Review the brightness of car headlights for safety

[Garlickit]

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/653793

Inspired by AIBU thread, "To think night driving is getting more dangerous"

The Government should launch a review into the problem of some headlights causing oncoming traffic drivers to be unable to see clearly and safely. The review should be conducted with car manufacturers to find solutions.

The RAC raised this issue as far back as 2018 and its recent study showed that nine-in-10 drivers think some or most car headlights on the UK’s roads are too bright. Government data shows that there are around 300 collisions every year where dazzling headlights are a factor.

The RAC has often written about this: https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/rac-calls-for-government-action-on-headlight-glare/

For me it’s the colour. Yellow lights are fine, it’s the white lights that are problematic.

Mumsnetters did RACs job for them!!

Is the RAC aware of our role in this? I really think someone at mumsnet HQ ought to tell them. Most of the traffic and media traction came via this thread.

Agree about yellow lights being ok. It’s the blue white that’s too harsh.
the bright lights are everywhere- Street lights, electronic bill boards, buses and vans with overly bright electronic screens.

And yes maybe mnhq will reach out to RAC! Apart from here and the odd email newsletter from AA I’ve not seen the petition anywhere.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-13147629

Wow this is from 2011 - so it’s an issue that people have been raising awareness about for over a decade and only now something is happening!!

And this article from 2018 with over 2000 comments! Amazing that nothing has been done to address it. But I guess it’s not a priority because it’s not reflected in the accident data

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43525525#comments

Looking at the number of drivers saying they now avoid the roads at night, both here and in the Mail's comments, accident levels are being kept low by thousands of people restricting their own lives because of other people's dangerous lights. It's nowhere near good enough.

Can't someone put the petition in their comments section?

Just watching Morning Live on BBC1 and Rav Wilding has just done a piece on the RAC and brightness of car headlights. Might be worth a watch? It was on about 10 mins into the show starting in case you’d like to watch on Iplayer.

This is great that it is going so well. I can't go near LED lights at all because of migraines and it's so good to hear that others are getting on the case. I don't want to live like a hermit forever, and eventually my stock of fluorescent light bulbs in the attic will run out. Eeek!

I just thought of someone else I can write to about the thread. I will do that.

Hi,

I wondered if you had come across the research work of Professor Arnold Wilkins on the health effects of LED light on people?

He wrote this good article about it ages ago:

https://theconversation.com/leds-could-be-harmful-to-health-the-eu-halogen-ban-will-make-it-worse-102589

I just wrote to him to tell him about this thread. I'm certain that he will be really glad that you are doing all this work to raise awareness of the problem.

I'm not impressed with the government response saying that there is a lack of evidence re accidents etc caused by the bright lights.
I'm guessing they don't care that the reason might be because lots of us now actually don't go out and night and drive due to how bright the lights are! If I did I know the chances of me being in an accident would be likely. Do I need to go and have an accident and be a statistic for them to pay attention? This has really restricted my life. I have regular eye tests and my optician tells me they keep hearing the same things from customers. I strongly suspect nothing is going to change.

That article's interesting, @OnceAgainAgain - and thank you for the letter writing!

I've just ordered a spinner to check my LED lights at home 😁

Also if you crash into someone would it even be documented it was to do with lights?!

@fashionqueen1183 Good point - probably not!

@Garlickit I haven’t read the article. What does the spinner check?

Flicker. It says that, if you spin it in front of an LED light and it looks like it's going the other way, the light's flickering. Bad for eyes.

Oh wow! I think I want one!
Certain lights give me migraine.

This is a really good point!

guess it suits the government to reduce journeys by car though! Good for the environment and roads maintenance budgets

The government have absolutely no intention to stop or decrease driving. They won't look at properly nationalising the railways and back companies that make a profit from fragmented ownership and ever increasing fares. They are still not bothered about how many bus routes have gone etc. Unless getting rid of the LED lights on cars benefits them financially, I can't see them caring about this as an issue.

I wondered if you would be interested to see these updates from LightAware? It seems as though some progress is being made.

https://trl.co.uk/news/trl-works-with-dft-to-understand-more-about-the-causes-of-glare

https://lightaware.org/vehicle-headlights/

My optician said to me this week that everyone who comes in complains about headlight glare.

They are making a mint out of selling add on glare protection coating...

DH was complaining about it last night, despite rolling his eyes when I moan about the same thing!

I wonder what type of vehicle they’re using as that would make a difference. Suv or not.

My old polo is just at the right height for the majority of other vehicles to blind me in wing and rear view mirrors from the rear and obviously full on throught the windscreen. I think people with ridiculously bright lights also drive on full beam sometimes as they are idiots.