow down, look for movement, and use your brights intelligently.

Growing up in rural New England it seemed that people were constantly hitting deer with their cars—slowing down is obviously a good idea, but every additional foot of headlight distance certainly helps for spotting the glint of an eyeball on the side of the road.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#167

Post by jpfromlondon »

danw1979 wrote: post #162
jpfromlondon wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do, and old school yellow high-beams were plenty on a 205 to do 80+mph down b-roads back in the 00's, I would happily go back to that if it meant I could avoid being blinded every ten minutes.

I’d be happy with other drivers just turning their main beam off slightly faster than 5 seconds after they have seen me.

or at all, but when they're higher than you, or climbing a hill a casual blinding is unavoidable with the current laser-based headlights.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#168

Post by graemep »

crazygringo wrote: post #63
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…

> there won't be pedestrian foot traffic You think kids aren't running across the street at night out in the country? Chasing a soccer ball? There are all sorts of things you need to be able to see to avoid. People, deer, fallen branches, large roadkill, garbage cans blown into the road by the wind, the list goes on and on. Not to mention spotting dangerous icy patches at night in the winter. I take it you don't real…

> You think kids aren't running across the street at night out in the country? Chasing a soccer ball?

Only in well light areas, usually with a low speed limit too.

> People, deer, fallen branches, large roadkill, garbage cans blown into the road by the wind, the list goes on and on.

Of those only people are at all common, and not on large roads. I have never even seen roadkill large enough to be unsafe to drive over.

I have only once come close to hitting any of these on country roads in the UK. I have been dangerously dazzled by oncoming bright headlights all the time.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#169

Post by kappi »

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…

When you are driving in the night during heavy rainfall, good head light is difference between life and death. Get out of your bubble please!

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#170

Post by mapt »

Spoom wrote: post #146
mapt wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Wouldn't that, uh, make your own headlights invisible to you?

Polarized light reflecting off a textured surface scrambles into nonpolarized light.

There are modest costs (signage & road markings shouldn't be perfectly smooth, retroreflectors work a little differently, and you lose a certain percent efficiency), but they're much less intense than the costs of the current situation.

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