Head lights

[erikbloodaxe]

If you drive when it's dark and flash your headlights to say thank you to another driver for waiting while you pass parked cars or similar, Please Stop.

It's not helpful, you are blinding other drivers and it's dangerous.

Pisses me right off......every fucking time!

Yanbu. It's not in the highway code. I wish people wouldn't do it.

@verv yes I see your. point, but I also see hers, she's blinded by these super bright light so she's just being a twat to remind the twat driving the they are blinding her.
My car is four years old, so pretty modern, it's a small car and doesn't have crazy headlights. Driving a modern car doesn't make it OK to blind everyone else.

Honestly they should be regulated, it's dangerous.

I hate the new lights. I have brown eyes and have anti glare on my glasses but it doesn't make a difference. I get a big halo round the lights and streaks out from them. It's due to astigmatism and is worse with the new lights. Driving when it's dark is awful but I can't avoid it. I will try a different method for thanking people though.

So many people don't adjust their headlight position correctly, even with modern LEDs many are adjustable. They have them pointing to 'upwards' rather than down to the road, especially when they have backseat passengers or luggage

I agree they should be regulated but your friend is daft. A lot of cars can't do anything about their lights being too bright, unless they're on full beam by mistake. I can't alter the position of mine like I could in my old car.

Same. I wish more people had the common sense to do this!

Sorry if I'm being dim, but aren't you supposed to drive with your headlights on when it's dark? That's what I've been doing since I passed my test more years ago than I care to say! Do you mean going from dipped to main beam and back again? That's a bit silly and I can see how that might dazzle someone coming the other way (it would me!) I don't bother with using my lights to signal other drivers or pedestrians, especially not to convey the message 'go ahead, it's OK', I was taught to never do that, or act solely on others doing it.

I completely agree with this. I hate driving in the dark for this reason. The lights on these things are always perfectly aligned to my eye level.

From the Highway Code:

110
Flashing headlights. Only flash your headlights to let other road users know that you are there. Do not flash your headlights to convey any other message or intimidate other road users.

Same

„I completely agree with this. I hate driving in the dark for this reason. The lights on these things are always perfectly aligned to my eye level.”

They are set completely incorrectly. People set them to see more of what’s in front of them
without seeing the road. So odd. They are really blinding, hate them.

@Mumteedum
But you're driving around blinding everyone else!? How is that ok? I'm very much a treat others as you want to be treated person. I can't drive at night due to your lights..is that fair? I can see why my friend main beams cars that are essentially main beaming her.

You’re talking like it’s a choice, and people are deliberately being twats by driving cars with lights that modern cars come with.

You buy a car. It comes with headlights.
Literally that’s it.

I drive a Honda and I get flashed at by twats like your friend. I didn’t spec it and I didnt go into a dealership and say “Hey, car dealer, please give me a car with the brightest lights that I shall use on low beam to blind other motorists”.

Despite that I still come across people who think that it’s cool to high beam me when I’m driving along on low beams and minding my own business.
I think if it’s deliberate in future my response will be to not ignore it and mutter an apology for my lights but to throw my full beams on and treat them to the searing white light of a fecking atom bomb.

@Verv
Sure you can totally ignore your impact on people, you can choose to use your car as a weapon..

Really I'm just against being an aggressor. I'd like to think I treat everyone with respect. I wouldn't choose a car that makes everyone else unsafe/distressed/in pain. Do you have any elderly relatives or young drivers?

But you do you..you clearly like yourself.

Yes. People are talking about flicking them to full beam for a moment.

Is this regional or something? I don’t and never do I ever see people flashing lights to say thanks. If someone lets you into a queue generally it’s hazards for a brief moment but doesn’t happen all the time and I wouldn’t think twice if someone didn’t “thank” me with their lights especially given you’re not actually supposed to.

As I'm only likely to see one side (if you're in the opposite lane) in my peripheral vision, I would just assume you're indicating?

They're not all a 'trend' some of us cannot physically bend enough to get into lower vehicles. I have^^ to have an SUV or I cannot travel in a car. Not my choice I can assure you

High beams are far more dangerous so she's putting people's lives at risk!

This is a non issue.

Everybody does it. I can't think of many occasions people round here haven't done that, and when they haven't, I've noticed because it's rude.

If you're getting blinded by a tiny flash to say thanks, either look away while you're waiting or don't drive at night. Your eyes clearly can't handle it anyway.

Which other parts of the Highway Code would you ignore because you think it's rude to follow them?

Perhaps it's rude for pedestrians to assume they can cross roads, which are designated for drivers, whenever they like? Why stop at zebra crossings for such rude people?

Honestly. Spare me the pouting.

Youre the one posturing about your “friend” who likes to blind people with her high beams if she takes against their low beams.

How slowly do I need to spell out that if you buy a car with the new standard for lights, you get the lights your given from the factory.
It’s not rocket science.
This doesn’t make you an aggressor, and just like having airbags, there’s going to be a time where LEDS are not a choice but a standard due to efficiency.

As I’ve already said, and at the risk of repeating myself for the wilfully obtuse, the lights came with the car. No choice.

If you think that I bought a car because I deliberately wanted a set of lights to make others unsafe, distressed, and in pain then you’re an absolute lunatic and it comes as no surprise that you’ve got a self styled vigilante dazzler as a friend.
Peas, pods, and all that.

And yes, I do like myself.

Usually I thank people who stop at the give way islands along the streets where I live which are roads with traffic calming islands jutting into them so they can usually see me hazard to say thanks because I’m straight on at the time of signalling if that makes sense. Or if I think they can see me under a streetlight I’ll wave a thank you.
Wouldnt work as well in other situations.

I find it blinding too, I live in the countryside with no streetlights and dark roads which seems to make it worse.

I always used to do the opposite and turns headlights off briefly to say thanks. I now find it so difficult to drive at night with very bright headlights, that I try not to do it at all.