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Is Headlight Glare Making Night Driving Harder?

Lisa Miles

As the clocks went back at the weekend and we're now driving home in the dark, I've noticed that driving at night feels a lot harder lately, and I’m not alone. Many people I speak to all say they find driving at night harder as each year goes past and it's not just because we're getting older! Many of my younger colleagues are feeling the same! 

A recent article on the BBC News highlights how modern LED headlights, while great for personal visibility, are causing serious glare issues for many drivers. 

Some key points in the article stood out to me:  LED lights are much brighter and more focused, but not always well-aligned. Glare recovery takes longer as we age and the RAC says that a recent survey suggested that 75% of drivers find night driving harder now.

I have to admit that there have been times when I've almost had to bring my car to a stop as the light of the car ahead have been so bright that I've been blinded and simply can't see the road in front of me! It's getting to the point where I really don't like having to go out in the car at night and of course as we're in the 'dark' seasons, driving in darkness is pretty much unavoidable. Pensive

So how can engineers help here? Better design? Smarter regulations? More adaptive tech?

Would love to hear your thoughts! 

  • in reply to TurboGen
    TurboGen said:
    if you put that bulb in an opal glass lamp shade, which spreads the light over something the size of a football, it's not uncomfortable or blinding at all. 

    #offtopic - Have to admit to being influenced by the viral Ikea FADO lamp which is just as you describe, a football sized lamp with an opal glass lampshade. Really lovely light especially if you use a colour changing lightbulb where you can change the colour of it to match your vibe Sunglasses

  • in reply to Lisa Miles

    There is some science behind the yellow lights being better for night and fog driving, to do with the wide open pupil using  more of the lens, and not focusing all colours in exactly the same plane, making blue objects harder to focus on.
    https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/light_color/light_color.html

    Its also clear that increasing headlamp glare  problems are of concern in the US too...
    Mike

  • in reply to mapj1
    mapj1 said:
    Its also clear that increasing headlamp glare  problems are of concern in the US too...

    They also have an issue of white street lamps turning varying shades of Blue through to Purple due to a manufacturing defect.  Blue or purple light: As the coating fails, the light becomes more blue. If the failure is complete, the light appears pure blue. If the coating is only partially intact, the remaining yellow mixes with the blue to create a purple hue

  • in reply to mapj1

    Interesting article Mike thank you for sharing! I'll have a read of that  Slight smile

  • Glare is a condition in which the eye is exposed to too much light relative to the dark background. The light enters the eye, scatters on the retina and reduces contrast, so that the dazzled driver temporarily loses the ability to recognize objects, distances and road boundaries. From an engineering perspective, this is uncontrolled light scattering from a powerful source, the car headlight.

    I can give an example for the sake of understanding:
    If the height of the headlight center is 0.65 meters above the ground, the beam should fall on the test screen (at a distance of 10 meters) about 10 cm lower than this height, that is, a slope of about 1%.
    Every deviation of just one degree upwards will cause the beam to rise about 17 cm at a distance of 10 meters, which is enough to directly hit the eyes of an oncoming driver.

  • in reply to Lisa Miles

    Dazzle and LED lighting does seem to be a problem. According to the BBC the government is now getting involved:

    “Headlights to be reviewed after drivers complain of being 'blinded' at night”

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn971jlpvvro

    There was also an issue with LED streetlighting in Barnet:

    “Legal challenge prompts council to install new LED bulbs” The 4000K LED lights were replaced with 2200K warm white LED bulbs.

    https://www.localgov.co.uk/Legal-challenge-prompts-Barnet-Council-to-install-new-LED-bulbs-/60229

  • A new video from Ashley Neil (YouTuber/ Driving instructor/trainer) on Adaptive Full Beams on the Motorway Covers how well his fancy(?) BMW does for blanking out parts of the beam on smooth motorway.

    Also a US contribution "Here's why dangerously bright headlights are blinding drivers today"

    One feature of the Human eye is that bright, high colour temperature (blue arctic white) beams will activate the blue receptive cells much faster than lower intensity, lower colour temperature ('yellow') beams, so the brain is far more stimulated to react and over-concentrate on those beams. 

    It's very similar to the advice to not stare at screens before bed and use desaturation software like f-Lux to cut the blue signals. These 'psychological' effects matter as well.  

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