Anyone else blinded by these new headlights when driving?

[Totallybannanas]

Am I the only one struggling with how bright car headlights have become? I’ve been avoiding driving at night for a while now because of it, but I don’t remember them being this intense in the past. Every car I pass feels like it’s on full beams, and I end up feeling completely blinded. I know my astigmatism makes it worse, but I recently had an eye test and wear corrective glasses. Tonight, I had to make a journey I couldn’t avoid, and I found myself driving at 40mph in a 60mph zone because the car behind me was tailgating and their lights were so dazzling. I eventually pulled over to let them pass. Does anyone else deal with this?

I am the same, so dangerous

Exactly and keep sharing. I work in the community in the evenings and it's hell.

I agree, modern street lighting is less diffused and it can make for difficult contrasts.

I've stopped driving in the night as my astigmatism makes the lights blur all into one, with sunburst either side. In other words, I can't see a damn thing!!

Glad it helped! I only found out about this about a year ago - I feel like it’s something they should teach everyone as part of the driving test!

I have to drive in the dark for work and yes, they do look like you're being flashed with every little bump they go over.
I also drive on rural, windy roads and to me, some of these lights seem to give a blue flash when caught at a certain angle, which when it happens repeatedly, means you're then checking around thinking there's an emergency vehicle approaching from somewhere.
Get one behind you and one coming towards you and you're pretty much seeing sod all, especially if it's the top of a hill or similar.

There was someone on one of these threads who said she has a car that has these lights and she's sick of being flashed, even though she knows why, and flashes back so people know she's not on full beam, just so they know she's not in the wrong........ Deliberately and knowingly making the situation worse, being flashed because your lights are dazzling someone else and then deliberately blinding them more to prove a point is ridiculous and dangerous, but she wouldn't have it. That's the kind of mentality you're dealing with unfortunately.

Another major drawback with these ultra bright lights is that you can't see the front indicators very clearly as they are dazzled by the lights.

I find it very hard to believe flashing super bright bike lights make the rider safer. Yes they make you aware that there is something out there from further away, often long before you would need to do anything, but make it harder to work out what the thing is, where it is and direction it is moving.

I think that bikes have to have a static light, not flashing..
If a rider wants to have a flashing light, then it should be attached to the person not the bike.

Df got pulled over years ago because his bike light was flashing due to a dodgy dynamo when he was cycling home from work.

Turning on the high beam at night is really annoying. I was driving home from a friend's party at night, and the car on the opposite side kept its high beams on, which was very dazzling. There are street lights on that stretch of road! ! !

💯, it's so dangerous.

Flashing lights are fine, but there are rules about the flashing!

I was on one of my usual routes the other night passing through a very narrow twisty section which has high walls on both sides (no footpath). As I was turning a corner, I had to brake quite abruptly as there were the dazzling headlights right in front of me, it’s a good job I am a very cautious driver naturally so had approached the corner pretty slowly - the oncoming car had decided to overtake a cyclist who had a big queue formed behind them all with dazzling lights, I could barely see the cyclist.

I hate driving at night for exactly this reason. Add rain to the equation and, with all the light bouncing off the wet road from oncoming headlights, I can’t see road markings at all.

High astigmatism here 🤓

I think it's also a problem when cars are so much more elevated now so me in my normal old style elevation receives the full beam of headlights that are most likely not dipped far enough too

I think it's a mixture - also lots of white lines have not been repainted of late and cat's eyes not replaced so on some roads you cannot see the road at all

I' posted on the previous thread about this. I have astigmatism, and just cannot see with these blinding lights. I've got the yellow glasses but they don't really work for me. I don't drive at night anymore, I just get public transport or Ubers. Which is ridiculous and bloody annoying.

Yeah I was going to say - if everybody hates them, who are the people that are actually using them!

Ive had to stop doing evening shifts cos driving home was a nightmare and I am now turning down socials with a friend who lives 30 minutes away on a windy country road as I am stopping driving in the dark.

You are far from the only one who hates these bright headlamps. You’d think in such a safety mad country that there would be more fuss made about this by politicians. There are many gimmicky features in cars but why not introduce something damn useful like a filter on the windscreen.

I have them and hate them. After a lifetime of buying old second hand cars we recently bought a nearly new car which has these fucking wanky lights. The problem is that there is basically no choice, all new cars have them.

I would happily retrofit an alternative less wanky light but as far as I can see this isn't an option.

Yes, some people will be making the problem worse by not adjusting them (although many are not manually adjustable anyway) and by tailgating. But I think the majority of people with these lights are just stuck with the situation, they aren't deliberately choosing to be a menace. I really don't think this is being driven by consumer demand.

Responsibility for fixing this problem lies squarely with the manufacturers - and the government to bring in the appropriate legislation to force them.

Yeah I totally agree - wasn’t trying to blame the drivers per se. But it would be good if those who could adjust them, did so.

I wrote to my MP and got this reply:

"As you know, the Government has commissioned a project to assess headlight glare and what measures may be needed to address this, which is already under way.
The Transport Research Foundation’s subsidiary, the TRL is undertaking research into headlight glare and running practical trials from October 2024 to Spring 2025 to assess the conditions that drivers complain of as glare from the headlights of oncoming vehicles – particularly at night.
TRL will be working with the Department for Transport (DfT) to understand the factors that can cause headlight glare including factors such as surrounding vehicles, weather conditions, and ambient lighting to develop a thorough understanding of the circumstances that lead to high brightness levels and glare.
Additionally, a review of scientific literature and consultations with various stakeholders will be conducted to ensure the project provides a comprehensive understanding of the topic, ultimately generating actionable recommendations for the DfT to present in international working groups addressing this issue."

In summary - don't expect anything to happen any time soon!!

My DP really struggles with being dazzled and did some research.

Turns out back in the 50s or 60s it was decided to set the standard of measuring car bulbs power using watts. This is a measure of energy consumption not brightness. Back then all bulbs were a bit hopeless. In the 80s halogen bulbs came along which are brighter for the same wattage but still okay for other drivers.

Now we have LED and HID lamps, still restricted to a maximum 60 watts consumption but way way brighter. A standard halogen 60 watt bulb produces about 600 lumens. Both LEDs and HID are at least 300% brighter but use no more power. HID lights can be 3500 lumens!! So we've got to here thanks to a measurement wrongly chosen over 50 years ago and the march of science.

Manufacturers really don't help. Headlamps under 2000 lumens don't need either washers or self levelling. So they often fit them and save money. And one of the biggest problems with these headlamps is muck scatters the light making things worse. That said if you are on a country road with a lot of undulations and there's an SUV behind with self levelling lights it's very distracting, like being flashed as the mechanism tries to keep up with the road surface.

So a bit crap all round - even if you have all those lumens, and they are amazing, it only takes a slight miscalculation from a dazzled oncoming vehicle and Bang!!

Have you tried pushing the little tab at the bottom of your rear view mirror to quickly adjust your rear view mirror to stop the bright lights shining on you?

Its very handy in these circumstances.

I agree these new lights are awful & very dangerous. I get really cross when someone is pulled over on the wrong side of the road - effectively parked, but running their car and with their stupid bloody lights on, shining in my eyes. Its even worse tahtn when the car is on the correct side of the road.

Signed the petition