Petition - - dazzling headlights

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Wed 3 Apr 2024 09:10
Petition - - dazzling headlights - John F

Just for info.......

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/653793

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Wed 3 Apr 2024 10:21
Petition - - dazzling headlights - Bromptonaut

The government have responded by announcing a review:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/02/uk-governm...s

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Wed 3 Apr 2024 11:18
Petition - - dazzling headlights - Chris M

I'm not holding out too much hope of action here. Cars sold here meet the same standard as cars sold throughout the EU and we have no influence there now. And it's not just about the minority with poorly adjusted headlamps as the current MoT would pick this up, cars are leaving the factory with painfully bright lamps.

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Wed 3 Apr 2024 11:50
Petition - - dazzling headlights - movilogo

I find it as problem only on single carriageways.

In dual carriageways or motorways, with a divider in between, even if cars coming with high beam on other sides, it does not bother me.

If car behind me using full beam, it is auto dimmed by my mirror.

Don't want less powerful lights. Sometimes I feel my lights are not bright enough for dark country roads at night.

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Wed 3 Apr 2024 12:13
Petition - - dazzling headlights - Andrew-T

Don't want less powerful lights. Sometimes I feel my lights are not bright enough for dark country roads at night.

But in the end, headlights have to be a compromise between drivers seeing while not preventing oncoming drivers doing likewise. The answer is not to just continue the lumen wars !

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Wed 3 Apr 2024 12:20
Petition - dazzling headlights - Adampr

11,784 people waiting for cataract operations...

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Thu 4 Apr 2024 12:29
Petition - dazzling headlights - Andrew-T

11,784 people waiting for cataract operations...

I had both mine done in the last 12 months, and I agree that it has made a noticeable difference. But there are many occasions - typically when a car approaches over a slight rise and one gets the full blast - when lamps are simply unnecessarily, and uncomfortably, bright. I suppose it is just another small example of today's me-me mentality.

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Wed 3 Apr 2024 12:19
Petition - - dazzling headlights - Big John

My problem isn't with LED headlights in newer cars, it's with older cars fitted with illegal retrofit LED bulbs that clearly have poor beam control. This problems isn't as bad as it was a couple of years ago, I wonder if the change in MOT regs has sorted that?

Edited by Big John on 03/04/2024 at 12:20

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Thu 4 Apr 2024 12:15
Petition - - dazzling headlights - Alby Back
Up until I very recently retired, I was doing a very high annual mileage and often in hours of darkness. Can’t say I ever found or indeed find any problems at all with the brightness of oncoming headlights. I notice them of course, but that’s part of their function.
I’d have to assume that the problem lies with the eyesight of those who dislike brighter lights rather than with the technology.
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Thu 4 Apr 2024 13:23
Petition - - dazzling headlights - galileo
Up until I very recently retired, I was doing a very high annual mileage and often in hours of darkness. Can’t say I ever found or indeed find any problems at all with the brightness of oncoming headlights. I notice them of course, but that’s part of their function. I’d have to assume that the problem lies with the eyesight of those who dislike brighter lights rather than with the technology.



It is not dislike of bright lights, it is the increased probability of accidents caused by drivers being dazzled, even momentarily, by badly adjusted intense lights.
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Thu 4 Apr 2024 14:19
Petition - - dazzling headlights - Terry W
Up until I very recently retired, I was doing a very high annual mileage and often in hours of darkness. Can’t say I ever found or indeed find any problems at all with the brightness of oncoming headlights. I notice them of course, but that’s part of their function. I’d have to assume that the problem lies with the eyesight of those who dislike brighter lights rather than with the technology.

It is not dislike of bright lights, it is the increased probability of accidents caused by drivers being dazzled, even momentarily, by badly adjusted intense lights.

Would more accidents be caused by drivers momentarily blinded by oncoming bright poorly adjusted lights, or by all drivers all of the time driving with less effective and powerful lights.

Purely personal view - it is better to see where one is going. With oncoming traffic - (a) be aware of road direction, pedestrians etc if there is a risk of being blinded, and (b) steer to the left of the oncoming headlights for the best chance of avoiding a collision.

A technical solution will come - autonomous cars will have better hazard identification ability than the Mk1 human eyeball, and/or collision avoidance tech which is already fitted to many new cars will become mandatory.

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Thu 4 Apr 2024 15:02
Petition - - dazzling headlights - gordonbennet

The problem with really bright lights its that one's remaining night vision is ruined.

I often hark back to the days when everyone drove around London on sidelight only, a pleasurable and safe experience for everyone, including pedestrians and cyclists who didn't vanish into the complete darkness outside the super bright light pattern.

For those who need these ridiculous lights maybe its them that need to visit the optician, us of more advanced years managed perfectly well at higher speeds than current with basic lighting without hitting anything.

Too late of course we're not going back to sensible times.

As for collision avoidance tech, anyone who's driven a truck in recent years will have had various experiences of AEBS doing its level best to cause a multiple pile up (to the point my approach lines to chicane obstacles could be hair raising to anyone unaware as i seek to stop the useless system doing something daft), the AI all round cameras on my new truck have so far only warned me of a pedestrian in front when there wasn't a soul to be seen, and ignored pedestrians when they were there...and don't get me started on steer by wire (glorified simulator) and the nudging effects now affecting steering of many vehicles...fortunately so far trucks haven't been fitted with this steering foolishness and long may that be the case for all our sakes.

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Thu 4 Apr 2024 15:07
Petition - - dazzling headlights - Alby Back
The thought doesn’t escape me that anyone who finds driving at night a bit tricky (for whatever reason) might be well advised to avoid it in any event.
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Thu 4 Apr 2024 17:23
Petition - - dazzling headlights - Andrew-T
The thought doesn’t escape me that anyone who finds driving at night a bit tricky (for whatever reason) might be well advised to avoid it in any event.

