Campaign against dazzling bi-xenons launched

alexthecheese said:
Personally, I don't understand how people can't see it as in issue. Do you have them fitted yourself? It is infuriating when you're driving in the dark in a poorly-lit area when someone comes the other way and blinds you to the point you can barely see the road ahead yourself.
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Yeah everyone understands this point however it isn't the light themselves that cause the issue, it is how they are implimented and as mentioned above the same issues occur with standard halogen lighting.
 
alexthecheese said:
Personally, I don't understand how people can't see it as in issue. Do you have them fitted yourself? It is infuriating when you're driving in the dark in a poorly-lit area when someone comes the other way and blinds you to the point you can barely see the road ahead yourself.
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No.. I have factory Xenons.. (Albeit my main beams are Halogen) but I live in the middle of the countryside and i've never had a problem with peoples headlights on an un-lit road as long as they're dipped.
 
Be amazed if this actually goes anywhere. I find no issue whatsoever with HIDS in projectors, I'd welcome a ban on the chavs that put them in reflectors though as they are pretty glarey
 
So it's either that he is clueless and doesn't know that the issue lies in HIDs in reflectors, or the BBC News are the culpable 'tards and have so badly misreported it that they have entirely missed the point.
 
alexthecheese said:
So it's either that he is clueless and doesn't know that the issue lies in HIDs in reflectors, or the BBC News are the culpable 'tards and have so badly misreported it that they have entirely missed the point.
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There was a video on there last night explaining the whole thing - the argument is that even legal HID's are apparently 'blinding' - all the examples in the video were high end cars with factory fitted Xenons.
 
The brightest I have seen, to the point where I thought, "WTF that has to be some idiot who's fitted them to this **** box" were actually on a Porsche, they were SO bright it was visible from really far away.

I think the only thing that has come close to them was a newish Audi of some description that had pretty bright lights too.
 
Trifid said:
They seem be somewhere between £50 to £100 for a Lux meter and they would only need them in traffic cars. Obviously all MOT stations would need one too. It seems very workable, would just need a defined limit to be agreed. I fear I'd definitely fall foul of any limit if one was imposed, 55w HIDs are very bright, I sometimes wonder if they are too bright as when I turn them off I am unable to see anything until I eyes adjust.
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I always thought that Lux meters were more expensive than that, so maybe the cost wouldn't be too much...

If it was tested during the MOT, there's nothing to stop you putting lower powered bulbs in during the MOT test, or even just going in with dirty headlights.

That said, if lux was tested during the MOT, it may be worth enforcing a minimum also, as some older cars have pretty poor headlights I've found...
 
sigma said:
The brightest I have seen, to the point where I thought, "WTF that has to be some idiot who's fitted them to this **** box" were actually on a Porsche, they were SO bright it was visible from really far away.
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I've noticed that on newer Porsches as well.
 
simulatorman said:
The is nothing wrong with factory fitted Xenons
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Depends, try having a Vauxhall Insignia follow you at night with factory fit xenons without wanting to get out and put a hammer through them within a few minutes.

Just because they're factory fit doesn't mean they're necessarily fine, the Insignia has awfully aligned lights from the factory.
 
Couldn't the old duffer just get some of those yellow tinted night time driving glasses? They help with glare without reducing light levels too much.
 
I wouldn't have another car without them now after having them on my Focus, they're brilliant.

He wants to focus his attention to cars with crap headlights, I've seen quite a few cars recently driving around with lights equal to the power of a birthday cake candle, which is more annoying and dangerous than xenon's.

It's ok, IAM, and RoSPa have said he's talking wet, but that veritable fountain of motoring knowledge "Honest John" is fully behind him.
 
[TW]Fox;18953274 said:
This is ALL Xenon headlights - even factory fit ones. Silly eh?
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I expected nothing less of a one-man-thinktank cabbie.


Kenai said:
Just because they're factory fit doesn't mean they're necessarily fine, the Insignia has awfully aligned lights from the factory.
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Shock as Vauxhall is a bit crap 'from the factory' :D

But seriosuly, it's a pain if you're in a low down sports car and the person behind is in a 4x4. I get that, but there's no way to legislate against it unless we listen to TommyB/sco212 and ban 4x4's.
 
Haven't read the detail, but there sure are a lot of cars in London with over the top headlamps with enough power to light up a football field. Absolutely pointless in a well lit city, and they are very dangerous for people like myself who cycle for example.

Equally, there are some cyclists who have ridicilous lights. I saw a guy with rear flashing leds which hurt my head and eyes just looking towards their direction.
 
Disco Boy said:
I think that the bi part is the dipped part which is the part which will dazzle you if the driver hits a pothole. Unlike than the main part, which the driver can switch off so as not to dazzle you, the driver has no control over the dipped.
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No - early HID lights, or 'xenons' have a HID dipped beam and traditional halogen main beam. New fangled 'bi-xenons' are HID for both dipped and main beam. I imagine the term was used in the article just so the less well informed out there dont think their 'bi-xenons' are not HIDs and not a subject of this campaign.

I must admit I'm no longer of the opinion that the issue is only with HID bulbs retrofitted into reflectors. Way too often nowadays I initially think I'm being main-beamed, oncomming or from behind, only to find it's actually something new-shaped and usually one of these 'off-road' monstrosities presumably with only the dipped beam on. Happens too often for it to be only accidental/idiotic main-beamers or bad HID retrofits.
 
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Liampope said:
No - early HID lights, or 'xenons' have a HID dipped beam and traditional halogen main beam. New fangled 'bi-xenons' are HID for both dipped and main beam.
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What about both?! Mine are halogen for the flasher (back on stalk) and they also come on for main beam but as well as this, the Xenons move in and increase in brightness as well. Strange they turned the halogens on as well for full beam because if you cover the halogen area up the increased brightness of the Xenon is bright enough anyway so the Halogens in full beam mode don't add anything to the road so only really useful for flashing people.
 
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