HID and LED headlights.

OOI, how does one judge that? eg, Dipped beam on the Meriva seems quite low (even when set to the highest). They seem to light up the road well enough but only up to a fairly close distance. Going over to main beam lights up the distance as far as I need but of course can't use them when others are coming towards me. This is more of an issue on completely unlit roads, especially NSL stuff (animals / debris in the road especially).

Now, if I was to increase the light output of dipped mean I'm not sure it would help as I believe it's more to do with the dipped-beam cutoff than brightness.

I don't care what and how bright main beams are because I should never be looking into them. I do care about the *brightness* (irrespective of how well they are adjusted as you still get swept by them on corners and when waiting at roundabouts etc) and the original wattage used to manage the brightness should really have been replaced by lumens (or some other measure of actual light / brightness) as soon as other types of light source were available (as it was an accident waiting to happen).

As mentioned previously, we have all got a pain threshold for all sorts of things, be it heat, cold, sound, G or light and for me, that seems to often be pushed to it's limits more often with car headlights than anything else (well, some LED brake lights at night at traffic lights might come close, if they are on the back of an SUV and so right at my eye line. Even lorry rear light clusters are lower and rarely have central brake lights).

So, for the largest proportion of my driving life I only 'suffered' from 'Yobbo' headlights with over powerful (illegal) lamps or those that were mal-adjusted / damaged (but even those didn't burn the back of your eye out). Today I'm regularly hit by what I can only describe as 'blinding' levels of (head)light, *nothing* like the colour temperature, source density or focus of the old incandescent lamps.

So, whilst they might be good for the driver (as a searchlight might be for the aimer on an AckAck gun ) I question their overall safety in the same way as I do headlight integrated indicators (yellow lamps behind clear lenses that you can only 'see' in daylight when actually staring at them). ;-(

It seems the designers have focused too hard on making the interior experience of cars like a lounge and forgotten they are dangerous projectiles, especially when pointing towards temporarily blinded drivers (motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians) at night.

Not saying your lights are like that of course. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

you said it all, like you, I am pissed off by led/hid lights, especially retro-fitted ones, and LED street lights are crap compared to yellow sodium.

I wear amber clip-ons on my glasses. It cuts out the blue and creates a level playing field for my quartz halogen.

Have a look at eBay.

I have got some amber driving glasses, somewhere !! I will give them a go.

But sadly, a fact of life on most modern cars. Many of which seem to have poor beam control too - despite the regulations.

So if you can't beat them you might as well join them.

I would not, I would be too disappointed in myself to think that my lights were hurting other people's eyes.

I find my own plain ordinary halogen lights are adequate for the driving conditions I travel in.

The problem is manufacturers try to meet both UK and EU requirements- ie avoid the problems caused by our dipping to the left. As I understand it, rather than the ?old? dip left requirement the current requirement is more lax and you can have a ?flat top? centre dip. This also satisfies the requirements in the rest of the EU.

The lights on my car are projector types. With a very sharp cut off to the centre and right, with a longer throw to the left. They don't hurt other's eyes. But badly designed or adjusted plain halogens are perfectly capable of doing that. Like main beam.

You would seem to be in a minority. ;-)

I think it is more of a trend, one maker does it so they all copy, the worst offenders on the road being the also rans that can't afford the later cars and so upgrade their own original headlights with poor consequences, the worst example I saw recently was a golf with some form of hid bulbs (at a guess) they were completely wrong for the headlamp and just gave a complete wall of light with no cut off at all.

I like the clip-ons because I can let them down into view as and when appropriate. They do also cut out some usable light too so best in urban or lit situations.

Interesting, thanks.

The 'problem' though is that it doesn't (can't) cater for being swept (say whilst waiting to enter a roundabout, where you might be swept by many) by correctly aligned dipped beam headlamps that are still (in the eyes of most observers) to be 'painfully bright'.

I think we really need more up-to-date legislation (assuming there isn't any) than controls the actual *brightness* (not even the apparent brightness) and colour temperature etc.

There must be some correlation around the range of colour temperatures that we can use to good effect but are less likely to cause unnecessary dazzle, along with how fine the source of light might be (that could impact how it affects our eyes, light density etc).

I mean, we have gone in the right direction with vehicle occupant safety and even pedestrian safety (concealed wipers, wide / soft impact zones etc) but gone the wrong way with many elements of the lighting (headlights, indicators and even brake lights that come on automatically with the automatic parking brake). ;-(

Lighting seems to have gone 'Form over function', in contrast with most other things.

Cheers, T i m

On 15/11/2019 21:43, Fredxx wrot

lit is 99 per cent of my driving

There is a zebra crossing very near me that with the terrible misplaced led street lighting and glare from lights all over the place has made it very nearly impossible to see pedestrians either waiting or even when on the crossing, I know about it and know to take it really easy on approach, but it is likely someone will be run down due to the poor visibility. I have reported it but nothing has been done in the two years since.

Check here to see if there has been any injuries at your zebra crossing:

Thank you for that, apparently only one slight injury some years ago, remarkable, because of that nothing will be done to improve it.

I'm not aware of a crossing round here with such but there are many instances of LED streetlights both creating very localised and clinical 'light' that seem to make anything outside of the lit area even more difficult to see and some that aren't set facing straight down (or have moved / been hit by vehicles etc) that appear like equally maladjusted home spotlights.

Something we do seem to have a few examples of round here are mini roundabouts where the street furniture tends to obscure oncoming car indicators (like they needed help) until they are turning right in front of you. Oh, you can 'err on the side of caution' and approach every roundabout as if cars *will* be turning in front of you but that doesn't help the free flow of traffic or pollution.

We get HGV's down here in spite of a restriction of under 5 Tonnes between 7pm and 7am, along with 'No access to ...' signs but in spite of the drivers not seeing them, the Highways Department believe the sings are 'adequate'?

Ok, some of it is because drivers are following their GPS's rather that actually looking around them but I believe they have trialed a sign showing a Satellite crossed out that has actually helped with such things.

I might get such a(n offical looking) sign made, fit it myself and see how long it stays there? Given they (apparently) don't have the funds to make any adjustment to the existing, or add any extra signs, that should be interesting. ;-)

Do we think they also restrict sight lines approaching junctions / roundabouts to force drivers to *have to* slow down when approaching? There are several round here that have been allowed to become overgrown where I have seen many instances of drivers having to stop quickly (or accelerate away hard) when they have found someone already on the roundabout?

Again, none of that seems to actually improve road safely or reduce pollution?

Cheers, T i m

Coming off the M50 onto the M5...

Not my neck of the woods (Norf Lundin ere) so is it a 'good idea' that they do such would you say Nick (from a road safety POV)?

Cheers, T i m