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Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

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Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#571

Post by VBprogrammer »

japhyr wrote: post #456
0xfeba wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Lately, I see a lot of drivers who turn on their brights and just leave them on and this includes cars with the older halogen and even incandescents. This is a change in behavior. This is one of my pet peeves. I've categorized it into what I believe are the main causes: 1. People just don't know as well today that the blue indicator means you're blinding people 2. People with newer cars which will automatically tur…

> Mostly I'm hoping that automatic high-beams, like some Ford trucks I've seen do well, proliferate more! I have a 2021 Tacoma, and its automatic high-beam adjustment is terrible. It does a reasonable job of turning high beams off when a car approaches, but it has a number of problems that make it unusable. After the car passes it waits too long to reactivate the high beams. That's when they're needed most; my eyes h…

I dunno, maybe where you live is a lot flatter than the roads that I drive on, but the instant I see a car coming the other way (ideally before they come into direct view) is the time to turn off full beams.

Though from a game theory point of view, leaving them on for a couple of seconds is probably ideal to remind anyone who forgets to dim their own headlights.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#572

Post by illwrks »

ponector wrote: post #512
bArray wrote: post #295

I think most vehicles are operating with their headlamps adjusted too high. I think the majority are now completely out of spec [1]. My normal lights are very respectably adjusted and are the older dimmer type, but my full beams are blinding - I rarely ever use them. A few times a driver comes towards me with full beams on, I flash mine and light up the entire night. The quality of driver is also decreasing. One of o…

Why do you think UK drivers test is better than foreign one?

I would argue it's not about being better or worse than another country, but if 1 in 30 drivers have a different understanding then that's a risk. By doing a driving test in the country you live in you gain a greater understanding of what it's like driving in that country.

As a simple example I drove around Northern France and the first day almost went flying off the motorway slip road as I didn't realise how tight they tend to be in France compared to the UK and Ireland.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#573

Post by hn_acc1 »

thewebguyd wrote: post #333
cpburns2009 wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many people are really getting after market headlights installed on their SUVs? There's too many vehicles with blindingly bright lights for that to be the cause.

I used to think it was a lot of people doing it. I drive an older car with what I call "normal" brightness headlights, and the warm color too instead of the annoying blue/white. But then I had to rent a newer car, and it came stock with super bright blue/white headlights. They were so bright to what I was used to I had to double check the high beams weren't on. The standard lights were as bright as my old car's high…

I mean, I have those types of lights on my car, but I am VIGILANT about checking that they have a slight DOWNWARDS slope (and I'm in a relatively low sedan to begin with). There's a T-intersection near my house with a retaining wall at the end - very convenient for checking the angle.

Even when I upgraded my old car to HIDs (because I could barely see anything over the other cars), I checked over and over to make sure I was low enough. Also, I ensure I never light up the TOP crease of the trunk of any sedan behind me. If I light up anything inside another car, it's bad.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#574

Post by gehwartzen »

njarboe wrote: post #147

One of the main reasons people want/need brighter headlights is that there is much more light inside the car from screens. These don't let your eyes adjust to the dark properly. Older cars had dim green lighting for the gauges and even had a knob to adjust the brightness up and down. You could create a very dim interior instead of the huge amount of white light you get with modern cars and the multiple screens. I'm h…

I physically desoldered and replaced the very bright 6500k interior overhead LEDs in my VW with much warmer units. It makes a huge difference when turning them on for a second and not killing my night vision. Also just much more pleasant and natural light in my opinion.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Tiguan/comments/1hq2hae/changed_ove...

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#576

Post by VBprogrammer »

Espressosaurus wrote: post #433
Wistar wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adaptive headlights that actively shield oncoming drivers were finally made legal in the US in 2022 but complicated bureaucratic hoops make them hard to implement. BMW seems to have them working as I find their higher-end lighting (ex: ICON Adaptive w/ Laser Light) to be among the best to oncoming drivers—at least to my eyes. CNN writes about why headlight brightness is worse in the US than in other countries: https:…

It's solving the wrong problem, and doesn't help the typical situation of being on hills, pedestrians, bicyclists, etc. Just turn the damn maximum output down.

I have a car with LED lights. It's easily the best car I've had for vision at night. We very occasionally get someone flashing us at night, wrongly believing our high beams are on.

However, from a safety point of view, I'm not convinced the trade off is actually in favour of reducing illumination for everyone.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#577

Post by paradox460 »

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #371
1970-01-01 wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're cherry-picking here. Analog gauges were lit with both filtered and unfiltered incandescent bulbs. There was no standard.

There was a mix of technologies. Up to about the early 80s, instruments were lit by an "unfiltered" incandescent lamp at the back of the instrument housing, that reflected off a band of white paint around the top of the housing and screened by the bezel, like old Smiths gauges. After about that point they moved over to edge-lit screen-printed perspex backings, and continued that way until the current trend for glarey…

My old Ford Windstar used electroluminescent panels behind the dash cluster. Gave everything a beautiful soft green hue

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#578

Post by yrro »

It seems like no government wants to kick the hornet's nest & solve this issue, nor the issue of pavement parking. At least this government is finally working on the problem of doctored number plates that are invisible to enforcement cameras. Land a few drivers with a 15 year sentence for perverting the cause of justice & things should right themselves.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#579

Post by japhyr »

VBprogrammer wrote: post #571
japhyr wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mostly I'm hoping that automatic high-beams, like some Ford trucks I've seen do well, proliferate more! I have a 2021 Tacoma, and its automatic high-beam adjustment is terrible. It does a reasonable job of turning high beams off when a car approaches, but it has a number of problems that make it unusable. After the car passes it waits too long to reactivate the high beams. That's when they're needed most; my eyes h…

I dunno, maybe where you live is a lot flatter than the roads that I drive on, but the instant I see a car coming the other way (ideally before they come into direct view) is the time to turn off full beams. Though from a game theory point of view, leaving them on for a couple of seconds is probably ideal to remind anyone who forgets to dim their own headlights.

I live near mountains, rolling hills, and lots of farmland. There are many stretches where you can see a car coming from a mile away, long before anyone's high beams are noticeable. But in that darkness, my truck picks up those headlights and dims the high beams.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#580

Post by b112 »

njarboe wrote: post #147

One of the main reasons people want/need brighter headlights is that there is much more light inside the car from screens. These don't let your eyes adjust to the dark properly. Older cars had dim green lighting for the gauges and even had a knob to adjust the brightness up and down. You could create a very dim interior instead of the huge amount of white light you get with modern cars and the multiple screens. I'm h…

I actually keep an old tshirt in my car, to cover up the screen when on long rural drives.

I can drive all night long with no strain or issue, unless I have a flashlight glaring in my eyes.

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