Headlight Glare

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c74lq35jdego

The impact of bright lights on road users is being independently investigated for the first time.

The increased brightness of modern vehicles, as mentioned in the article, often has me doubting if oncoming lights are dipped or not, which makes me think of:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/general-rules-techniques-and-advice-for-all-drivers-and-riders-103-to-158

Rule 114
You MUST NOT

use any lights in a way which would dazzle or cause discomfort to other road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders

Also positive to see a cycling perspective included.

I agree that lights have become a lot brighter , but one of the main problems ( including driving on a bright day ) is that people’s windscreens are dirty.

If they cleaned them on a regular basis they wouldn’t have half the issues they do.

The other issue, in my eyes (literally & figuratively!) is that the headlights are now predominantly at a higher level to begin with due to crossover/SUVs etc. If you drive a non-raised up car, they seem to be directly in your eyeline.

Stagecoach buses are by far the worst though. Their headlights are brighter than the sun.

Dirty headlamps are possibly more of a problem IMO. They scatter the light. Lots of people never clean them and it’s difficult to tell from inside the car.

I thought it was just me, I really don’t enjoy driving at night now. Modern headlights seem to have become unnecessarily bright.

FWIW I keep my windscreen clean!

Just purchased a newer Octavia with the silly bright headlights – sometimes get flashed by people who think I’m on main beam. Sorry.

Though anyone commuting by bike using their 1500+ lumen off road searchlight needs to have a think about how that affects other road/path users as well.

We’ve got two cars, a small Seat Ibiza and a much larger Merc Viano and I get dazzled by oncoming lights even when I’m driving the Viano. My eyes are quite sensitive to light, I often wear sunglasses when driving on pretty dull days and sitting behind a car with brake lights on can be a bit much sometimes. But some headlights do seem to be too bright or the spread is too much, it’s new cars generally so they can’t be badly set up I wouldn’t have thought.

Also recent anecdotal observation is that cars with ‘auto high beam assist’ seem to only switch to dipped beam once you’ve been blinded by the full beam, as opposed to manually dipping before meeting passing car. Intelligent headlights / auto high beam also seems to not work well when being followed and cars seem to have lights that are adjusting all the time and wanting to put as much light up the road as possible. Also not sure these systems work well when dealing with bikes- not sure if (some) drivers can’t be bothered to dip lights when I am commuting as I am just a ‘cyclist’ (using StVZO B&M front light, not 2000 lumens of trail lights!) or if the system doesn’t recognise pedestrians/cyclists.

I’ve go an i4 M50. Since the clocks went back I’m flashed loads of times when my beam is dipped. Its bloody ridiculous. I can see the level of the my dipped beam and IMO its too high. Even for a low slung car.

Though anyone commuting by bike using their 1500+ lumen off road searchlight needs to have a think about how that affects other road/path users as well.

Also rear lights.

It’s great that you think drivers can see you form 4km away, but to anyone following 3999m or closer your 200 lumen strobe light is making it impossible to see the road or anything else  (especially in the rain with wet glasses).

If you drive a non-raised up car, they seem to be directly in your eyeline.

Yup. Stupidly powerful lights at eye height is never going to work well. Especially a pain in the arse when some **** is behind you and the mirrors are melting due to the incoming light.

Though anyone commuting by bike using their 1500+ lumen off road searchlight

Leaving the offroad lights aside there does seem to be a bad habit of people having their bike lights pointing straight forward rather than tilted slightly downwards. Got an old railway line near me and can be rather irritating on the long straights.

And people stopped at lights or in traffic with their foot on the brake so their brake lights dazzle drivers behind, that’s annoying too.

Though anyone commuting by bike using their 1500+ lumen off road searchlight needs to have a think about how that affects other road/path users as well.

Back in the day when I used to cycle commute in London, one fine evening I saw someone coming the other way with an incredibly bright white strobe light. And I saw ‘I saw’ what I really mean is ‘I was totally blinded by’. I can only assume they left a trail of destruction in their wake because no-one was avoiding that.

Back to car headlights, I am about to swap from a 20 year old Honda Civic with with 20 year old headlights and a relatively low hatchback driving position, to a few years old Seat Arona with LED lights and higher driving position. So I’m selfishly contributing to the problem I guess, but also hopefully now I’ll be able to see where I’m going.

I’ve got good eyesight and even I struggle at night now. I don’t think the shift from a warm lights to very bright white lights has helped.

And people stopped at lights or in traffic with their foot on the brake so their brake lights dazzle drivers behind, that’s annoying too.

Modern automatics with auto-hold don’t give the option, the brake lights are on as a “safety feature”. Similarly if there’s an electronic handbrake the brake lights are on in traffic.

