Is it time to ban LED Headlights

silvagti said:
I think that rather than banning brigher headlights we should be asking why LED street lighting is so dim and poor that we need cars with brighter headlights.....

Street lights were way brighter (and car lights much dimmer) a couple of decades ago!
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i dunno, be careful what you wish for there imo. the only time i care about my lights are in rural areas (which i live near one so.......................) but i very much doubt locals living in a rural area would want streetlights down all their roads due to light pollution, but that is where good headlights come into their own.

but in areas with street lights i am less bothered about the the type of lights in my car (so long as they work)
 
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silvagti said:
I think that rather than banning brigher headlights we should be asking why LED street lighting is so dim and poor that we need cars with brighter headlights.....

Street lights were way brighter (and car lights much dimmer) a couple of decades ago!
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Street lighting is already way too ubiquitous and bright - so much light pollution! - and also much brighter than they used to be when we had those lovely orange sodium lamps.
 
Mr Jack said:
Street lighting is already way too ubiquitous and bright - so much light pollution! - and also much brighter than they used to be when we had those lovely orange sodium lamps.
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Not where I live it isn't. The light coverage and brightness of the older lights were way better before they replaecd them with LED ones. I think the main issues is that the LED lights have a narrower field/cone of light compared to the older ones so even though they brightness is similar they just don't provide the same coverage.
 
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Street lighting is bright enough IMO, too bright/white in some cases, ruins your night vision. Much preferred the softer orange from the days of old.

The idea that we need retina burning bright white lights, is the issue.
 
There is a LOT less light pollution with LED street lights, but they aren't nearly as powerful as the old orange ones and are way to high Kelvin. The orange was nice as ambient light, bit these are awful.

They flash when they fail as well, which is super annoying if there is one outside your house. Like cars, the bulbs don't seem to be replaceable either as I've seen the council replace the whole thing when they die, which must cost 1000s
 
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The streetlights in our residential road were replaced with LED units a couple of years ago and they are much nicer. A more neutral colour, they seem to better illuminate the road beneath them but not shine into adjacent houses like the old sodium lamps did. Less light pollution, more efficient, last longer...hard to see the downside tbh. Hope they keep them.
 
I dread being "flashed in" by a modern truck - higher specification Scania's especially - the LED lights are truly blinding - my own 23 plate model doesn't have them, and to be fair the lights are great.

Which makes me wonder why bother with LED's at all? They are imo too much.
 
theone8181 said:
I do wonder if the ones who have no issues are the ones in suvs :cry: .
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In my pickup some of the cars with newer LED lights are horrifically dazzling - I actually find the Qashqai the sweet spot, with lower or higher cars seem to suffer the most with some newer and/or replacement/modified headlights.

On the way to work Monday had someone coming the other way around a corner in the middle of a pack of 6-7 cars where their headlights completely dazzled me so that I had to slow up and struggled to reference my position on the road, all the other cars were fine and they weren't on high beams.

As I've mentioned before I had some mixed experiences with these newer matrix style headlights (both oncoming and when being followed) - when driving a car they mostly work fine and sometimes can even be a benefit with the additional illumination around you but when driving a van or pickup they generally don't seem to handle it correctly and often your wing mirrors are lit up like mini-suns completely destroying your night vision or ability to see anything behind you (especially in a van without a rear view mirror). They really need banning or people being more considerate with them until they are fixed in my opinion - couple of times I've had to pull over because it has been so unsafe.
 
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Conscript said:
The streetlights in our residential road were replaced with LED units a couple of years ago and they are much nicer. A more neutral colour, they seem to better illuminate the road beneath them but not shine into adjacent houses like the old sodium lamps did. Less light pollution, more efficient, last longer...hard to see the downside tbh. Hope they keep them.
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Our village street lights were also upgraded too very recently, have a nice 'warm' glow to them instead of that awful orange look to everything. Much better for stargazing, or looking at the aurora these days. But the LED's they fitted to the street lighting our former town were simply horrible with a definite blue to them.
 
