To think that bright LED car headlights need banning?

[BurntBroccoli]

Drive home this evening at rush hour and the overly bright LEDs seem even worse than ever! The red brake lights are awful too.

I cleaned my windscreen both inside and out but it's not made much difference. I've had my eyesight checked in preparation for the dark nights and new glasses with anti- glare coating on but I'm still blinded! Even tried looking to the side but the lights dare still blindingly bright. Any slight hill they are there right in your field of vision.

I really don't think I can drive much longer and I'm really worried as I live rurally.

Yes probably for times of sunrise and sunset.

Yep. That low winter sun glare is a pain in the mornings, it’s always so bright.

Never tried that but may have to consider it. They totally overshadow your normal headlights.

I do often flash thinking they have left full beam on but get them flashing back which is even more blinding!

They are awful, aren’t they?

I was driving home in the dark this evening and the route I was on involved a stretch without streetlights. I was really blinded by the headlights coming at me.

Its so dangerous, I agree.

Id been thinking people were driving around with their beam on until I read it was these LED lights.

And people seem to not dip their full beam, despite lights being so bright, until the very last second and your retinas are burned!

They need to be banned along with the traffic lights, they are also blinding especially the green

De-railing the thread but hate blue LED Christmas lights, they hurt my eyes as well

Yep

Yes! Blue LED Christmas lights make me feel a bit weird. Sort of sad and anxious at the same time! Worse when they flash as well 😩

For years a shop that I had to pass every day had the blue lights that flashed. As long as I wasn't driving I'd close my eyes when we went past. They now have white lights, although not the nice soft white

I wish they would ban them. I have an astigmatism in both eyes so find night driving hard enough as it is, without been blinded by some stupidly bright LED headlights half a mile up the road. Half the time during the night my rear view mirror is switched to dark mode just to try and make driving more bearable, otherwise I end up with vertical beams of light in front of me and behind me. Although last night I was more than wanting to rip the wing mirrors off too, when I had some nob with LED lights sat right up my arse pretty much the entire way back home

Agree!

Are you sure they aren’t HID lights? Not all led lights are that bright, but when we had a car with HID lights, they were definitely dazzling…
I do think that there should be some kind of standard range of brightness, as we realised quite early on that our HID lights were problematic for the drivers in front… we don’t have the car any more!
However, if the Government wants to set up rules for this, could they also please make it a requirement on car manufacturers that changing car headlights is possible by the driver, and at the side of the road, too?

I really struggle with these as a pedestrian (who has various eye issues), I struggle to cross the road in the dark due to the glare.

Agree with this very much, plus all streets and roads are so dark now because either they switch the lamp posts off or they have tiny white lights which do nothing, I remember orange street lights so much more effective than the rubbish we have now.

They are awful. I've been blinded by a few tonight. I had cataracts removed so I have artifical lenses in my eyes now and they create a halo around light sources. Nightmare with those stupid lights.

Also, I was wondering if people just don't bother dipping their headlights any more or if it's because the lights are on auto. I was driving on the motorway tonight, constantly being blinded by lights in the rearview mirror (which I had to keep tipping up). Those drivers definitely had their full beams on. Is it because people don't realise you shouldn't have full beams on when a car is in front of you or is it because the automatic lights don't dip in those situations.

I think automatic full beam/dipped headlights should be banned along with the LEDs. People should have to dip their headlights themselves rather than relying on the car to do it by itself.

It's awful! Especially if it's been raining and they reflect off the water on the road

At night if I'm not in a dual carriage way I've started using the deflector switch thing on the rear view window. Although that doesn't help the reflecting in the wing mirrors

I hate the super bright lights with a passion

However my lights have a auto function and we live rurally, country roads etc. I find them to be actually faster at changing down from beam that I would be.

I did really worry about the auto function at one time and researched it and the AA at the time recommended using the auto function. But now I'm worried that I am incorrect. Any more opinions on this please?

Yanbu. My teen hates them too. He assumed it was idiots driving on full beam all the time. I don't understand why they're legal.

LED street lights compound the problem IMO. I was out walking earlier and the difference between the old orange street lights and new LEDS was depressing. Could see SO well with orange light, LED was just a feeble little patch of light with gloom all around it.

So on average I suspect the auto function is quicker as it takes into account people who are REALLY slow at dipping their lights. But if you drive regularly on twisty rural roads and are pro active in dipping as soon as you see the beginning of a light around a corner, I think the individual is quicker because the auto seems to wait until the actual light is seen before it dips, whcih obviously blinds the person for a second.

When I was learning to drive my dad just drummed into me how and when to dip and how awful it is to be blinded and I assume people are just more cavalier these days (as they seem to be about every fuckin thing, hence the number of people not indicating, or following SO close behind). So many people are just crap drivers these days

I agree. This often happens to me - I feel like I'm in a searchlight in a prison escape movie. I spent some time thinking it must be an age thing - mid-forties now and they say your eyes are easier to dazzle as you get older. I'm so pleased to hear that you all feel like this too. It drives me nuts and I sometimes find I'm slowing to almost a stop when a big people-carrier is coming towards me at night; I can't see enough to make safe progress.

And then you get another huge SUV tailgating you because you've had to slow right down... Plus their lights from behind make yours dimmer and in shadow as someone up thread said.

Blue Christmas lights are an abomination. A small town near me invested in job lot of the damned things and now the whole town centre looks like a massive police emergency throughout the Christmas period. Really, really awful and depressing at the time of year when the town should be lit for celebration. Its grim, get rid of them.

I admit that I drive a big car (Discovery) and I also hate the over bright lights on cars. I think my last Disco used to be configured badly so it dazzled. I was always being flashed as people thought I had my full beam on. I'm wondering if the new model I have had has that adjusted as I don't get flashed anymore.

I agree with you op, brights lights are really awful and i think wearing glasses makes them glare even more. They must cause a lot of accidents.

I have an astigmatism and wear varifocals too...i see a previous poster mentioned this...so my glasses theory is probably correct