That is a typical response from someone who doesn't believe there to be a problem for some others. Why should those people be scared off the road because other cars make the area they have to drive into almost pitch black by excessive contrast ?

Doesn't matter as long as I can see where I'm going, even if some others can't ....

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Thu 4 Apr 2024 18:30
Petition - - dazzling headlights - galileo
The thought doesn’t escape me that anyone who finds driving at night a bit tricky (for whatever reason) might be well advised to avoid it in any event.

What about those who need to drive at night for work or other valid purposes? Not everone has the luxury of choosing when they drive.

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Thu 4 Apr 2024 17:21
Petition - - dazzling headlights - corax
For those who need these ridiculous lights maybe its them that need to visit the optician,

Exactly, maybe they need to eat more carrots.

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Thu 4 Apr 2024 17:26
Petition - - dazzling headlights - Adampr

The issue (beyond people being in denial about their failing eyes) is not modern LED lights but people switching normal halogen bulbs for illegal LED or pseudo LED ones. Nobody needs insanely bright lights; it's people.pretending their cars are newer than they are, much the same as ludicrous 'private' plates.a

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Thu 4 Apr 2024 20:35
Petition - - dazzling headlights - Big John

The issue (beyond people being in denial about their failing eyes) is not modern LED lights but people switching normal halogen bulbs for illegal LED or pseudo LED ones. Nobody needs insanely bright lights; it's people.pretending their cars are newer than they are, much the same as ludicrous 'private' plates.a

I strongly agree about illegal LED lights.

Re failing night vision - A few years ago I found it stressful driving at night although I could see clearly ahead / behind me and discussed with my optician and discovered my varifocal glasses were mainly to blame as they effectively blur your peripheral vision which is the edges of the road. As an suggested experiment I tried a cheap set of single vision glasses with a coating - this restored night vision with one slight problem in that the dashboard / sat nav were a bit blurry. I now use the Specsavers Superdrive lens that are fab including with driving at night and the dashboard vision is perfect.

PS Night blindness is a DVLA notifiable condition.

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Thu 4 Apr 2024 21:47
Petition - - dazzling headlights - Alby Back
Perhaps there should be a “petition” to introduce compulsory night vision tests for anyone who wants to keep their driving licence.
Or, how’s this for a radical suggestion, maybe we could just stop constantly thinking of more things to “ban” for a while. That would be a refreshing change.
;-)
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Sun 7 Apr 2024 19:27
Petition - - dazzling headlights - barney100

Driving in the dark would be much easier if road markings were maintained. In my area of Hampshire many roads have lost white lines or really faded ones adding to the problem. Just as bad as bright headlights bright tail lights.

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Mon 8 Apr 2024 09:18
Petition - - dazzling headlights - John F

Driving in the dark would be much easier if road markings were maintained. In my area of Hampshire many roads have lost white lines or really faded ones adding to the problem.

Indeed. It's even worse in my county (Northants). Instead of luminous white lines, the sides of our country roads have either mostly fallen away, eroded by the nearside wheels of delivery vans passing each other, or have developed linear potholes. I do wonder what the nearside spring/tyre/wheel replacement rate is in the local garage industry.

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Mon 8 Apr 2024 11:32
Petition - - dazzling headlights - gordonbennet

Indeed. It's even worse in my county (Northants). Instead of luminous white lines, the sides of our country roads have either mostly fallen away, eroded by the nearside wheels of delivery vans passing each other, or have developed linear potholes. I do wonder what the nearside spring/tyre/wheel replacement rate is in the local garage industry.

Not just the roads John, its the astonishing number of drivers that lack basic common sense.

Depths of winter, cold springs dampers etc but they'll smash over pot holes that the rest of us avoid and smash over speed humps as if they're in some vehicle designed for military use, just asking for a weekly broken spring and ruined dampers.

The county roads are almost all destroyed anyway, even the major routes, the concreted over county has become the distribution hub of the country for millions of tons of chinese made tat, the volumes of truck and other heavy vehicle movements is far greater than anyone responsible planned for, so bad is the traffic situation now that lighter local vehicles have taken to the lanes to travel around, i myself am one such.

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Mon 8 Apr 2024 12:27
Petition - - dazzling headlights - galileo

Indeed. It's even worse in my county (Northants). Instead of luminous white lines, the sides of our country roads have either mostly fallen away, eroded by the nearside wheels of delivery vans passing each other, or have developed linear potholes.

The county roads are almost all destroyed anyway, even the major routes, the concreted over county has become the distribution hub of the country for millions of tons of chinese made tat, the volumes of truck and other heavy vehicle movements is far greater than anyone responsible planned for, so bad is the traffic situation now that lighter local vehicles have taken to the lanes to travel around, i myself am one such.

Much the same in West Yorkshire, the M62 has good quality surface, the drawback is that traffic goes faster than the skill of users justifies, so every day it is closed/gridlocked due to accidents.

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Mon 8 Apr 2024 09:50
Petition - - dazzling headlights - mcb100
‘ The issue (beyond people being in denial about their failing eyes) is not modern LED lights but people switching normal halogen bulbs for illegal LED or pseudo LED ones. Nobody needs insanely bright lights; it's people.pretending their cars are newer than they are, much the same as ludicrous 'private' plates.a’’

I use illegal LED’s in my old Megane, but not cheap eBay ones - they’re £120 a pair Philips ones. They’re night and day better than the halogens, both for dip and main beam.
My friendly MOT tester passed it, even though they’re visible, as the cut off is sharp on dipped beam and well within limits.
It can be done, if you spend a bit of money.
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