Car headlights don't have to be this blinding
theatlantic.com
theatlantic.com
The only other product analogy that comes to mind is "thicker = better" for hiking socks. When they got too thick, they applied too much pressure to the heal and also provided additional moment distance making it far easier to roll an ankle.
41% of vehicle deaths are people not even in a car[1]. Yet car safety regulation is heavily focused on the 59% that are, nothing to regulate the ridiculous gender-affirming hood heights or aftermarket lifts that turn a survivable collision into a deadly collision.
[1] https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/... Table 1, paragraph above
I don’t think you meant literally “all”, but one that comes to mind that definitely is intended for pedestrian safety is around requiring that EVs make audible noises when they’re moving at slow speeds (the fake humming as they move forward, and the beeping as they reverse).
Most regular SUVs should be taken off the road.
Look at this example: a dozen kids aligned in a neat row in front of the SUV and the soccer mom drivers can see none of them!
https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/driveway-danger...
My thought: demand a certain level of visibility from car manufacturers, and they can figure out how to design around it. Like, I must be able to look left and see the pedestrian 3 feet away from walking into my car. Blind spots like that in the front are ridiculous
That alone should be enough to get SUVs off the road, in my book.
Why let them outside at all? An eagle could snatch them or something, you never know
However I think your EV examples shows an important attitude about what types of vehicles can be regulated. EVs are fair game for regulation, oversize trucks and SUVs are not. That's an attitude not based on safety, but on societal priorities.
This two-class system extends even beyond safety regulations, into emissions regulations too. Trucks and oversize SUVs get a free-ride out of everybody else in society.
The data even points to the fact that, by total vehicles vs vehicles that cause pedestrian deaths, regular passenger cars cause 19.9 pedestrian deaths per 1MM registered vehicles while trucks, as and entire category, cause 19.2 pedestrians deaths per 1MM registered vehicles.
"nothing to regulate" is also an exaggeration. Many states to regulate aftermarket lifts. 6" lifts are typically the maximum legally allowed limit for trucks like the F150. You only see them higher because there is no enforcement of the rule.
Unenforced rules effectively don't exist. Selectively enforced rules are a focal point for discrimination and corruption. I don't think you're making the argument you think you are.
Styling works against us too. The ability to control the geometry of the light beam improves with the size of the optics relative to the emitter, but people want a car with sexy little lights.
I designed optics for lighting in a past life, though never for an automotive application. This issue is actually on my radar because of the blinding brightness of bike lights on the local bike paths.
In the old days, reflectors and diffractors were rather crude and light distribution wasn't even at all. Regulation was setting a light intensity limit for the arc above the cutoff, assuming that the brightest spots would be just that, unintended brightness outliers. And when those would comply with the limit, the typical brightness hitting the eyes of oncoming traffic would be much lower.
Now reflector design is SO much better manufacturers striving to make their buyers happy can make lights pushing out photons exactly at that old regulatory limit over the entire cutoff area, and with a precise jump where the cuttoff stops. That's awesome for the person behind the wheel ("best lights I ever had!"), technically within the old limits and a terribly blinding for everybody else.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/blindzoneglaremi...
It doesn't help at all with head on traffic, but glare via my side mirrors has been reduced greatly since I implemented this.
Meanwhile when parking I don't need to see things more than a couple feet from my car.
My current car has cameras which show me the ground around it when I press a button which solves all my needs. Probably a better solution, but not on most cars from what I can tell.
I just want it dark.
It's why I never ever want any sort of screen on my dashboard.
It should be illegal, but there you are.
There is the possibility (as said by an apologetic driver) that it sometimes may be a badly functioning automation ("Too high? Oh but it's automatic").
Since the late 90s I think, no matter what setting is used, everyone is blinded when by people in back of you and people coming towards you.
A 3rd party sensor would be incredibly expensive for inspection stations to purchase as it would need to meter the air and fuel which enter the engine (assuming we aren't going to trust the car's computer which already knows these figures) as well as to measure the emissions out of the tail pipe. This is economically unrealistic to implement without a dramatic price increase in the cost of regular emissions testing.
Trusting the computer is the economical and realistically widely implementable solution. But yes, it has it's blind spots.
They were banned in the US, ironically.