The other issue with white LED streetlights rather than the older orange type, is I often find myself dipping my car headlights only to discover its not a car coming the other way but a streetlight and the angle of the road. Cant tell from a distance now if its a car or street light!
 
Rroff said:
In my pickup some of the cars with newer LED lights are horrifically dazzling - I actually find the Qashqai the sweet spot, with lower or higher cars seem to suffer the most with some newer and/or replacement/modified headlights.

On the way to work Monday had someone coming the other way around a corner in the middle of a pack of 6-7 cars where their headlights completely dazzled me so that I had to slow up and struggled to reference my position on the road, all the other cars were fine and they weren't on high beams.

As I've mentioned before I had some mixed experiences with these newer matrix style headlights (both oncoming and when being followed) - when driving a car they mostly work fine and sometimes can even be a benefit with the additional illumination around you but when driving a van or pickup they generally don't seem to handle it correctly and often your wing mirrors are lit up like mini-suns completely destroying your night vision or ability to see anything behind you (especially in a van without a rear view mirror). They really need banning or people being more considerate with them until they are fixed in my opinion - couple of times I've had to pull over because it has been so unsafe.
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I've had that quite often. Some are so dazzling you can't see the road as they go by. Which is probably why it's suspected that LED lights are causing more head-on crashes.

I've also noticed the "matrix" ones don't always seem to work, or they take ages to react and you can see them spazing out. Automatic systems like this are always flakey really.
 
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Gav_r26 said:
The other issue with white LED streetlights rather than the older orange type, is I often find myself dipping my car headlights only to discover its not a car coming the other way but a streetlight and the angle of the road. Cant tell from a distance now if its a car or street light!
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I'll give you that, as I've experienced the same. But I still reckon they're a net benefit, at least in residential areas.
 
Nasher said:
There is a LOT less light pollution with LED street lights, but they aren't nearly as powerful as the old orange ones and are way to high Kelvin.
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No, there isn't - in reality, the switch to LED lighting is significantly increasing light pollution. Whether they're as powerful or not depends, of course, on the exact bulbs used but, in general, since LEDs produce many more lumens for the same power input they usually result in increased levels of lighting.

I do agree with the too high Kelvin though. Whilst the CRI of sodium is impressively bad, there's surely a happier middle ground than the bright white lighting typical of LED street lighting.
 
Mr Jack said:
No, there isn't - in reality, the switch to LED lighting is significantly increasing light pollution. Whether they're as powerful or not depends, of course, on the exact bulbs used but, in general, since LEDs produce many more lumens for the same power input they usually result in increased levels of lighting.

I do agree with the too high Kelvin though. Whilst the CRI of sodium is impressively bad, there's surely a happier middle ground than the bright white lighting typical of LED street lighting.
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The LED streetlights are much dimmer than the old orange ones. They are also focused downwards. You can now actually see the night sky above towns which have them and there is almost no glow above towns from a distance.

People moan about them saying they don't light up the parks or footpaths enough. On the light pollution and power usage front it's a huge improvement, but everything else is worse.
 
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LED streetlights are more targetted than the old Sodium ones, but to suggest they are dimmer is absolutely not my experience of them.

they are far brighter, just over a smaller area. What that means for overall light pollution i am not qualified to say but i do not think i have ever heard anyone suggest LED lights are dimmer than the old yellow sodium ones before.

FWIW i truly hated the light from those orange bulbs. i have a general dislike of orange lights and have pure white LEDs all around my home.... so i am biased towards modern LED streetlights I guess..

however even i admit they could dial down (or up in this case) the temperature of the streetlights a little bit to somewhere in the middle.
 
Scania said:
I dread being "flashed in" by a modern truck - higher specification Scania's especially - the LED lights are truly blinding - my own 23 plate model doesn't have them, and to be fair the lights are great.

Which makes me wonder why bother with LED's at all? They are imo too much.
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What I don't get is the trucks with perfectly decent headlights... Plus another dozen over the cab, plus another half dozen on a chrome bumper bar. Seriously, what is the need?!

Maybe it's to counteract the neon Arsenal emblem reflecting off the inside of the windscreen...
 
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