Just venting here, but I've noticed some headlights nowdays are so bright I have to look at the road shoulder on my side to avoid being blinded. Something is very wrong, I'm wondering if it's to the point were it can even cause eye damage. I don't understand because I can see just fine with my standard 2004 Honda headlights on low beam 99% of the time. Does anyone else have and issue with this?

 

Yessssssssssss... plus people like to drive with their hi beams on on top of that. It was a lot worse before I had my cataract surgery.

 

And drive with their fog or driving lights on.

 

Yes the newer HID lights are bright. I just bought a new truck with HID and LED fogs. Way better than my now gone 9th gen Impala, lights for a new vehicle sucked

My wife has the same truck but it's 3 years old and has the old school clip in halogen bulbs and it's still very good!

Now that makes it way worse when I drive the 70 with the T3's

Pat

 

Over here we are having an arms race in bright headlamps too.
When I had my first car i found the tungsten sealed beams properly adjusted were more than adequate for driving through the night to be back at my ship after weekend leave.
It has become such a problem here there is proposed legislation to deal with what might be a potentially very dangerous problem.
My night vision isn't as good as it was, and I drive accordingly after dark. if it gets too bad I suppose I'll have to give up driving at night. Hopefully that is not going to be an issue for many years yet.

Roger.

 

Just wait until you have to put up with a jeep coming up behind you with 2 LED light bars in addition to his headlights. It's like being overtaken by the sun. That happened to me a few nights ago and I almost had to pull over because I swear I was glare blinded for a few seconds after he went by.

 

Part of what the proposed legislation seeks to control. If you are seriously off-roading in your Jeep no doubt the lights are great. But sadly too many idiots think it's clever to drive on the highways with them lit up.

Roger

 

First it was acetylene lights. They were yellow.
Then came tungsten lights; yellow-white.
Halogen lights were white.
HID and LED are blue-white.

The salient thread here is that each generation of lights adds more blue to the mix.

From behind the wheel it seems as if the bluer the light, the better you see. Tests have shown the opposite is true.

Seeing that progression of lights from the oncoming side is literally eye-opening. If those lights were the same intensity, you wouldn't notice much glare until the blue-white lights come by.

Your iris does not close for blue light, even high intensity blue light. That light floods into your eyeball and blinds you temporarily.

Those of you who classify the glare as part of aging eyeballs can rethink their beliefs. Even young, emergency responders have been complaining that the glare from the flashing blue lights on their vehicles interferes with their work.

Maybe the French had a good idea with their yellow headlights.

 

I agree, some new headlights are blinding. Here in MA I think maybe 7 out of 10 cars drive with their fogs on no matter what the weather is like. High beams are really common, too. Especially on the highways. Many people are thoughtless morons!

 

There has got to be a point where the lawmakers draw a line on this subject. I am getting very frustrated with people driving with their lights in the dim mode, but I still see spots/ temporary blindness upon crossing paths. There will be a lot of accidents as a result, eventualy the fatalities will get someone's attention. Reminds me of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"!

 

X10 on this one. The manufacturers don't make it easy to turn off the driving/fogs...in some cars/trucks nor is there any suggestion in the manual on suggested use. Umm fog and country roads may fall into the common sense bucket...Auto on lights do suk...Same for the 10,000 lumens. Im not a fan of the LED driving lights either. Obnoxious!

 

Most of the aftermarket HID/LED headlights do not come with the proper housing and end up scattering the bright light in all directions. The factory HID headlights come with a special housing to limit how high/wide the headlight illuminates. The left, drivers side, should be adjusted lower than the right side so oncoming traffic is not blinded.

After I had an accident in my Miata, the auto shop had my factory HID lights adjusted too high on both sides. I had to adjust them down, so it did not blind oncoming traffic.

 

i just drive slow til they try to pass..as soon as they are beside me, i hit the high beams and give it to them for awhile...my f250SD sits high enough its blinding...they flip me off etc..but i just stick my nose in the air, like nothing is wrong...

those light bars should be outlawed..its just too much...its not "style" or not safe when no one can see anything by bring blinded by them...

rollin coal is another thing thats stupid..so put a light bar on a duramax thats lifted makes me just want to ram them..hard...

 

it's getting to the point now that I always drive with my rear view mirror set to bright mode at night, very annoying.

 

In Ontario it is illegal to drive in traffic with your fog lights on, but the idiots still do...

 

I rented a new car recently and noticed the headlights projected such a bright spot directly in front of the car you could not see much up ahead. It almost required driving with the high beams on just to see what I normally see with my low beams on my Honda 2004. It's just gotten out of hand, not just annoying anymore, but to the point of being dangerous. Glad I'm not the only one who's upset.