The worst are the trucks with the insane aftermarket light bars
Yeah, since they started to introduce super duper led headlights and 144 Hz animations on turn signals it's been more and more blinding to drive at night even across the ocean.
There are headlights that are illegal in the US but legal in Europe. Opposite world of what we normally have.
Boomers need cataract operations! A huge part of the car dependent population are elderly. These folks need ten times the light to see anything when compared to the seventeen year old learner driver (that doesn't go out at night, because their driving instructor clocked off hours ago).
My thoughts regarding this are somewhat anecdotal, however, I have heard a mystery boomer rant and rave about the headlights on his 'Italian car' (they make them in Eastern Europe and slap an Italian flag on). My observation from being in the offending car, shouting here because aforementioned elderly person had hearing issues too: I CAN SEE EVERYTHING FOR MILES!!!
Next: state of the roads
As a pesky cyclist, I used to prefer roads to cycle paths because of the smoother riding experience and improved speed. Not nowadays. In the UK, and dare I say it, the West, we have a problem with potholes. Cars also come with low profile tyres and they weigh 50%+ more than the cars we had before airbags and electronic safety systems came along. This is a combination that results in frequent flat tyres.
What was something that rarely happened is now practically inevitable. As a pesky cyclist, I should be the one getting punctures and fixing tyres, not the motorist. To compound the misery, few cars come with a genuine spare wheel, partly because of the weight problem with today's cars. My bicycle with kit and caboodle weighs far less than that spare wheel, so this nobbling of the spare wheel makes sense to me, but still, a normal car is two orders of magnitude heavier than what I roll with.
Back to the headlights, the elderly cohort with money for new cars, the boomers, don't live in cities, they have nice places in the countryside that require car dependency. With this, and the usage of B-roads, there is a genuine requirement for super-bright lights. Some brands, such as Audi, sell into the market for those that want innovative lights, where the primary innovation is yet more light.
As for built up areas, the lighting situation has also changed. Even as a cyclist, I am running what amounts to 'daytime running lights' because of the light pollution. I put my lights on well before sundown, whereas I never used to. The law is 'after sundown' and I used to be okay with that, but if it is four in the afternoon, mid-summer, I am putting the rear light on, at least.
It does not seem that I am alone in this, many cars have full lighting rather than what we used to call 'sidelights' on.
It is no longer pitch black inside a car, SAAB style. There is so much lighting going on, with a glowing iPad style screen at the minimum, ambient lighting strips on the deluxe cars. The headlights have to compete with this. So more brightness, please!
As I see it, we are caught in a cycle of degrading roads, heavier cars, brighter lights and an elderly cohort that actually needs massive amount of light to see anything. Sure there is clever tech so nobody has to dim their lights, and we have it on posh AUDIs and the like, but this is the spiral we are in, and the good old USA shows where it is going, what the end game looks like.
Into the mix we also have cyclists playing the stupid-lights game. Nowadays cycling is conspicuous leisure, not transport, and plenty of the carbon fibre crew spend hundreds on these stupid lights. Obviously I am somewhat 'shadow fleet' so I don't do that, I just have what heavy goods drivers 'want' from the well-behaved cyclist, which is standard issue, basic flashing lights, a complement of reflectors, high viz and manners.
I yearn for being able to see the Milky Way and the moon providing variable amounts of light throughout the night, with anything moving at night having modest levels of lighting. The situation as it stands means that, along with pedestrians, pets and other animals, I am as good as invisible at night on my bicycle.
Fortunately it looks like we will be losing cheap oil thanks to the tangerine person, unfortunately many millions will starve, but a lot of lights will be getting turned off soonly and the age of car dependency will be over.
No, there is a genuine requirement for normal 60W/55W dual-filament H4 halogens.
There is a genuine requirement for driving to the conditions, which means slowing down a bit in the dark.
Also, as a cyclist myself I commend your bravery for riding without lights. It's in the driver handbook so it's missing from the TFA and the discussion here, but the lights on the vehicles are not just to see something but to be seen as well. Especially on a bike.
I explicitly stated that my experience is from UK roads, not American. Our roads go back to Roman times, yours date back to Henry Ford, give or take a century or two, kind of brand new, when compared.
