Is Headlight Glare Making Night Driving Harder?

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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. 

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.

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.