To be happy about this...re headlight glare..link attached

[Ihateboris]

Finally something is (hopefully) going to be done about these bloody awful and dangerous headlights. I hate driving at night as these lights literally blind me for a few seconds.

BBC link here:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn971jlpvvro

I'm happy to hear this. There was a discussion last night on LBC about this subject and some bloke phoned in and said nothing has changed about the headlights,it was just elderly drivers who's eyesight was going and shouldn't be driving any more complaining about it! I don't think this is true,I know quite a few people who are definitely not elderly complaining about it.

The new Defenders are the absolute worst. I had one behind me earlier. My rear view was topped, but the LR lights were coming around my car like a full beam!

Another factor overlooked is phones.

Everyone is glued to their damn devices, squinting at things on a small screen - so the eyes suffer from strain.

Then when behind the wheel, bright lights seem to cause them issue(s) because their eyes cannot cope!!

Headlights on their own are not an issue - theres a multitude of factors at play, which this pointless toilet paper "review" will almost certainly overlook and fail to mention.

Good. It's got ridiculous. I had a car behind me last week with such bright lights I was having to move in my seat to avoid the reflection of them from my mirrors blinding me and I'm pretty sure I could have turned my lights off and still been able to see ahead of me.

@LlamaNoDrama Get a dipping mirror? You don’t need to keep looking in wing mirrors. Plus his lights should have been pointing on the road, it must have been a huge lorry close to you if the lights were in your rear view mirror! I’d just dip it though. Makes a big difference.

I’ve driven 35 miles back from London this evening. I saw one car with what I considered to be lights that were too bright. One. On a trunk road, motorway, A road and country lanes. This isn’t a major issue. I have a feeling it will sink without trace as it’s unenforceable. It will take a lot of police time to catch one car if my recent experience is standard. I think it is. Most people complaining seem to be driving old cars with poor lights.

I know people who don’t wear glasses, go for the free annual optician appointment that their employer gives them as use computers. Eyesight not changed but find modern car lights bad

I've been driving a different vehicle regularly recently (long story) which has the horrible overly bright and too high lights and I find I'm much less impacted by the dazzle from other cars' obnoxious lights in turn. Seems like a form of arms race really where newer cars will just outbrighten and outdazzle each other. I will be very pleased if it's stopped personally.

Whatever this bullshit "review" might change or suggest - as I said earlier, it wont make a blind bit of difference to the tens of millions of cars out there with LED/Laser headlights.

This review is nothing but a ponzi scheme to placate moaning people and also to keep some asshole(s) in a job while they write some meaningless word salad about lights being bright.

I mean, FFS, they are lights - isnt them being bright kinda the fucking point?

Otherwise no cars would have lights and we'd all drive really blind in the dark!

It's not that though. As a driver it's hard to see if there are pedestrians around due to the glare of the other cars. I have to drive down a long straight road with several pedestrian crossings to collect DD from a club. If there's a constant stream of traffic I cannot tell if there is a pedestrian waiting to cross. Doesn't help that most people wear long black winter coats and dark trousers!

How can this Avoid looking straight ahead, instead focus on the edge of the road be genuine safety advice. Hey, you're driving! Don't look where you're driving! 🤦‍♀️

I won’t drive at night as know I’ll end up in an accident because of these lights so this is good news.

If anyone has tips on managing this on hills I'd be really glad to hear them.

I live rurally in very hilly country. Yesterday I was going over a tight-ish bridge (very old) with a blind brow. A car with LEDs was also approaching and I stopped to move over a bit more for them, but was so dazzled it was difficult to gauge how close I was to the wall of the bridge.

@CharlesRydersMum That doesn’t happen very often though and ALL headlights are at the wrong angle as a car comes up over a bridge. Your lights should be on the wall of the bridge. Look at the wall illuminated by your car. Avert your eyes from the oncoming car. Most modern cars have bright lights!

I do agree that seeing people in dark clothing is problematic but when driving you look in front of you and slightly left. This gives you some indication of what’s on your left. In an area with crossings, it’s built up with street lights so you can see fairly well.

@HelplessSoul Unless they make “too bright” a fail for the MOT? Most people writing here seem somewhat challenged by driving at night though. No review will alter that.

Yes, I did but probably wasn't clear! The walls of the bridge were made out of rocks ( v. Old bridge) so bita sticking out everywhere

Its quite scary after these drivers have gone past and I have a second or 2 of blindness. God forbid if a pedestrian steps out into the road. I guess whoever thought these lights were a good idea now never leaves their house at night.
I cant find 1 single person who isn't dazzled by them and thinks they are a good idea.

Let me be the first person then you have found who is not dazzled by headlights of any kind and yes, I do personally think LED/HID/Laser headlights are good for driving and aiding visual range when driving in reduced light settings.

👍

I don’t know anyone who has a problem either except a friend who needed cataracts sorted out! Most headlights are fine. They are whiter lights these days and are better at illuminating the side of the road so you will see pedestrians. If a headlight is on full beam, it can of course dazzle. Dipped I don’t see what the big issue is and they won’t make millions of cars have new headlights that are more like glow worms.

It reflects so much from my wing mirror it affects me even when I'm not looking in them. Like when someone in the car has a phone and holds it at the wrong angle and it reflects any sun light straight in your face. I didn't have this issue in my older car so maybe newer car mirrors are also an issue!

@LlamaNoDrama Can you alter the position of the wing mirrors? They can be angled to show the side of your car? (Not ideal for parking and pulling out obviously). Or maybe put anti dazzle film on them?

I thought this was interesting:

‘The problem is worse for older people, whose eyes take around nine seconds to recover from glare, compared to one second for a 16-year-old, according to road safety consultant, Rob Heard.’

I wonder if the people who don’t have a problem just happen to have eyes that recover fast for their age.

Anybody who has eyes is going to be dazzled by an overbright light. It’s a bit of an extreme comparison but who looks directly at the sun? It’s not physically possible because the brain knows how dangerous it is. The brain must recognise that some headlights are overly bright leading to the dazzling most of us experience.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel I think this is a bigger issue for older people. No doubt about it and we have an aging population. I’m 70 and I’m fine but most interviewed are definitely beyond 60. Don't see the 20 somethings complaining. Many people we know have newish cars and none are having issues that we know of. Never a topic of discussion and their cars have fairly bright lights!

of course it’s a bigger issue for older people. But that doesn’t mean it’s not also the fact that lights are getting brighter. I’m not sure why you seem sceptical about this when they self evidently are getting brighter, with the massive advances in lighting technology which mean you can now have bright light very cheaply and at a low power.

DS is 24 and complains about the lights.

@Piggywaspushed Well people are like sheep aren’t they? She probably drives a car with bright lights! Nearly everyone with a car 10 years old and younger will! Only old cars with yellowish lights aren’t bright because they are not white lights. If you own a recently (idh) made car, you have brighter white lights. We aren’t putting this genie back in the bottle and of course older people have more issues with lights and driving. They always did! I like being able to see the verge personally.