Let me describe the last 'puncture'. Car: Toyota Yaris, three occupants. Road: narrow not-even-B road. Pothole hit at roughly 30 mph. No air in tyre shortly after that.
You could witter on about whether this was a puncture or not, all I know is that I was the one crawling in the mud, swapping to the emergency spare tyre in falling light conditions, with one of those stupid scissor jacks that just wants to buckle and bend.
In the UK run-flat tyres are rare on new vehicles and even rarer on second hand vehicles. Winter tyres are also rare in the UK. Maybe we are just cheap in the UK, not needing to haul untold un-metric tonnes as Americans spend their time doing, and not needing to go at 155mph plus as Germans spend their time doing.
As for bicycle tyres, I am not riding for 'conspicuous leisure', which is the American way. Normal tyres with some puncture prevention layer in the carcass works for me, until I get that first puncture. When I get that second puncture, I take that as my cue to replace them, since it is the carcass that has gone, with the puncture prevention going too.
The fashion in 'conspicuous leisure cycling' is for lightweight 'tubeless' tyres filled with sealant that has to be replaced every few months. The idea is to have lower pressure, wider tyres for better rolling resistance. Allegedly these miracle tyres solve punctures, yet people with these tyres go to the local bike shop on the regular, which is not an option for me, since I need my bicycle.
Hence I use normal tyres and tubes, with a track pump by the door. I keep them inflated to the value written on the sidewall, which means relatively high pressure and minimal carcass flex, thereby keeping them good for longer. My goal is to get places with safety and ease, so it isn't about 'conspicuous leisure' or keeping up with the latest trends.
Weight also comes into it, and force = mass * acceleration. As a 'stick-man', envious of those with visceral fat, never in a race to get anywhere, always on rock-hard tyres, I don't get 'pinch flats'.
Anyway, I am off to do some plant buying, to see what fits in the panniers. Hopefully I will be back with some lovely new house plants, riding back with a mini-forest, which will be 'conspicuous leisure cycling' of sorts.
Keep on riding, your own way, and come to the UK some time to enjoy the wonders of our National Cycling Network, taking trains as needed. I am sure you will also enjoy studying the automotive curiosities that the car dependent have over here too. American car culture is far more interesting, nobody modifies their cars over here, it is always 'bone stock' in boring colours of white or grey.
Sorry I was vague, by "without lights" I meant "without lights turned on and pointing in the direction where they can be seen by other vehicles".
> Allegedly these miracle tyres solve punctures, yet people with these tyres go to the local bike shop on the regular, which is not an option for me, since I need my bicycle.
Yes, tubeless bike tires are pretty good wrt of punctures and ride quality, you can maintain them at home but I imagine many people indeed don't bother. Same as many people go to bike shops to replace tubes.
Now most people are installing aftermarket LED kits. For the most part those are less blinding. I upgraded our old Impreza with some but chose the lowest lumen numbers I could find and they are also engineered to emit light in the same locations and angles that the halogen ones did. I did some tests with the garage door and standing in front of it where a car would be and it's non-blinding for oncoming traffic.
Barely perceptible flashing yet somehow gratingly and distractingly so.
I have blue eyes, it hurts to drive at night.
Fun fact: some Italian cars have the left light pointing somewhat lower to avoid blinding incoming drivers, and the right one higher to see further along the road margin. The TÜV did not like this, so I had to adjust my lights to be symmetrical when I moved to Germany.
I drive a 40 year old vehicle and a friend created an aftermarket adjustable headlight frame allowing it to move from all-in-one rectangular headlight/high beam sealed units to modern LED bulbs and then an accessory of choice on the inner spaces left over. I chose a classic-looking LED that does regular, high beam, DRL, and amber turn signal all in one and then put off-road fog lights on the inner spaces. But I would not leave the house after night with the vehicle until I adjusted them to DOT spec. Because they are so much brighter and sharped-edged than factory, I can see that they don’t go above oncoming windshields and are aligned properly horizontally.
The excellent guide that I used to align my lights:
Regardless I keep my auto dim off and just down. I don’t usually need the headlamps in high beam mode.
What would be useful is a taller median between both sides on a highway since often the blinding is because of a difference in the direction facing due to the grade of the highway. Facing people who are looking up a hill is awful.
