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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

#631

Post by oxag3n »

It's ignorance from consumer side and lost engineering culture from manufacturer.

In addition, people became aggressive and lack empathy - I was followed by a Jeep Wrangler the other day, still dark in the morning, his headlights lit my car interior via the back window to the level where I had to slow down and almost stop. Once he overtook I blinked as fast as possible just to let him know his headlights were high beam. The guy aggressively drove behind me and turned his high beams, which yes, were even brighter, but still same angle.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#633

Post by xp84 »

cogman10 wrote: post #553
toast0 wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will always champion the compact pickup truck. A 1980s S-10 or Toyota Truck (HiLux) can do light truck things, is relatively economical, and doesn't have a large footprint. Alas, nobody makes similar vehicles for US/Europe anymore --- kei trucks are still made for Japan, and less developed economies can get simple small trucks. Maybe some of the EV compact trucks will actually be made.

I'd argue that compact trucks should be the only trucks that can be driven without special licensing. It's insane to me that I as a 16 year old was allowed to drive an F350 pulling a 40ft trailer on a standard license.

Another one of those quirks of law that appears to be there to help avoid burdening the legendary smallholding farmer whose teenagers are hardworking farmhands towing around 8 head of cattle in the work truck, but which mostly just enables a bunch of idiots driving around surburbs in gleaming-clean four-door pickups that have never carried anything in the bed but a couple bikes or a little camping gear.

I'd be all for exemptions to any rules for anyone who proves ownership of a working farm or ranch but you can bet that no regulation of any kind will ever be enacted to curb the disaster that CAFE rules caused to "car" size.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#634

Post by bespokedevelopr »

switchbak wrote: post #587
vegancap wrote: post #226

I was at a junction the other day, there was some new Audi EV at the other side of the junction and I couldn't see a damn thing. I've got perfect 20/20 vision, never had any form of eye problem ever in my life, and I was completely blinded. I'm convinced if they'd turned the full beams on, I'd have disintegrated.

I high-beamed one of them, then they turned their high beams on - it was a shockingly ridiculous amount of light that's simply dangerous anywhere. Fuck Audi. Man, this feels like a vehicular instantiation of class war. Pay enough and you too can blind others on the road. What's next - frickin laser beams?

Well all the Uber/Lyft drivers have led light bars mounted on their Prius’ now so the class warfare is well underway I suppose.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#635

Post by LoganDark »

akersten wrote: post #391
LoganDark wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually drive with only the DRLs even at night. My vision is good enough that there's no reason to blind other drivers. I only use the beams at all when there's bad weather that fucks with visibility, or when the road has no retroreflectors. Also ever since a collision repair the headlight beams have been misaligned and that's extremely distracting/infuriating so I hate using them anyway.

Are you aware of what the D in DRL stands for? Your vision may be good enough to see ahead of you by candlelight, but other drivers are not going to expect a nearly invisible car approaching at night. Turn on your headlights.

I don't know what's invisible about the outside edge of my headlights, and my taillights, being illuminated. The car is very visible. If it were invisible, and I do a LOT of nighttime driving, I would've gotten pulled over for it already (and I haven't been).

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#636

Post by s1artibartfast »

onion2k wrote: post #628
m463 wrote: post #624

Ok, here's where this becomes a problem: older people. As you age, you gradually develop cataracts. These are deposits in the lens of your eye that make them cloudy, and you get glare from bright lights. When looking at bright lights, it is like looking through a dirty windshield. Light reaches your retina indirectly from the deposits which makes it incredibly hard to see, reducing or eliminating contrast. https://en…

There is a legal minimum standard for vision to be able to drive in the UK (basically you have to be able to read a number plate at 20 metres, not have double vision, and have a normal field of vision in one eye.) The punishment for failing to stop driving if you fail that is a £1000 fine. People with serious cataracts shouldn't be driving.

If people with 20/20 vision are having trouble, I'm sure that people with diminished eyesight but above the legal limit have it worse.

