Is it time to ban LED Headlights

[Nasher]

I've honestly never thought about it.
We had this new car and were driving at 3am to go to the airport on the A50 and there were only about 4 areas of 200 yards or so where the Cats Eyes were visible, what I also noticed was they were new areas of the road.
Since then I've drove down other roads like Stafford to Stone and once again it's as though the Cats Eyes have been switched off.

Some places installed stupid solar, rechargeable battery powered ones which of course are now broken as these solar lights never last long outdoors. There is a stretch of road in MK which has some, they slowly died until now there are none left working.

Whoever thought these would be better than the old reflective ones is an idiot. They just need to clean them regularly like they used to.

 

[ttaskmaster]

I've been doing that now (the hand not the rude alternative ) and not triggered a road rage event yet!

What's this rude alternative??!!

 

[SixTwoSix]

Problem is, if you put your hand up to say "thanks", some might misinterpret it as something else

I've been doing that new popular 'my heart goes out to you' motion to mixed results.

 

[jpaul]

seems like the government have requested some additional research into the headlights - which caused the old rac survey to be regurgitated today

Are car headlights too bright? - BBC Sounds

RAC survey finds 96% of motorists say headlights are too bright.

www.bbc.co.uk

Lack of self awareness by the retired driving instructor they interview there, though, doesn't even contend that maybe he should be going to spec-savers for some tests on night time vision,
generally lack of licensing requirements to mandate correction of eyesight for both near and far vision to help people read their speedos, for example, seems short sighted.

 

[whitecrook]

The rear lights being pulse refreshed are just as bad. They really make for causing cross eyed eye strain when following cars in the dark

 

[ttaskmaster]

Lack of self awareness by the retired driving instructor they interview there, though, doesn't even contend that maybe he should be going to spec-savers for some tests on night time vision,
generally lack of licensing requirements to mandate correction of eyesight for both near and far vision to help people read their speedos, for example, seems short sighted.

Surely if you do have good night vision, then super-bright lights from oncoming traffic will be even more of a problem?

 

[Nasher]

The rear lights being pulse refreshed are just as bad. They really make for causing cross eyed eye strain when following cars in the dark

Yea, probably because they are half rectified. Most LED Christmas lights are the same. It's penny pinching as it's cheaper to make them like that, but it makes it look like it's running at the wrong hz :/

 

[jpaul]

Surely if you do have good night vision, then super-bright lights from oncoming traffic will be even more of a problem?

ability to survive glare/recovery degrade in older drivers, but we are in the age of DEI (like JLR) insurance companies can still integrate that in premiums though
eg. V

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9373794/pdf/fnhum-16-914459.pdf

Many visually normal older people have selective difficultiesdriving at night (i.e., under mesopic or low-photopicillumination, and/or in the presence of glare). Thus, whilenight driving poses additional challenges and dangers for driversof all ages (Wood, 2020), drivers older than 65 years exhibit:an increased prevalence of fatal crashes at night (Mortimer andFell, 1989), a greater degradation of steering accuracy (Owensand Tyrrell, 1999), elevated self-reports of glare from oncomingheadlights (Kimlin et al., 2016), slower recovery times afterexperiencing glare (Collins, 1989), and poorer recognition ofroad signs at night (Owens et al., 2007). Accordingly, around onein three older drivers report having restricted or ceased drivingat night (Lyman et al., 2001; Naumann et al., 2011)
.....
In short, due to a variety of anatomical changes, theaging visual system struggles to operate in low light levels,impairing night driving ability in many or all older drivers(Knoblauch and Arditi, 1992). It may therefore be prudentto obtain measures of night driving ability when assessingfitness to drive in older adults. Such assessments may becomeimperative in coming years, due to both demographic changes[i.e., the fact that life expectancy, and therefore the numberof older drivers, is increasing rapidly worldwide

 

[ttaskmaster]

ability to survive glare/recovery degrade in older drivers, but we are in the age of DEI (like JLR) insurance companies can still integrate that in premiums though
eg. V

And what about those who aren't an older driver yet still think headlights are too bright...?
Unless 96% (depending which study you read) of drivers need glasses, the problem remains that lights are too bright.