It is true, that many drivers drive with the high beam on. My cabin is frequently illuminated by their lamps. My lamps never illuminate the cabin of a car I follow by comparison. This strange asymmetry does annoy me and I am certain I’m in the right but it’s usually resolvable by allowing them to pass.
How do they ever find out that they're wrong if you don't turn your highbeams on after they pass?
I always have blue blockers (yellow and also dark orange lenses) in my car and wearing them totally prevents pain and fatigue for my eyes.
I drive a normal height hatchback. I live in Texas. The /vast/ majority of vehicles on the road are trucks and SUVs, and many of them have aftermarket lift kits which further exacerbates the problem. The main problem is vehicle height and improperly aimed headlights. There's no real enforcement or regulation for headlight aiming, and worse we have no effective vehicle height restrictions. Not only do these insecure little men blind you at night, their cattle guard/reinforced bumper mounted to the frame will decapitate you if they hit you because of the bumper height difference from the 6+ inch Chinese lift kit they added to their truck to stroke their ego and allow them to "bully" drivers on the road by intentionally tailgating and driving aggressively in their oversized vehicle.
The problem is epidemic in America, and it's a problem of both regulation and culture. As long as the typical American driver is somebody who enters the road ignorant of basic driving dynamics, with a selfish attitude, inattentively barreling down the road in their massive fuck-off symbol of insecurity, we are not going to fix this.
https://youtu.be/KGhycuensJw?si=ZCycH7l5hQDktqqK&t=54
Surprisingly the Cybertruck also has this layout.
- cresting a hill. Normal people can see the cone of light from the approaching car and often turn classic high beams down before it blinds fellow drivers. These do it only when it detects the actual light source, giving a 0.2-0.5 (about) flash of bright light.
- Wet and snowy ground. Even when they re-align themselves somewhat properly they can be blinding due to reflections which are not part of the angle-calculation algorithm.
- Failure to detect pedestrians and cyclists. Self-evident, but when I am not in a car I am impressed by how blinding it is.
Personally I consider them to decrease safety for everyone except the car with those headlights. I also feel like it is yet another badly designed automation which adds to the ability to slightly doze off and pay a little less attention to traffic.
- glare for older people might be due to deposits in their lens, which can be corrected by cataract surgery. The deposits make oncoming headlights like a dirty windshield at sunset. (disability glare)
- glare for people with good vision is all the light focused at the same point on your retina and is sort of painful. (discomfort glare)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glare_(vision)
some cars have matrix/adaptive headlights now:
https://www.notateslaapp.com/news/2059/tesla-matrix-headligh...
What really pisses me off? LED bulbs only available in 6000k or higher. I had to import some Osram H4 bulbs from the netherlands because they are a warmer factory 3000K temperature. We really need regulation on glare, because right now it's the wild west.
The federal government took upon itself responsibility for things like this, because it's impractical at best for cities or states to regulate these. It's too bad that politics and bloat has made governance of this particular issue more or less impossible. Self regulation is obviously a joke, the standard suite of choices mean the default options for consumers are obnoxious as hell.
It'll have to become a big enough issue to warrant attention and action by the President, either this one or whoever comes next, or nothing will ever be done.
Maybe a convention of states that runs all current politicians, judges, and bureaucrats out of their jobs (in a sane, phased way) and establishes term limits and bans on careerism and bloat. Citizens can bypass the feds and kick their asses to the curb - imagine a total reset, in which we put forth competent, responsible people.
This problem will never be fixed. Gonna have to wear adaptive sunglasses at night for driving.
I will say, while there's now more overly bright headlights of varying degrees of blinding, it's better then when every truck started buying HID headlights and putting them in normal headlight housings. Felt like there was a period of time where headlights were either the normal tone, or a super bright light hitting you from all directions
Seems like a classic Tragedy of the Commons situation / use case for regulation....
Unless your car's design is particularly evil (a real possibility), changing a headlight bulb is usually easy to do yourself, and approved, incandescent headlight bulbs are easy to source most places.
Truck headlights are already on a level with sedan drivers' eyes. There are far more F-150s on the road than there are Teslas.
And don't get me started on jackasses that put LED bulbs in old halogen housings.