Half of drivers are being dazzled by bright headlights

[Yel]

Glad this is getting attention. I hate driving at night these days as there are so many bright headlights and law makers have been inept at controlling how bright they should be. You think they're on full beam, but no they're that bright even when dipped.

Then you get those annoying indicators that are animated, should be the law that they all have the same behaviour to just blink.

Half of drivers report they're suffering more from the effect of dazzling headlights than they were a year ago, according to the latest RAC survey, with 70% of drivers saying some headlights are so bright they are an accident risk. This perception is backed up by government data, which states that dazzling headlights are a factor in around 300 collisions a year.
Glare caused by the headlights of oncoming vehicles is a problem experienced by about 16.1 million UK drivers; 91% of those responding to the survey RAC said that some or most car headlights are too bright, and 54% say they are dazzled more often now than a year ago.
RAC spokesperson Pete Williams said: "The dazzling effect of another driver’s headlights isn’t just uncomfortable – in some cases it can be nothing short of dangerous, making us lose sight of the road for a short time."
https://www.whatcar.com/news/headlight-glare-more-drivers-are-being-dazzled/n19560

 

[PeppaPig]

I thought it was just my eyes, so got anti glare glasses but they didn’t help. I’ve seen a petition floating around somewhere. It’s not just annoying but actually pretty terrifying to be momentarily blinded when passing cars at night, especially on unlit roads.

 

[emmer_moans]

I hate those scrolling indicators, they should flash, also hate how they are thin lines.

More often now I have to flick the rear view mirror onto the antiglare position as the led headlights are so intense!

Also some LED lights are blue tinged, horrid! Give me ambient yellow!

 

[emmer_moans]

Signed, thanks for bringing this to our attention. I see my initial post in this thread was 2019. I think since then far more cars have these eye-gougingly bright LED headlights now. Driving at night really is a mission these days, I get headaches from their lights, especially when arsehole drivers get right up your bumper at red lights so whilst you wait you experience as much white light as you imagine you would if an alien spaceship is landing next to you. The problem I have is I have a little car with old headlights, whereas some have these range rover things that sit high up, so when they queue behind their headlights come right through my rear window and rear-view mirror. Honestly, I miss the yellowy headlights that were perfectly visible and proportionally bright. These new whitish-blue LEDs are horrid.

 

[FrannyGallops]

Yes, I hate driving at night because of this. At first I thought it was due to my eyesight getting worse with age but my teenager says he’s the same.

 

[Pretty Hate Machine]

Thought I would just bump this thread as I noticed there's currently a petition about this. Please sign if you can. It's ridiculous that this is such a common problem for so many of us.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/653793

 

[NitrousOxide]

Totally agree - it's such a problem nowadays, alongside the problem of tailgating and all those huge SUV-type vehicles. The roads are just much more dangerous, and I've been driving for nearly 20 years (and used to love it!)
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LED lights are TERRIBLE for wildlife/the insect population. You can tell, because they're just painful to look at. Just get rid of them everywhere. What a stupid invention.

 

[Dailygayley]

I hate this. It’s one the reasons I rarely drive at night anymore. It also doesn’t help cars seem to be higher up now, or around me there are thousands of Range Rover type cars anyway so the lights sit higher up and go directly into my face in my polo.

 

[panda_eyes]

I have signed that petition, hopefully it reaches over 10k soon (it was almost there when I looked this morning).

Slightly OT, but I also hate those stupid daylight driving lights which mean people don't actually put their proper lights on - so when you're driving around in the dark it's hard to see cars in front of you as their back lights aren't on at all. Lights in cars should be manually operated - not all decisions should be taken away from the driver, like automatic bliddy dimming of beams. Hate it.

 

[Lollylaylow]

Every night I have cars flashing me as they think I have my full lights on them…. I don’t, they’re as low as they can go & I often have to them flick them on and off to show them so they stop blinding me.

it’s awful, why do they make cars like this now? I drive rural roads and I don’t think it lights the way any better!

There’s also no option to drive without lights ever - the ‘off’ setting in daylight will even have lights on

Can you not get the bulbs changed to less bright ones?

 

[klarakluckbag]

I drove past a car with incredibly dazzling bright lights on yesterday. It was lovely and sunny here, so I assumed that he had left his full beam on by mistake. When I looked in the mirror, I could see that his rear lights weren't on, so they must have been his daytime lights? They were horrific, and blinding even in the sunshine. I've signed!

 

[ChilliBean]

Thought I would just bump this thread as I noticed there's currently a petition about this. Please sign if you can. It's ridiculous that this is such a common problem for so many of us.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/653793

Signed!

 

[Saddlesoap]

Signed!

It seems other drivers are the same as I'm constantly seeing full beams being dimmed from oncoming traffic.

I had a courtesy car recently that had a automatic full beam setting. I ended up switching it off because it was too laggy and I felt like it wasn't turning off quickly enough.
It suddenly made sense to me why I was seeing more cars full beams flicking off.

 

[Amorphis35]

I hate it too I work afternoons and evenings as a carer and in winter it’s especially bad I don’t know why some headlights are so bright. I also thought it was my eyesight but it’s nothing to do with it just lights are too dazzling nowadays

 

[emmer_moans]

Does anyone else feel they don't even help you as a driver?

My car is only a couple of years old so it has these new lights and I've seen them on other cars of the same model as mine and feel they're blinding - but when I'm driving at night I still feel I need to put my full beam on when driving on rural roads because the headlights point don't illuminate very far into the distance, despite being bright.

It seems other drivers are the same as I'm constantly seeing full beams being dimmed from oncoming traffic.

I notice when using an LED hand held torch that the beam isn't great if you are not looking at it head on, but as soon as you look into one head on, the beam is blinding, so I wonder if that's the same with the headlights.

 

[Pretty Hate Machine]

Yes. I have no problem at all when cars go past with the warmer more yellow lights. I also find that although my car headlights are obviously this horible new light they don't actually light the road much better. I drive rural roads a lot and the headlights now really are just so bright they don't allow for your eyes to adjust to driving in the dark. I've seen so many other people complain about having this problem as well now. I've lost count of the amount of times I've spoken to my optician as I was so convinced it was my eyes that were the issue. I can't drive at night now, and I also find being a passenger difficult as well. It's quite limiting and makes me so sad.
The street lighting is also rubbish. It seems to light the ground directly below it and none of the surrounding area. It makes walking at night horrible as I'm constantly walking through dark areas.

 

[Amorphis40]

Sure, i hate riding at night time due to this. At the start i thought it become because of my eyesight getting worse

 

[Nannycaff]

Signed

 

[iLoveMeSomeCanoles]

Yes I find most lights really dazzling these days. Especially if an offending car is behind me, I have to flick my rear view mirror then adjust my wing mirrors down as well. Hate it.

 

[spaniel_2018]

I thought it was my eyesight because I'm long sighted with a astigmatism which according to my optician makes headlight glare worse for me than the normal peoples! I don't really need my glasses to drive in the day but I really struggle at night even with them on. Rubbish! Hate it when motorways have those sections without lights, that's the worse!