"Government to investigate whether headlights are too bright"

[lenny]

Government to investigate whether headlights are too bright | Autocar

Department for Transport will commission an independent report after MPs were petitioned on the issue

www.autocar.co.uk

 

[lenny]

"UK government launches review into headlight glare after drivers’ complaints
Campaigners welcome move as survey suggests they have become too bright and risk causing accidents"

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/02/uk-government-review-headlight-glare-drivers-complaints

 

[soundwave]

 

[portals]

Yes modern LED headlights are way too bright I'm surprised they're allowed, someone somewhere in DSA has been fast asleep for a decade re legal brightness...

It's interesting how, IMHO, it's mainly cnts that drive these types of vehicles...

 

[soundwave]

try going down the canal path in pitch black even my 8000lm light is not enough as it cant throw the light far enough for me to see past 25mph

just think if there was no lights on the motorway it dont work

 

[Benjahmin]

Driving in rural areas at night is a nightmare. The problem is not only led headlights but also led running lights. Add to this drivers insistance on using bumper mounted lights, that are only meant to be used in daylight fog, and you are faced with an oncoming wall of bright blue/white light that severely hampers your night vision.
As an electrician I know that I can install a 5w led lamp and get the same light output as a 60w halagon or incendescant lamp. As I understand it there is a wattage limit of 26w dip and main on car headlights. If manufacturers are installing 26w leds then these will be giving an approximate 10 times the light output of filament lamps. Also the colour temperature, the ice white, is particularly dazzling.
I have taken to wearing yellow glasses at night to tone down the dazzle from leds.

 

[WheezyRider]

I find Teslas are some of the worst offenders. Their lights are way too bright and often badly adjusted.

 

[Brik]

try going down the canal path in pitch black even my 8000lm light is not enough as it cant throw the light far enough for me to see past 25mph

So your bike is faster than the speed of light?

 

[flecc]

There's two older facets to this subject:

1) The Government's Road Research Laboratory in an little publicised study decades ago reported on the sharp increase in pedestrian deaths after the unwise and advised against introduction of dipped headlights in town, due to other drivers being dazzled and unable to see pedestrians in darker spots in the roads.

Protests about this from MPs and finally a Baroness in the House of Lords over a seven year period were all responded to with the statement that the government was urgently looking at the matter. Nothing was ever done and the unnecessary deaths continued.

2) Pupils shrink and don't dilate as much in the the dark as we age, reducing the amount of light entering the eye. The retina of an 80-year-old receives far less light than the retina of a 20-year-old, making older drivers function as though they are wearing sunglasses at night. An older person may exhibit normal visual acuity in an eye exam but still struggle to focus on the road at night, where lighting is poor and more complex visual tasks are required.

Ironically, high beams, auxiliary lights and fog lights designed to help you see better at night can put you at risk for an accident due to the glare you may experience when oncoming vehicles have these features.

As an over 80 year old, despite perfect daytime vision I am affected by this afer dark, so since 2019 for the sake of all other road users I wont under any circumstances drive after dark.
.

 

[WheezyRider]

There's two older facets to this subject:

1) The Government's Road Research Laboratory in an little publicised study decades ago reported on the sharp increase in pedestrian deaths after the unwise and advised against introduction of dipped headlights in town, due to other drivers being dazzled and unable to see pedestrians in darker spots in the roads.

Protests about this from MPs and finally a Baroness in the House of Lords over a seven year period were all responded to with the statement that the government was urgently looking at the matter. Nothing was ever done and the unnecessary deaths continued.

2) Pupils shrink and don't dilate as much in the the dark as we age, reducing the amount of light entering the eye. The retina of an 80-year-old receives far less light than the retina of a 20-year-old, making older drivers function as though they are wearing sunglasses at night. An older person may exhibit normal visual acuity in an eye exam but still struggle to focus on the road at night, where lighting is poor and more complex visual tasks are required.

Ironically, high beams, auxiliary lights and fog lights designed to help you see better at night can put you at risk for an accident due to the glare you may experience when oncoming vehicles have these features.

As an over 80 year old, despite perfect daytime vision I am affected by this afer dark, so since 2019 for the sake of all other road users I wont under any circumstances drive after dark.
.

Also helps if people slow down and drive to the conditions and follow 20 mph limits...

 

[saneagle]

It's not that the lights are too bright. Lights are supposed to be bright. There are two main problems: The first is badly adjusted lights; and the second is people illegally use fog lights when the visibility isn't less than 100m. To a lesser extent, there are also people, who don't dip their lights when they need to, though that one probably goes to the top of the list if you're a cyclist.

 

[flecc]

Also helps if people slow down and drive to the conditions and follow 20 mph limits...

