A new community where people can just vent about or actually do coordinate action against the pest of ultra bright LEDs.
Like the sun, if the lights are bright, don’t look at them. Problem solved.
Thank you for this useful insight. What do I do when my eyes quickly adapt to this stupidly bright light in my peripheral vision and I now can’t see anything in my own headlights ?
I have tried closing my left eye before, out of desperation. Doesn’t really work and I wouldn’t recommend losing depth perception while driving.
So I’m on an undivided highway at night, curving leftward. Oncoming traffic is using bright ass light, blinding me, I can’t even see lane or lines. I’m supposed to look away and hope for the best?
Or even better, there’s divider, about 1m tall and there’s always some douchebag in pick up truck that have their lights just high enough to blast over the divider over to my eyes and I can’t even see lane beside me or where the divider are.
So please, use your actual common sense when posting nonsense like this. It’s a legitimate concern.
I mean, sort of, but I live in a place with narrow winding roads that all too often don’t have a line painted on the edge of the road.
There’s definitely a strategy to look down at the edge of the road until the perpetrator has passed, but that assumes you have something to look at that will help
I thought it was just me getting older and my eyes getting worse, but headlights have really gotten ridiculous in the last 20 years or so. Related pet peeve is people walking at night in dark clothes, not even looking up when they cross the street.
I thought the same, until my teens started driving. Both of them complained they can’t see in the glare and ask me to drive at night sometimes, LoL
How about a high-vis vest? Doesn’t even take batteries
A quick question for Americans: here in the UK, cars have to pass an annual inspection once they reach three years old. It’s called an MOT test and it’s primarily concerned with making sure the car is safe - they check for rust, seatbelt tension, brake wear, and, yes, they make sure all the lights are not just working but also aligned properly. Do you not have an equivalent?
I think some states have laws similar to this but in a lot of the country you can basically drive your car until it falls apart unless a cop specifically stops and tickets you for something egregious.
It’s by state. I’ve always lived in states with relatively strict inspections, at least compared to other states, but I’ve never heard of them checking lights or window tint. They’re supposed to
I suppose it’s good that they focus on more urgent things like brakes, emissions, that there be lights, tire treads, and windshield chips/cracks, but I wish they’d do everything
Actually it’s mildly annoying that I have to pay the same for inspections that include the emissions check, with my EV
Some states have something similar, but it’s more for emissions I think. Michigan doesn’t seem to care AT ALL.
Not just cars, goofy cyclists too. Broad daylight, high noon on a cloudless summer day, somehow, cyclists need piercingly blinding bright little lamps on their handlebars. Or their helmets. Or their armbands. Or all at the same time. Cheap electronics from China make this possible. Backpacks. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing the other day, a guy dressed like a manga-ninja, all black with a face mask, and a backpack covered in LEDs.
Honestly, riding a bike in the middle of traffic is so dangerous that I understand the desire for being visible
If you need extra lights in summer, in daytime, on a cloudless noon, you shouldn’t be riding a vehicle. What gives you the right to blind and annoy oncoming pedestrians and drivers because of your misguided paranoia?
And typically, from my observations, the people crowing about biking being dangerous and they need safety … wear earbuds. Sure, seal off one of your senses and then complain about safety. We biked for decades without piercingly blinding Cree LEDs taped on our bodies 24/7.
Yeah but a single blinding light doesn’t make for good visibility. They’re supposed be much more visible with multiple lights
The hell of it is, its even stock vehicles now. So many new models have these crazy bright headlights. I know it can be done right, so how about we start having the safety bodies dealing with this bullshit at the manufacturer level?
I personally think headlight brightness peaked just before LED became mainstream. Through the mid teens companies were installing projector headlights. I had a 2014 Corolla with projector headlights so bright that I got non-stop flashes from opposing drivers.
Newer LED headlights are often matrix headlights. See the entire road like you’ve got high beams on, except the oncoming car’s area is dark. Best of both worlds if implemented well enough. You can still turn off the high beams so that if the system stops malfunctioning, you have something equivalent to normal LED low beams.
My car has standard bulbs but with lenses that pivot to achieve the same effect, but I’m dreading the day that one of the servos breaks and my car starts looking like Forest Whitaker
Found the euro …. Is that even approved in the US yet?
Thank you! I have a tiny cataract, but even my good eye hates jeeps, and big rigs.
Ooh a place for the cult of the Honda Fit to congregate
What about overly bright LED signs? Like billboards or business signs? Those things also suck.
Or LED’s in modern electronics. I have a wine fridge that insists on telling me its temperature in the brightest possible blue segmented display. And apparently, I must be informed of the temperature at all times because I cant turn it off. Blue LED on the subwoofer brighter than the sun. I had to put a yoshi plushy infront of it to block the light. Wireless phone charger next to my bed… you bet that puppy needs a bright ass light to light up my sleeping area… FUCK! Electrical tape is my best friend today, I use it to cover up any of these stupid LEDs now.
