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Blinding Vehicle Lights or Lightmare
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I have had near misses due to temporary blindness while the opposite car passes with badly adjusted, or just plainly too bright, HID headlamps.
It seems to be German manufacturers, Vauxhall, Ford & Honda who seem to be the worst.!
In one case I nearly hit a driver exiting his vehicle, however in an inappropriate place at the time, but only my judgement stopped a serious accident.
In addition to this it is very hard to judge the way the road goes on unfamiliar roads with cyclists bieng especially vulnerable.
While a driver is showing inappropriately bright lights behind you this can be a distraction as well.
How the DOT approved these lights is bewildering. I always thought it was light output (Lumens) that determined the intensity of what was considered appropriate under the RTA & highway code!
I have written to the Scottish secretary of transport but they inform me it is not a devolved issue, so Westminster the ball is in your court!
In the winter it is darker more in Scotland so the problem is worse. We have a new drink drive limit but I think bieng blinded behind the wheel is far more dangerous than having a half pint! Please excuse the pun.
Enforcement is the answer but so far my concerns have fallen on deaf ears.
I am an elderly driver, and I find the contrast between light and shade impossible to cope with, when these lights are approaching! The older lamps, do not cause the same problem! As a result of these over-bright headlights, I have had to give up night driving,, at very great inconvenience.
Driving in the dark is a real misery because of blinding headlights at the rear. It causes me to change my driving position to avoid the glare from my wing and rear view mirrors. Sometimes I find myself driving through the rear view mirror and NOT the windscreen. This is creating further danger to road users.
I’m not against Daytime lights, though !
1) Get huge reflectors – the drivers dazzle themselves and dip !
2) Edwin Land invented polaroid, not for sunglasses, but to eliminate headlight glare !
https://www.polarization.com/land/land.html
A solution from 1948 – no-one wanted to be the first to do it !
I now avoid driving at night cos’ I’m sick of struggling to see after being blinded by these ridiculously bright lights. I’m more than happy to sign this petition but I’m afraid that without some serious critical mass we have no chance of effecting a change in legislation when up against the might of the car manufacturers and a government that cares only about its own re-election.
Stopped at traffic lights. On checking my nearside mirror for filtering cyclists before turning left I noticed that I could not see anything in the mirror apart from the LED sidelight glare of the truck behind my car. The truck manufacturers are probably congratulating themselves thinking that they have added to road safety!
Perfectly written petition. Before finding this site I created an online e-petition http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/73476 which basically is aligned with this website. Please sign it if you feel it is relevant.
Driving home last night, I had a Range Rover behind me. I had to flip my rear view mirror due to glare and, even then, had distracting glare in my side mirrors. Then I’d have the odd car in on-coming traffic using excessively bright white lights, compounding the problem. I can’t understand why manufacturers claim they are a superior light, when all they do is distract road users.
Like so many others, I’m relieved that it isn’t just me! These modern lights are literally a pain in the eyeballs. They produce an intensity that human eyes cannot cope with. Whilst it’s true that some arrogantly designed, or negligently designed, Mercedes dipped headlights seen at a slightly offset angle are regular offenders, budget models like small Citroens etc.,with their daytime blinding strings of pearls
Like so many others, I’m relieved that it isn’t just me! These modern lights are literally a pain in the eyeballs. They produce an intensity that human eyes cannot cope with. Whilst it’s true that some arrogantly designed, or negligently designed, Mercedes dipped headlights seen at a slightly offset angle are regular offenders, budget models like small Citroens etc., with their daytime blinding strings of pearls are in daily evidence. Not only are they painfully irritating, but they cause a rising level of anger in me, and I am a placid person. Only today, whilst driving in stop/start town traffic, I had to angle the interior mirror to NO rear view to remove the distracting dazzle from a small hatchback’s daytime running strips. How does having NO rear view help safety? I expect I broke some law by doing that. In the same potentially dangerous way, I shield my eyes from sizeable areas of my view to escape oncoming dazzle. I admit that a small pilot light could register a vehicle’s presence in
Like so many others, I’m relieved that it isn’t just me! These modern lights are literally a pain in the eyeballs. They produce an intensity that human eyes cannot cope with. Whilst it’s true that some arrogantly designed, or negligently designed, Mercedes dipped headlights seen at a slightly offset angle are regular offenders, budget models like small Citroens etc., with their daytime blinding strings of pearls are in daily evidence. Not only are they painfully irritating, but they cause a rising level of anger in me, and I am a placid person. Only today, whilst driving in stop/start town traffic, I had to angle the interior mirror to NO rear view to remove the distracting dazzle from a small hatchback’s daytime running strips. How does having NO rear view help safety? I expect I broke some law by doing that. In the same potentially dangerous way, I shield my eyes from sizeable areas of my view to escape oncoming dazzle. I admit that a small pilot light could register a vehicle’s presence in difficult conditions, but hurting other drivers’ eyes is counter productive. Could we somehow assemble a log of the worst offending vehicles? Good luck to us all in getting something done!