My whole London Borough of Croydon is 20 mph apart from the through routes. When it was first introduced nine years ago the Metropolitan Police announce that they wouldn't be policing that, so almost universally 29 mph became the default speed at first.

Over time though and surprisingly, drivers have slowed and now a very high proportion do observe the limit and the courtesy shown to pedestrians and cyclists is widespread. This even includes vans, their drivers often the best in this respect.
.

 

[soundwave]

So your bike is faster than the speed of light?

its not fast enough needs more power

 

[guerney]

So your bike is faster than the speed of light?

its not fast enough needs more power

Car headlights will turn blue when you approach the speed of light.

I have taken to wearing yellow glasses at night to tone down the dazzle from leds.

Car headlights dazzle me while cycling, which makes my eyes hurt because I have Central Serous Retinopathy in both eyes:

Central serous chorioretinopathy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

...I've considered wearing shades of some sort at night, but then I wouldn't see pedestrians etc. SUV's are the worst! Their undipped lights do appear to be set at the wrong angle for their height. They get it right for vans, why the heck do SUV manufacturers get it so wrong? To save costs I suspect some install car headlights, or car headlight internals, instead of designing new ones for specific SUVs.

 

[stargazer30]

I've just got a new Mini Electric after driving a 2011 fiesta. The mini lights are brighter and whiter vs the dimmer more yellow old style on the fiesta. Its great for night time visibility but on the flip side I do get dazzled more by other newish cars than I used to years ago.

There is hope though, the newer systems in cars are self levelling and some of the better ones use a led matrix that can actually turn off parts of the beam and create dark segments where there is an oncoming light source. Mine doesn't have it (mini removed it during the chip shortage) but it has auto dip at least which is handy.

 

[saneagle]

SUV's are the worst! Their undipped lights do appear to be set at the wrong angle for their height. They get it right for vans, why the heck do SUV manufacturers get it so wrong? To save costs I suspect some install car headlights, or car headlight internals, instead of designing new ones for specific SUVs.

That's a problem of the owners rather than the vehicle because most cars have adjustable headlight angle. What happens is they load up the car one day, then figure out the lights are too low, so they bring them up to the right level for that condition and never adjust them again.

 

[soundwave]

a left hand side car will have to have the head lights changed to uk spec ones because the angle of them is wrong and would not pass a mot.


most also need programming to the cars ecu for them to even turn on fkn can bus bs

 

[guerney]

That's a problem of the owners rather than the vehicle because most cars have adjustable headlight angle. What happens is they load up the car one day, then figure out the lights are too low, so they bring them up to the right level for that condition and never adjust them again.

In this video of riding down a hill, there's only one SUV which might have not dipped it's headlights, and headlights of nearly all the rest of the vehicles are simply too damned bright, or the beams are the wrong shape, or they're at the wrong angle as well as being too damned bright - exposure on the GoPro was set manually BTW, doesn't change.

 

[Brik]

That's a problem of the owners rather than the vehicle because most cars have adjustable headlight angle. What happens is they load up the car one day, then figure out the lights are too low, so they bring them up to the right level for that condition and never adjust them again.

I've had over 20 Vauxhall Omegas over the years and they were one of the first cars to offer modern xenon headlights to the mainstream back around the year 2000, the government said they could only be fitted if they had automatic self leveling which, in the case of the Omega, uses sensors on the front and rear suspension to determine the height and angle of the car and adjusts the lights instantly. They also had to have headlight squirties to keep them clean.

Oh I do miss driving.

 

[Deleted member 16246]

There's two older facets to this subject:

1) The Government's Road Research Laboratory in an little publicised study decades ago reported on the sharp increase in pedestrian deaths after the unwise and advised against introduction of dipped headlights in town, due to other drivers being dazzled and unable to see pedestrians in darker spots in the roads.

Protests about this from MPs and finally a Baroness in the House of Lords over a seven year period were all responded to with the statement that the government was urgently looking at the matter. Nothing was ever done and the unnecessary deaths continued.

2) Pupils shrink and don't dilate as much in the the dark as we age, reducing the amount of light entering the eye. The retina of an 80-year-old receives far less light than the retina of a 20-year-old, making older drivers function as though they are wearing sunglasses at night. An older person may exhibit normal visual acuity in an eye exam but still struggle to focus on the road at night, where lighting is poor and more complex visual tasks are required.

Ironically, high beams, auxiliary lights and fog lights designed to help you see better at night can put you at risk for an accident due to the glare you may experience when oncoming vehicles have these features.

As an over 80 year old, despite perfect daytime vision I am affected by this afer dark, so since 2019 for the sake of all other road users I wont under any circumstances drive after dark.
.

Careful - you are providing even more ammunition for the people who think driving licenses should be entirely withdrawn from people over 70.

By and large the over 70s are far less likely to kill people than the twenty year olds also mentioned.