Headlight brightness is an arms race.

Driving Mrs a11y’s car with lower (normal, non-SUV) driving position is much worse than driving the van. Although doesn’t help that the van’s headslights are barely adequate despite uprated-but-legal halogen bulbs and you’re competing against BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN light from the newest vehicles.

And people stopped at lights or in traffic with their foot on the brake so their brake lights dazzle drivers behind, that’s annoying too.

Really pees me off that one. I’d take a guess at some (but not all) auto cars being more faffy to put into neutral/handbrake on than manual? I rarely drive Mrs a11y’s auto car so it’s unfamiliar to me, but it’s definitely a faff to remember which button to press on the side of the gearknob to then be allowed to move it out of D and into P or N. Chastises you if you get it wrong!

I absolutely hate them at the moment. I have astigmatism meaning things are a lot worse as well.

growing up i got pulled for showing more than one pair of lights (driving light) on the front of my car. I believe this is in the highway code? these days there are light bars, quad lights and allsorts. It makes it even harder to tell if someone has them on full beam.

Most people in new cars dont even know their lights are on. its distracting and blinds you to more vulnerable users.

Just imagine how quickly SUV sales will drop if they suddenly need to have their headlights mounted round their ankles – giddy at the though

It’s also not helping to the light pollution mix that new EV cars are lit up like Christmas trees. WTF do they need so many lights on the front?

And strip lights along the bonnet are something that makes me disproportionately cross!

I know a lot more cars are auto now but that’s not my problem, just show some respect to the people behind. It’s just a symptom of the general decline in driving standards.

In the mid 90s a work colleague went to the optician because he was getting dazzled by oncoming car lights at night. He did all the tests and had textbook 20/20 vision, but iirc the optician said something about oncoming lights being difficult for your eyes to deal with. My colleague was reassured that his vision was fine, but worried that the people in the oncoming cars were probably struggling more than he was.

I’ve stopped driving at night because of the stupidly bright vehicle lights. At some points I can’t even see my side of the road on unlit streets/lanes, This is particularly bad when it’s raining.

I am still on H4 halogens. Fine in the old days, but if a modern led car is behind me, I am driving into a shadow. Rubbish, and then I slow, the led-car gets closer, I can see even less, I slow more.. etc.

I have fixed this a bit by polishing the headlight covers and fitting nightsearcher 2000s or something, but its only a marginal improvement. Probably need to change the wiring loom. Anyway, utter stupidity having such a disparity in allowable light output.

Teslas are the worst for it though – if you approach one when they are in an elevated position (ie, if you are going up an incline the Tesla is coming down from) then they always dazzle.

Leaving the offroad lights aside there does seem to be a bad habit of people having their bike lights pointing straight forward rather than tilted slightly downwards. Got an old railway line near me and can be rather irritating on the long straights.

It doesn’t make much difference with an off-road beam, it’d need to be ~45deg down to actually put the cut off below peoples eyes.

The reason they look darker past the central spot is because the angle with the road is becoming more acute which means the light intensity is more spread out.  To anyone oncoming it’s still like riding into a car’s main beam because they’re still facing the lights perpendiculalry.

I’ve stopped driving at night because of the stupidly bright vehicle lights. 

Age thing?

Only ask as neither my Mum nor any of her friends drive at night (youngest is late 70’s), while all complain about the same thing, they also suffer with the low sun too.

Modern automatics with auto-hold don’t give the option, the brake lights are on as a “safety feature”. Similarly if there’s an electronic handbrake the brake lights are on in traffic

My Passat has auto-hold function which does indeed keep the brake lights on, however, if I activate the actual parking brake, the brake lights go off. It takes zero effort to do this.

Edit: I meant to add that I don’t have to change/do anything else at that moment, just activate the ‘P’! 🙂

if a modern led car is behind me, I am driving into a shadow. Rubbish, and then I slow, the led-car gets closer, I can see even less, I slow more.. etc

Yep, happened to me last night. I wasn’t sure if they’d forgotten to dip, but the repeated flashes to try and get me to speed up (37-38mph in a 40, going into a residential zone) cleared that up.

I have flashbacks to Close Encounters of the Third Kind; I’ll wave one past one night, and end up probed.

Cars headlights that only illuminate the area surrounding oncoming cars are great (no flashing from on-coming drivers) but they are expensive options.

I’d agree that Tesla’s are terrible for their light patterns as are really large SUV. Although if you are driving a normal car (hatchbag etc…)  you should try driving a really low car at night. Its terrible!

I’ve stopped driving at night because of the stupidly bright vehicle lights. At some points I can’t even see my side of the road on unlit streets/lanes, This is particularly bad when it’s raining.