I’ve wondered for seveal years now, since this new wave of ridicously bright headlights have come onto the market, whether or not there would be some kind of petition against them. As time goes by they are becoming more prolific on our roads, and what was once every few days one might get blinded, now it’s a regular occurance every day. How on earth these lights pass UK regulation I don’t know.
I have been left completely dazzled on many occasions, in one instance nearly hitting the hedge on a country road. These are not incidents where the oncoming driver has forgotten to dip either – after flashing them to signal they are dazzling, I have had responses back with full beam, which are like Star Trek lasers! The Ministry of Transport has to do something.
It seems lately there has been a culture amongst car manufacturers to festoon there cars with ever bigger and brighter lights – and not just headlights, but rear brake lights as well. I wonder how many folks have noticed when they are in slow moving traffic, or in towns and cities where ques develop, and you are waiting behind a car whose driver is just sitting on their brake pedal of a modern car with brake lights on full blast, just how dazzling all that back-end of red illumination is? It’s ridiculous – it nearly gives you a sun tan. Bigger vehicles, especially Range Rovers, have an enormous amount of rearward facing bright red light when their brakes are applied. These lights are supposed to be a safety feature – but their brightness is so intense surely only the opposite is achieved.
The same has happend with emergency vehicles – modern police cars blue lights when coming towards you are completely dazzling. There is no need for them to be so bright – ‘it’s ok, we can see you coming Mr Policeman from half a mile away – please don’t burn my retinas again, I beg you’!
Let’s hope we can get something done about HID headlights at least. Well done for organising this petition.
DRLs are much too bright and frequently too large, occurring in long unnecessary strings. They reduce medium to long range vision, thereby creating hazardous driving conditions.
At night, on narrow unlit lanes, I have had to pull over to allow Range Rovers with hideously bright headlights to overtake – the height these lights are set at combined with their brightness effectively blind me.
On a five mile trip back home tonight dazzled many times by these bright lights, some also had fog lamps on ( a clear night !) as others I have been unable to see either the centre white line or the kerb/ grass verge, this happens night after night, along with the many that also drive with only one light of any kind, night-time driving is getting a bit like Russian roulette, come on Gov UK get your act together just because the so called experts / firms etc think its a good thing to have for once take notice of us mere mortals,
The is increasingly a preponderance of car with dazzling lights. There are those who are already illegal but seemingly ignored: those who use fogs with headlights or fit aftermarket HID kits or high CCT bulbs. The new LED DRLs have way too much luminance, they are dazzling, even in bright daylight. If these are legal, the law certainly needs to be changed. I also suggest that new vehicles be fitting with switching such that fogs and dipped headlights cannot be used at the same time. It seems 95% of the public don’t know how to use fog lights properly and need help.
Daytime Running Lights are far too bright on many new cars. Whilst they might just about be OK on perfectly flat roads, they can be dazzling on any uneven road (99% of UK roads!). Side lights are more than adequate in normal daylight and dipped headlights when visibility is poorer. Fog lights ONLY when visibility is severely reduced (it’s the law!) – and NOT in rain – and switch them off if you are in a line of traffic, only the guy at the front and back should have the appropriate fog’s on.
I get migraine headaches from overly bright lights, flashing white lights and lights which emit a disproportionate amount of blue and UV light. Besides from the problem with getting migraines from these kind of new generation car and bicycle headlights (using white LED, Xenon and other kinds of newer icey white, very bright lighting), I find them very uncomfortable, distracting, they make me dizzy and I find that they impair my ability to concentrate and drive safely. These newer kind of lights are a health and safety hazard to road users. I don’t have these problems with the traditional versions of vehicle lighting.
The same problem is happening with street lighting as it is being converted to white LED versions. This madness needs to stop.
I’m finding the dazzling headlightsof on- coming traffic particularly hazardous on single carriageway A roads in rural areas. The contrast of glare against darkness on fast roads has begun to scare me so much that i avoid these situations as much as possible. Of course the irritation is that I pay road tax too and object to feeling intimidated off the road! This IS a big safety issue and i’m convinced that superbright headlights cause more incidents than they prevent.
Blinding lights at night make driving dangerous