This is why I have a lot of black electrical tape covering a lot of petty lights throughout my house.
Also noises. A lot of household machines like a microwave are unnecessarily obnoxious with noises, with little to no options or choices for it.
Gaffer’s tape is better, it doesn’t dissolve into a sticky mess.
If all LED headlamps followed a new polarization standard, things could be very cool. As an example, let’s say the headlights could only shine horizontally polarized light and the windshields could only pass vertically polarized light. That means that one could see every thing very clearly because you wouldn’t be blinded by the cars coming on the opposite side. Your light would illuminate everything in from of you, which would then reflect non polarized light back at you plus all other light reflections from other sources like street lamps. Houses could be fitted with the same filter film as older cars. Similarly, people could wear polarized glasses and get the same benefit.
It would add to the price, which would suck, but I’d love to see some sort of HUD assist system. Even if it was a wire frame or something that appears as a HUD on the windshield. Not bright enough to blind you or be in the way, but enough to see. User could adjust the color (within limits to maybe not negate the system). To me, we don’t take enough advantage of HUD tech and different types of vision that a computer could do that a human can’t. Make it come on with the headlights or something. That way it’s not on during the day.
One big challenge with this is that the human eye has not followed all the technological advances… Its still gonna give you shit after the age of 40. So that means you cannot have a simple mirror reflection system where the driver simply focuses on stuff outside of the car and then from time to time onto the HUD. But I think Mamazon and the apple companies have figure either automated focusing or long distance focusing such that the eye doesn’t have to focus on shit up close while driving. So it’s totally doable.
Yeah but see that would require the government to do something, and right now they can’t even tell their asses from their elbows. Oh and they’re cutting at least half the jobs. Because eFiShAnSeE.
Maybe guns are the solution. Just gotta aim for the LED’s! Lol.
Yup pretty simple.
But check the date this is a very old idea. Would probably make a very interesting YouTube video or two
I know. It’s not my idea, this is old old. So its amazing how much we seem to like people crashing at night.
I do have some concerns about polarizing the light. If I can get a hold of some cheap filter material I might be inclined to do some tests. Maybe I can rescue the polarizer out of an old LCD TV.
Polarizing’s not completely magic, It does seriously reduce the amount of light coming in. There’s just usually enough light around that it doesn’t affect us, our pupils dilate a fraction of a fraction and it’s no big deal.
But at night when there’s already relatively little light out, It does reduce the overall light amount.
I’m also concerned that any light that bounces off something but maintains the polarization will be blocked, so there will be a higher chance of you not being able to see some percentage of your own headlight illumination, I would think that the average diffraction off everything in front of you would thoroughly destroy the coalescence of polarization but I don’t really know for sure, it’s possible that would make your own headlights less effective to you.
I suspect if we were thinking about this in the '50s if it were viable somebody would have pulled it off by now. But we only have had windshield sized polarizers in TVs for maybe a decades so maybe?
I didn’t pay attention in physics class, why is the light reflected back not polarized? what happened to the once polarized photons that they come back non polarized?
Also what is polarization? I know that Electro Magnetic Radiation or EMR is made up from pulsating magnetic and electrical fields that propagate through space at a fixed rate or frequency… but what does polarization mean? does it mean the fields are slanted to one side or into one direction or something? or is it like some sort of spin or other sort of modulation?
There’s Horizontal and vertical polarization as well as circular polarization. In a simple explanation , think of horizontal as a fence with horizontal bars so that only the horizontal part of the photons pass thru. Now once those horizontal photons pass, they will meet surfaces, which will reflect back their light so your eyes can see it. However, in this experiment only the vertical photons will pass your windshield. Because polarization depends on the angle of incidence, you will get some of the horizontally polarized light back as vertically polarized light which will pass thru. The effect is psychedelic. I totally recommend you to try it. You need polarized glasses, a flashlight and a piece of polarized film to place on your flashlight. The colors and shapes come back to you without defined form or glimmers so stuff looks normal, but weird as heck.
I don’t want anything about driving at night to look psychedelic or weird as heck
In North America we can’t even get signal lights to not look different than break lights. I hope Europe has better luck.
Edit: that sounds like an awesome idea
I agree with you. Our king Elon tried to make our cars automatic. Our felon president trumpfus will be banning electric cars and orange lights because he doesn’t like to be called orange face.
But yeah otherwise not too crazy of a solution.
Can we vent about loud motorcycles too?
Argh, hate them!
While we’re at it, let’s also vent about cars and trucks with loud modified exhausts.