Same here, I am really choosey on which roads at night I am happy to drive on, mainly dual carriageways and motorways, and lit main roads, but I avoid minor roads in the countryside after dark, especially the ones with long straights with ups and downs, when the road in front to me, in effect, disappears from view when someone with these bright glaring lights approaches, a sort of shadow, it’s really disconcerting.

I never used to have a problem with night driving at all, but it makes for a long winter, especially up here in the far NW of the UK with short days and dark mornings and evenings.

Maybe we should be requiring mandatory eyesight tests every few years first? I’m not any more dazzled today than I was 15 years ago.

I only get annoyed by headlights when they’re attached to an SUV behind me, as it defeats the tint on the rear view mirror. It’s occasionally obvious when someone has illegally modified old headlights to take LEDs, but they’re not going to be concerned about changes to the law.

How about a mandatory death penalty for people who stay on full beam when driving towards pedestrians on unlit country roads?

Agreed with a lot of the ‘headlights are brighter, different colour and higher set so more dazzle happens’ feeling.

I also had one the other night on a country lane where a VW ID4 with some fancy pants lights was around a slight corner with low hedges, following another car. I *think* that the VW lights were not dazzling the car in front, as they are designed to do, but the VW could not detect the two of us coming the other way and so we were totally dazzled – the car in front basically ended up stopping suddenly in middle of road.
As soon as VW rounds the corner it detected the other cars and the lights dimmed but probably 5-8 seconds later than an alert driver would have dipped from main beam.

You know they’re M.A.D level lights when the car behind you is casting the shadow of your car up down left and right in front of you.

Slightly off topic but I also find it incredibly annoying when an oncoming driver ‘thanks’ you by flashing you with their full beam

Would much rather not be ‘thanked’ and retain my retinas!

I am still on H4 halogens. Fine in the old days, but if a modern led car is behind me, I am driving into a shadow. Rubbish, and then I slow, the led-car gets closer, I can see even less, I slow more.. etc.

I did the retro retrofit of Wipac quadoptic glass lenses with Osram LED’s to my MG.

It’s comedic how bright* they are compared to the old Lucas sealed beam units.  Although what was more surprising is the cut-off of the dipped beam is actually sharper.

The Osram LED’s won’t be legal in most cars because the UK has no way of assessing and certifying them, but they’re legal abroad and a massive improvement over bog standard H4 bulbs (brighter than nightbreakers and they don’t fail in 6 months like bright halogens are prone to doing.

*and legal because pre-80’s the type approval didn’t specify the type of bulb used

How about a mandatory death penalty for people who stay on full beam when driving towards pedestrians on unlit country roads?

There are idiots too who park on the ‘wrong’ side of the road at night whith their lights on facing oncoming traffic, which is blinding.

Saying people need to get their eyes tested is fair enough, we all do, but that’s not the problem for me, like many folks with specs I regularly get my vision checked and new glasses if needed, the problem is the stupid new cars wirh their stupid new lights!

It’s a crazy arms race out there. The strip lights are nothing other than ‘glitzy’ crap – even your boggo Golf’s have them now.

I use a shared path, and the strobe light brigade are out. I’ve a dipped light with a very distinct cut off that’s aimed to light the path only, and below people’s waist. The big light is used ‘off road’.

Slightly off topic but I also find it incredibly annoying when an oncoming driver ‘thanks’ you by flashing you with their full beam

Would much rather not be ‘thanked’ and retain my retinas!

This is worse with LED headlights too. LEDs are INSTANTLY FULL BRIGHT, whereas a halogen bulb takes half a second or so to get to full brightness, so a quick flash with a halogen can just be a useful ‘blip’ of light rather than the blinding from an LED

@lowey then get them adjusted.

When I was looking for a new (to me) car it was amazing how some models consistently failed their first MOT on beam adjustment.

Also rear lights.

It’s great that you think drivers can see you form 4km away, but to anyone following 3999m or closer your 200 lumen strobe light is making it impossible to see the road or anything else (especially in the rain with wet glasses)

I’ve followed bikes like that and it’s really disorienting to the point I couldn’t really tell where they were relative to me and got a bit of target fixation which is the exact opposite of what they’re supposed to do!

Maybe we should be requiring mandatory eyesight tests every few years first? I’m not any more dazzled today than I was 15 years ago.

Cool story bro. I get dazzled all the time and regularly tested, still 20/20 with no issues.

I had a weird one the other day at night, a motorbike approaching decked out with 4 front lights that looked, for a moment, more like an artic seen at a distance (ie two white lights high, two low), the spacing of the lights were a trick of the eye, til the bike passed and I realised, no, it’s not a HGV!