Speaking of - Which glasses do I need to better read the badly formatted quote you posted?
Spaces, man... spaces!!

 

[Nasher]

And what about those who aren't an older driver yet still think headlights are too bright...?
Unless 96% (depending which study you read) of drivers need glasses, the problem remains that lights are too bright.

Speaking of - Which glasses do I need to better read the badly formatted quote you posted?
Spaces, man... spaces!!

Some of them I literally cannot see when they are going by and I'm not old either. It's just a big white blob and I have to drive in to it and hope I aimed the car in to right direction. I can see why people have head on smashes, it's a similar effect to pilots being dazzled by lasers.

I never get that problem with halogens or xenons.

 

[Jonnycoupe]

DEI JLR? What you on about pope

 

[jpaul]

[ in Latin - none of the interviews/rac acknowledge reduced 'acuity' with age ... that would be ageist and not PC in line with the auto industry DEI zeitgeist being pioneered by your good selves ]

 

[ttaskmaster]

I never get that problem with halogens or xenons.

Funny that... it's almost as if LEDs are the problem, innit?
In truth, as already discussed to death, the alignment is the deciding factor, but there should also be a limit on output for those situations where you just happen to get caught in the aim, such as on hills and awkward corners, etc.

[ in Latin - none of the interviews/rac acknowledge reduced 'acuity' with age ... that would be ageist and not PC in line with the auto industry DEI zeitgeist being pioneered by your good selves ]

Well I'm still young, also don't qualify under any DEI BS, and have always had very good night vision... but these things are blinding even in broad daylight.
Where's your answer for that?

For the record, no-one is even thinking about DEI except you.
These are people of all ages and all visual levels, universally agreeing that modern headlights are ******* insane.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Well, having finally joined the dark side, I’m looking forward to some payback, especially since it’s a mini i.e. one of the worst.

 

[tom_e]

Well, having finally joined the dark side, I’m looking forward to some payback, especially since it’s a mini i.e. one of the worst.

Minis really are terrible for it for some reason, when I used to commute exclusively by bike I could almost guarantee that when I was being blinded there was a mini on it's way

 

[jpaul]

For the record, no-one is even thinking about DEI except you.

obviously it's tongue in cheek but if you read the RAC report and hear the interviews they don't acknowledge that there is (sorry) a spectrum of night vision capability,
if I could take a test to categorise mine that would be informative

was on a windy road this evening and someone coming towards me seemed to have adaptive lights which evidently were not fast enough to recalibrate the shadow pattern they should introduce to avoid blinding us oncoming traffic,
unfortunately I wasn't at the front in the row of traffic otherwise I might have flashed them pre-emptively, like the folks with auto headlight that don't dim as they reach the brow of a hill,
as a human does if they can see path of a beam from someone on the other side.

 

[ttaskmaster]

obviously it's tongue in cheek but if you read the RAC report and hear the interviews they don't acknowledge that there is (sorry) a spectrum of night vision capability,

Because it's not just one segment of the population that is experiencing the problem. It's universal.

was on a windy road this evening and someone coming towards me seemed to have adaptive lights which evidently were not fast enough to recalibrate the shadow pattern they should introduce to avoid blinding us oncoming traffic,

That's a them-and-their-car problem, not a you-being-an-old-fart problem.

 

[bainbridge]

I was sat at the lights and a massive SUV pulled up behind me.

The lights were ridiculously bright. They cast a huge shadow of my car ahead into the distance and the hairs on my arm, resting on the bit by the drivers side window, were glowing up in the light.

It's just a stupid arms race between manufacturers.

 

[ttaskmaster]

The lights were ridiculously bright. They cast a huge shadow of my car ahead into the distance and the hairs on my arm, resting on the bit by the drivers side window, were glowing up in the light.

You shouldn't be driving at night - You're clearly too old and need to wear better glasses, obvs innit, boomer....!!

 

[jpaul]

Brightness Acuity testing (bit of an oxymoron) seems to be the thing to give objective glare data ... doubt that is on specsavers menu
- seems it also does cataract identification, but maybe octa testing (I had last time) already does that.