No. Loud = safe for motorcyclists. Its the only way they can be noticed inside sound proof cars by people on their phones.
I dont ride anymore because bad drivers killed every motorcyclist i used to ride with.
My man, I watched an accident yesterday in a grocery store parking lot. A raised up truck was backing out and a car was behind it. The car honked. Laid on that horn. It was a loud horn. Truck didn’t even flinch. Backed right into it.
I’ve been passed by “loud” motorcycles many times. I saw them in my mirrors. I have a tiny blind spot, but I tracked them the entire way. What I didn’t do is hear them. Especially at highway speed, they’re undetectable.
Your argument is the equivalent of, “I saw someone get stabbed to death so you shouldnt wear your motorcycle helmet.”
I have no doubt you did see these things but that doesnt mean loud pipes dont add a bit of safety at the expense of noise comfort. Every bit of safety adds up and can save your life. There is no one thing that will do it but if you do enough it can have an effect. Maybe you didnt hear those pipes but a few hours later someone else did and didnt see them and they were saved.
As a fellow motorcyclist I hate this myth. https://www.spauldinginjurylaw.com/blogs/5758/loud-pipes-saves-lives-myth
I only know that for me, driving with windows up, radio quiet, I don’t hear most loud pipes until too late. It’s probably not a good idea to startle drivers just as you’re passing them
This lawyer doesn’t post the actual study referenced anywhere in that blog. After looking for the study, it seems to be referencing a quite limited series of tests in a YouTube video made by the Association for the Development of Motorcycling in Romania.
As someone who didnt have an excessively loud bike. … I’ve almost been killed so many times by people who didnt see or hear me and who switched lanes or pulled out in front of me.
Loud pipes do save lives and no amount of bullshit research about one particular scenario that doesnt factor in everything else will change that.
If you think you cant hear loud pipes if you are in front of or beside a motercycle then your an idiot who probably doesnt even ride.
No amount of anything will prevent headons .
But i dont ride anymore and if you do and you want to cruise quietly then you do you.
The brightness is one thing but also the alignment. These people install new headlights or the manufacturers just do not adjust the lights alignment correctly at all.
I installed entire new headlight assemblies in my car upgrading from weak stock crap bulbs to LEDs with running lights, but I FUCKING ADJUSTED THEM afterwards.
If I am ~50 feet from a wall there is a hard line where the top of my lights do not shine. That line is purposely placed so it won’t shine until cars in front of me unless I am every far away from them or there is an elevation difference. Sitting behind a car at the lights my lights will cut off generally right below the top of the trunk of most sedan models.
I have never seen a headlight that could not be adjusted up and down with a little screw. Maybe the newest cars need an app or something stupid but I would be willing to bet they can also be adjusted.
Where do you get those? Or is it just for a few models?
My car has nice LED projectors but my old car that my kids are driving has older xenon bulbs that were bright when new but insufficient in the face of modern glare. I’m tempted to get the glaring ones because then at least my kids could see but if I had a way to upgrade the right way I would
If you want OEM look I would recommend: https://www.genera.com/Headlight.html
If you want different styling I would go with: https://www.carid.com/headlights.html
It’s also the height of install. If you drive a subcompact a lot of vehicles will just have lights so high up to you that what’s a reasonable angle for them is directly in your mirror
This is another issue. The ride of the front of certain vehicles. Namely large trucks. I’m 5’11" and there are many trucks sold now that have headlights at my shoulder level. It’s ridiculous.
They need to lower the front hoods of all these vehicles. It’s dangerous for pedestrians and just general road safety but it also would help alleviate some of the headlight woes others experience.
You haven’t bought eBay replacement headlights before then! I have never been able to get them adjusted properly to the point where they match even close to the factory pattern. I usually end up pointing them away to low just to be kind to anyone in front of them. The only saving grace is a love in the city and want didn’t need to rely on them for proper lighting.
You would be correct. I buy replacement lights from reputable brands with quality parts and adjustability lol
My dad bought some replacement lights for his car recently and he was so angry about the way they were pointed he apparently sent them a super angry letter. I then showed him I could adjust the beams down with my hands and he went back inside to send them another email apologizing hahahahah
As a cyclist, please.
The most annoying thing about bright LED headlights is that LEDs don’t have to be bright. Yet because so many are, people view LED headlights as the problem. You can get varying brightness LED bulbs for your home, why not your car?
I agree, fuck those headlights, but I don’t understand the point of a community for it.
Somewhere for me to go and make myself annoyed?It is like road rage videos. I hate road rage. I hope they lose their license. But I can’t watch them because they pointlessly get me worked up.
Welcome to the Internet
Have a look around
Anything that brain of yours can think of can be found
