Oncoming car headlights should not blind you. Companies need to stop making these and if they are custom jobs, this should be easy tickets for the police.
This is legislated in the US. Just not enforced and cars became taller since the law was written (-3ft/75ft iirc, may vary by state).
In Scandinavia they actually care about this and high beam use is part of diver training. It’s nice. Also semi trucks will happily blind you with a thousand Suns if you forget. So it’s rare to get blinded in night driving.
The adaptive headlights that fix this are not legal in the US, but in other countries they can be used and will selectively dim parts of their light beams that point at other cars.
Can probably work with a cyclist with a light. But in any case it’s not as big of a deal as a pedestrian or cyclist. Anyways brighter lights might be safer since the driver can more easily see pedestrians and cyclists.
As a pedestrian often struggling to see what the heck I’m doing when walking along a road at night, I’m not sure I agree with it being not such a big deal. I mean, true, I can’t really cause an accident that big considering I’m not a multi-ton death machine, but…
As for brighter = safer, I’m not sure either. Wouldn’t people see better in the inevitable area outside of their headlights if headlights weren’t so bright as to set their eyes up into “daylight mode”?
I think the concept of night adjusted eyes are already pretty lost in any city these days. We’ve moved away from sodium lamps so night vision isn’t really activated as all. In this situation, you’d want the driver to see as much as possible and from as far away as possible so they can react to pedestrians. And having used vehicles with both OEM LED and normal halogens, the brighter LED definitely makes it easier to see.
Ugh, don’t remind me of how the transition to LEDs was handled. Should we use yellow LEDs to make it non-obnoxious? Nah, just blast everyone’s eyes with cool white LEDs.
Oncoming car headlights should not blind you. Companies need to stop making these and if they are custom jobs, this should be easy tickets for the police.
Seems kind of consequential to me. But I agree.
This is legislated in the US. Just not enforced and cars became taller since the law was written (-3ft/75ft iirc, may vary by state).
In Scandinavia they actually care about this and high beam use is part of diver training. It’s nice. Also semi trucks will happily blind you with a thousand Suns if you forget. So it’s rare to get blinded in night driving.
The adaptive headlights that fix this are not legal in the US, but in other countries they can be used and will selectively dim parts of their light beams that point at other cars.
But what about pedestrians, cyclists, etc.?
Can probably work with a cyclist with a light. But in any case it’s not as big of a deal as a pedestrian or cyclist. Anyways brighter lights might be safer since the driver can more easily see pedestrians and cyclists.
As a pedestrian often struggling to see what the heck I’m doing when walking along a road at night, I’m not sure I agree with it being not such a big deal. I mean, true, I can’t really cause an accident that big considering I’m not a multi-ton death machine, but…
As for brighter = safer, I’m not sure either. Wouldn’t people see better in the inevitable area outside of their headlights if headlights weren’t so bright as to set their eyes up into “daylight mode”?
I think the concept of night adjusted eyes are already pretty lost in any city these days. We’ve moved away from sodium lamps so night vision isn’t really activated as all. In this situation, you’d want the driver to see as much as possible and from as far away as possible so they can react to pedestrians. And having used vehicles with both OEM LED and normal halogens, the brighter LED definitely makes it easier to see.
Ugh, don’t remind me of how the transition to LEDs was handled. Should we use yellow LEDs to make it non-obnoxious? Nah, just blast everyone’s eyes with cool white LEDs.
Yet another thing we’ve fallen behind on.