Are car headlights a problem for you?

hollydolly said:
yep especially here where I live because the road from my house going North is a narrow 2 lane road ( B Road) which goes through the woods for 5 miles.. and there is no overhead lighting at all... so the oncoming traffic headlights which is literally just a foot or 2 at most away as they pass coming in the opposite direction is blinding.. and doubly worse if they've not dipped their headlights, and have them on full beam..

You may find it hard to believe but this is the road through the woods, and it's for 2 way traffic. It gets extremely busy most of the day,.. and as can be seen, there are no street lights..
Woods-road-4-HD.jpg
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Pretty during the day though!
 

A SIMPLE way to stay in your lane at night is to LOOK BRIEFLY at the right edge of the lane/roadway WHEN an oncoming vehicle's lights bother you. I am NOT saying to continue looking to the right..just a glance to maintain your lane position, then return your gaze to the roadway. I taught this as a driving instructor back in the 1980's with Young Drivers of Canada driving school, as a standard part of the in car training program. I was amazed to read in this thread, that a 90 year old person with only ONE working eye, is still allowed to drive. That is truly scary, to me. Jim.
 

My eyesight has remained over decades as 70 feet from 20 feet myopia in my left eye while 70 feet from 20 feet hyperopia in my right eye. A life of reading near books, newspapers, magazines, plus a career of looking at computer monitors and through stereo microscopes at microscopic electronic circuit boards has contributed to eyestrain and double vision, diplopia. At night the diplopia is worse so at times I end up driving just with my right eye open that is indeed more dangerous.

Because I drive east through 90 miles of urban areas before reaching more rural roads leading mountain ski resorts, I often end up leaving home at dawn then spend a first hour plus in the dark dealing with blinding headlights that varies greatly depending on specific vehicles. Society would be better if vehicles had to annually pass low cost head light aiming, brightness, and color testing.
 
David777 said:
My eyesight has remained over decades as 70 feet from 20 feet myopia in my left eye while 70 feet from 20 feet hyperopia in my right eye. A life of reading near books, newspapers, magazines, plus a career of looking at computer monitors and through stereo microscopes at microscopic electronic circuit boards has contributed to eyestrain and double vision, diplopia. At night the diplopia is worse so at times I end up driving just with my right eye open that is indeed more dangerous.

Because I drive east through 90 miles of urban areas before reaching more rural roads leading mountain ski resorts, I often end up leaving home at dawn then spend a first hour plus in the dark dealing with blinding headlights that varies greatly depending on specific vehicles. Society would be better if vehicles had to annually pass low cost head light aiming, brightness, and color testing.
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Driving with ONLY one eye open means you have no depth perception. JimB.
 
Just before I stopped driving at night I was on a narrow road when saw flashing lights ahead. It was impossible to tell which side of the road they were on until I got very close. That and rain made the decision easy.
 
MY EYES!!!!! My eyes! (Isn't that a line from a horror movie?). I have recently upgraded my sunglasses to include a reflective coating on them because sunset glare was very much bothering me. The mirror coat seems to help more during sunset than the darkest tint on my old sunglasses.

For night driving, I have yellow clip-on filters for my clear glasses. They help reduce the glare from headlights a lot. But I still avoid night driving as much as I can. Really hate going into the Big City at night because there are so many crazy speeders and hit-and-run accidents there.
 
againstthegrain said:
It really is a shame that US laws prevent adaptive headlights that have been around for at least a decade. Cars such as BMWs are already equipped, just lack the software to make the system active. My last BMW was able to see around corners though so part of the system was enabled.
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I cannot say things that are political, but the resistance to change from automakers is a function of their business plans. They don't like to update their business plans for anyone.
 
Its a problem for my driving. Both in meeting oncoming and from following vehicles. Excessive brightness, glare and headlight height all are contributing and sometimes synergistic contributors.

Online news services have addressed this with recent articles. Bottom line being headlight specs are US government regulated and "the law is too hard to change. . ." So there we are.

European and Asian nations have addressed this issue to resolution. Apparently being light years ahead (pun intended ;)) of the US.
 
A couple of decades ago, headlights became a problem for me, so much so, I had to stop driving by dusk. One of the reasons is due to glaucoma. One day I picked up my little grandson from daycare and it was near dusk. I managed to take one way streets all the way home so I could avoid oncoming headlights. I stopped driving for the most part in 2005 after my first eye surgery.
 

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