Is Headlight Glare Making Night Driving Harder?

I'd start by amending the Regulations so that they give an upper  brightness limit, and a stipulation that the lights can be no more than waist height on new vehicles could be a simple measure - it's not all cars, just the ones with the lights approaching  seated eye level or beaming at or above horizontal. 
At the moment we have
www.legislation.gov.uk/.../1796

"
(A)1.3 per cent if the height of the centre of the headlamp is not more than 850 mm above the ground, or

(B)2 per cent if the height of the centre of the headlamp is more than 850 mm above the ground;
<<snip>>> 
Vertical–

(i)Maximum height above the ground–

(A)Any vehicle not covered by sub-paragraph (B):     1200 mm

(B)A vehicle first used before 1st January 1952, <<snip>>>    No requirement

(ii)Minimum height above the ground–

(A)Any vehicle not covered by sub-paragraph (B):     500 mm
<<snip>>> 

9.  Intensity:     No requirement

and that last one is probably the biggy.


Mike.

Hi Lisa

This topic seems to be DeJaVu.  I am sure this was discussed in the past on the IET EngX forum a few years ago.  Since our first discussion many have added their opinion like the RAC, The Guardian Newspaper and even the UK Government

www.rac.co.uk/.../

The Guardian newspaper also report on this

www.theguardian.com/.../uk-government-review-headlight-glare-drivers-complaints

My opinion is
SUVs or CrossOvers have become common place and they have the lights positioned higher on the frame of the vehicle.  4 x 4s can also suffer from this issue.  Some also have self adjusting headlight beam angle.  However all mainstream vehicles are now fitted with LED which is making the issue worse.  The cause and effect is the same.  They are blinding the oncoming traffic be it vehicle or cyclist.  This is made worse by the state of UK roads being lumpy and laden with potholes

Esteemed fellow IET EngX contibutor MAPJ added some insight way back when by by saying

I think there is a problem also that the beam shape rules assume a filament source and a parabolic refelctor with a glass lens, and if you define the centre of the bright part, the rest sorts itself out, but that is not really the case for LED and gas discharge lamps, nor with badly fogged plastic with any sort of lamp behind it - there can be a lot of 'splash'
Arguably such light would benefit from a peaked hat style hood to give a hard cut off to the top of the beam.
right now gas discharge lamps can  must be self levelling, but that is about it

mapj1 said:

I'd start by amending the Regulations so that they give an upper  brightness limit, and a stipulation that the lights can be no more than waist height on new vehicles could be a simple measure - it's not all cars, just the ones with the lights approaching  seated eye level or beaming at or above horizontal. 
At the moment we have
www.legislation.gov.uk/.../1796

Totally agree there Mike

Definitely doesn't help that I drive a low slung sports car either I suppose 

+1

It's not just a problem for drivers either - simply crossing a road at night as a pedestrian can be hazardous when one vehicle's lights are so bright it becomes almost impossible to spot a smaller or less well lit hazard that's closer but approaching from the same direction.

Sometimes I wonder why we need headlights at all on roads with decent street lighting - the number of cars I see pulling out of petrol stations at night without noticing that all their lights off until someone else flashes them suggests that the extra illumination isn't really needed.

   - Andy. 

We've had a variety of different Automotive related conversations on EngX over the years Sergio as it is one of my favourite topics to discuss 

The problem I find with the LED lights is as you and MapJ have said, they don't adjust to the road conditions and bounce around around giving the impression of someone flashing their main beams at you. As it says in the article on the BBC News website, there is also a problem with drivers fitting after market LED bulbs to their headlight that were not built or designed to house them.

I live in a small village surrounded by country roads resulting in many people driving around with main beam on most of the time anyway. Unfortunately with 'auto mainbeam' I find that they simply don't react quickly enough and again blind me for a second as they come around the bends before their sensors see that there's another car ahead. Whereas with a good old fashioned manual option, as a driver you would spot the light beam of an approaching car ahead and would ordinarily have switched back to standard lights BEFORE hitting the bend. 

Again it brings me back to this question and discussion that we had a while back:  Has automation in the automotive industry made drivers lazy? and the more I ask myself that question, the more my answer is yes...

But where does the problem lie Andy? Is it with car designers or manufacturers or with government legislation? 

Personally I do feel that sometimes the designers suffer from blind enthusiasm for their designs to the point where it becomes design for design sake rather then necessity or practicality.

For example there's one car I've noticed (can't remember the make or model) that has it's indicator bulb in the centre of the rear lights. So the orange indicator light is surrounded by a red rear light /bright red brake light  when it's activated. Orange and red are very close on the colour spectrum meaning that it can be really hard to distinguish between the two especially when the brake lights are also applied with a tiny little orange flashing light in the centre! 

Surely someone at some point in the design process and sign off would have picked up that it could potentially be a visibility problem? 

Lisa Miles said:

Surely someone at some point in the design process and sign off would have picked up that it could potentially be a visibility problem? 

I agree but I think you might find that some designers will sit in the vehicle they design rather than in the vehicle behind or in front.  Personally I think vehicle designed/manufactured/distributed or sold in the UK need to have the indicators on the outside edge of the vehicle as has always been the case.

Cars are a very good example of where what is in effect product standards legislation actually saves lives. I am old enough to recall the maker's opposition to seat belts not being an optional extra that could be charged for , and when I learnt to drive wearing them was not compulsory. Nowadays that would probably cause an outcry, and over time many other other things ABS, minimum tyre standards etc were all driven by legislation. Even the MOT test (as the "ten year test" ) was pushed upon an unwilling trade and public from 1960.

Mike.
PS Amusing now, in something of a reversal, vehicles over 40 years old and not substantially changed in the last 30, are MOT exempt - the very sort of machine the original legislation would have wanted to capture.

I agree Sergio!

As Andy mentions even as a pedestrian it can be difficult to determine where a car is going if the indicators aren't clear. Again I saw one the other day where the indicator was a pulsing/chasing orange beam of light type affair (much like the red light on KIT from Knight Rider if you're familiar with that TV show)  along the top of the headlight and rear lights again making it not only confusing but reducing its visibility not only to pedestrians but also to other road users.