I'm also uncomfortable with the idea that we should ban more people from driving just so others can have excessively bright and sometimes illegal headlights.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#637

Post by xp84 »

I'd settle for the damn brake lights/taillights being toned down. Maybe with the exception of a car undergoing hard braking there is no point in them being so bright, but the 1,000,000 nit apparent brightness coming from the vehicle in front at every traffic light is painful.

LEDs are a true technical wonder, but they've made so many things so stupid, from the status lights on every single piece of tech, to cars. (And I'd say streetlights too, personally, but I know some people like those).

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#638

Post by pixl97 »

rootusrootus wrote: post #291
mapt wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking further - From a previous post on the subject https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42449068 > They measure at a certain point. Jason Cammisa points it out pretty clearly in an episode of Carmudgeon, with the money quote either here[0] or in the link direct to YouTube here[1]: > On a recent episode of the Carmudgeon Show podcast, auto journalist Jason Cammisa described a phenomenon occurring with some LED head…

This highlights a problem in getting your information from a podcast or YouTube video, even when the presenter seems like someone you'd find credible. No, the regulation does not measure lights at a single spot. The regulations are published and very easy to find.

You mean the same companies that measured the testing benches used for emissions regulations and cheated on them? It's not like there isn't a history of the car companies doing foul shit here.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#639

Post by LoganDark »

saltcured wrote: post #460
sokoloff wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On many cars, the beam of the DRLs are more offensive to oncoming drivers when used at night. Properly repairing your car might make it less distracting/infuriating.

Yeah, the DRL lamps are omnidirectional while proper headlights are much more directional. Typically the DRL lamps switch off or go to a dimmer setting when the headlights are on. That omnidirectional nature makes them pure glare at night.

My vehicle does not dim the DRLs with the beams on. The brightness of the DRLs is also inoffensive enough that I don't think they're worse than the beams at all. They're also essentially evenly-lit light bars, and not point sources like the beams, which further helps.

Re: Nearly all UK drivers say headlights are too bright

#640

Post by MichaelBurjack »

pipes wrote: post #619
MichaelBurjack wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who continues to mask in public shared-air settings for my own health, I am entirely unsurprised by that response and get it all the time. Recently heard from a friend that also continues to mask when sharing air, they had arranged car pooling for one of their children. And just this morning the other parent texted saying "your child wearing a mask makes me uncomfortable so we can no longer car pool". So ……

Genuine question (as in not a passive aggressive question!) why do you and your friends child mask?

Not sure why you'd ask me that vs. use Google, feels like cornering a random driver to defend "Why do you use seatbelts?".

But I'll offer one reply at your word that it's genuine and not passive-aggressive.

1. I am currently dealing with the after-effects of a previous Covid infection that requires expensive, ongoing medical treatment. I'm not anxious to test what additional infections may cause.

2. Wearing an N95 respirator is a cheap and easy preventative measure that is highly effective.

3. I adjust my habits based on measured risk. In my part of the world (Alberta), the current risk forecast for November 8-21 is that approximately 1 in every 81 people are currently infected with Covid. I relax my masking when it's 1 in 10,000 or less (which is not an unreasonable number; it's been there in the past).

4. Recent medical studies suggest that repeated Covid exposure is particularly harmful for children. Long Covid is now the #1 chronic condition in children in the US (displacing asthma as the top chronic childhood condition). As a parent, I see it as my responsibility to give my children the best chance at a long, healthy, medical-intervention-free life.

A few links (or just use Google):

- Covid monitoring in Canada: https://covid19resources.ca/

- Long Covid overtaking asthma as top childhood chronic illness: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/...

- Rolling Stone on Covid's affects on children: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/long-c...

- Remarks by Violet Affleck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBTjCqIxorw

- Tom Hanks: https://whn.global/youve-got-a-friend-in-me-tom-hanks-shows-...

- A longer answer than mine: https://whn.global/yes-we-continue-wearing-masks/

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