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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

#301

Post by brookst »

EmptyCoffeeCup wrote: post #287

The lights aren't too bright, they're just poorly aligned. Go for a walk of an evening along a footpath into traffic. I guarantee it'll be Teslas and Minis that are the routinely the culprits of dazzling. I'd guess it's cheap, lazily aligned hardware in the Tesla, and the ridiculous design of the Mini that cause the problems. Yes, sporadically you'll be blinded by another model- one that needs an alignment - but it'l…

Teslas are the worst. I try not to speculate without evidence but I cannot shake the intuition that it is intentional to aid the driver assist and self driving stuff, and reflective of a generally sociopathic company.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#302

Post by haspok »

1718627440 wrote: post #199
vladvasiliu wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Out in the country, you still don't really need brighter headlights. Other cars' headlights will always be visible and they have reflectors, so it's not as if you'll struggle to spot other cars. The road lines are actually reflective, so it's not as if you'll struggle to see the road lines. And generally speaking out in the country, there won't be pedestrian foot traffic, so it's not as if you need the bright light…

This is also true for Germany, but your ability to see in the dark decreases at some point with increasing brightness, since you don't allow your eyes to get used to the darkness.

But you are not supposed to see in the dark while driving! If you were, we would all be driving by moonlight...

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#303

Post by febusravenga »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #209
WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...or piss those guys enough that they will call police on you for blinding them and creating a road hazard, or someone unhinged enough gets pissed off and will follow you, after which your behind will dearly regret buying such a long LED bar. This is the same kind of useful advice as the one to brake check those whose driving style you don't like very much, fight (real or perceived) road hazard with deliberately cre…

Sorry, I forgot to emphasize the irony with this: https://xkcd.com/3167/

Thank you, didn't see that one. Now it lands in my "mandatory xkcd list"

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#305

Post by OGWhales »

Taek wrote: post #2

I feel the same way in America, I think there should be stricter regulations on how bright a car's headlights are allowed to be for it to be street legal. Wouldn't mind having a cap on blue-light levels in addition.

We also need to be far more strict about enforcing properly alignment, so many are pointed too high especially on larger vehicles and pretty much always on anything that's been lifted

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#306

Post by delaminator »

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.

we're not talking about the northeast US

and sure, you don't need to drive over 20mph on a 60mph limit road ...

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#307

Post by cubefox »

daemonologist wrote: post #114

I find this problem to be most severe as a pedestrian - when my eyes have adjusted to the darkness (even if I'm carrying a flashlight, it pales in comparison) and a modern car is oncoming, I cannot see _anything_. Out here in the sticks where there are no sidewalks I can either take it on blind faith that the driver has seen and will avoid me, or I can step way off into the ditch (but not everyone has that option).

Yeah. When I ride my bike in the sticks and pass walkers in the dark, I try to disable my headlight a few seconds before I pass them. Otherwise all they see is a bright light approaching. Disabling the lights for a moment seems better than one party not seeing anything. (Or both parties, e.g. two bikes, or runners with forehead LED light.)

After all, even in the countryside the darkness usually is far from complete. You still see quite a few meters without any headlights. Though the tradeoff would be different for cars with their much higher speed.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#308

Post by delaminator »

danw1979 wrote: post #154
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

Not to be pedantic but you do need to be able to see pedestrians at night too, who can legally walk on country roads on either side, without reflectors or illumination. It’s the car drivers responsibility to not mow pedestrians down wherever or whenever they are walking.

My point was that it is not pedestrians I worry about walking on the carriageway on a 60mph limit road, it's the trees

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#309

Post by rootusrootus »

crazygringo wrote: post #30

Some US context: "Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 (FMVSS 108) regulates all automotive lighting, signalling and reflective devices in the United States. In February 2022, FMVSS 108 was amended to allow automakers to install adaptive driver beam (ADB) headlamps on new vehicles. However, carmakers have not implemented ADB because of contradictions in the rule. As of December 2024, FMVSS 108 has not been updat…

I have adaptive lights on my Ford Lightning (and Model 3, more recently), and I do like it, but it is not without compromises.

It relies on the camera recognizing what should be excluded from the light pattern, for one. Easy for oncoming cars as well as ones in front of you. Less easy for vehicles that are perpendicular to you (like just showing their nose and driver, waiting to turn onto the road you are already on). And then there are pedestrians.

They do try to mitigate that by turning off the adaptive high beam whenever the car detects that you are in a well lit area with lots of ambient lighting sources (i.e. the city), but it's not foolproof. And since you just leave it on all the time, you end up using the "high beam" light far more often than you'd probably choose to when controlling it manually.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#310

Post by BobaFloutist »

helterskelter wrote: post #266
_fat_santa wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the problem I've identified are SUV's and Trucks. Back home I drive a 4runner so I never noticed this but on vacation one week and we rented a Corolla. While the lights from other cars never bothered me in the 4runner, it was so apparent in the smaller Corolla. I would see light behind me and go "why do they have high beams on" but then looking ahead it didn't look like they had their high beams on, I was jus…

Honestly the worst offenders for shooting the lights right in your eyes are the Jeep Wranglers. I drive a work truck on occasion and the Jeeps are about the only vehicle that still get me looking for the fog line. High intensity lights are still really annoying though, and my eyes are probably 7-8ft off the ground.

That's the worse for you driving a work truck. For people in shorter cars, the Wranglers might actually be above our sightlines, and the Dodge Ram tailgating us is among the worst.
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