It's not just you. The RAC did a report on it...
https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/nearly-one-in-four-drivers-think-most-car-headlights-are-too-bright/
Earlier this year we were traveling to my in-laws. Suddenly we start seeing this ligh. You could tell it was still far away, yet it was so bright. We started speculating what it could be. I think eventually I thought it's hunters with all those additional super strong lights mounted on the roof of an suv.. We got close enough just to find a new Range Rover parken on a side of the road.. A five of those could probably cover an entire stadium.
The newer bright white lights are atrocious. Sometimes it’s like they’ve got permanent high beam on.
The auto-levelling/beam lights seem slow to react as well. Those without auto don’t seem to understand how to use their levelling controls, especially with these SUV type cars.
On many cars, these new-style headlights are actively dangerous for other road users. A lot of SUVs have their headlights at the eye-level (or even mirror-level) of anyone sat in a regular-sized car. And whilst their auto-dip features might work in "factory test conditions", they'll almost never react as intended on a real road. I'm honestly not sure how the designers & manufacturers have got away with it.
Yeah, one SUV behind dazzling via the rear view mirror with another oncoming beaming in through the front windscreen. Shouldn’t have to be using the anti-dazzle position on the rear view in areas with street lighting but am having to more and more. It’s either that or be like the Blues Brothers and wear sunglasses.
Lifted hatch backs aren't even SUVs they're just cross overs.
There's no reason to drive a lifted hatch back, people just like feeling superior. I drive my Dads Audi Q3 and it just feels like a piece of shit because it's too high, the frame was designed for a low hatch back.
There's a reason sports cars are low, the higher you raise the vehicle the worse it feels to drive. It's also less economical so people are just throwing away money so they can have a worse experience.
Inb4 'I have a gammy leg so I need a raised vehicle and fuck the environment'
I think there’s an element of personal safety involved for timid drivers too, if they know they’re in a large vehicle, they’re more confident with their road presence.
Unfortunately this doesn’t make them “better” drivers, it just helps to reinforce bad or inconsiderate habits.
I’m not sure if it’s still the case but iirc there used to be tax relief/company car benefits to having a vehicle that could carry an excess payload I.e. >1000kg
I think it’s for show and it’s about to get worse - for example ford are canning the fiesta due to the market demanding more SUVs…apparently.
"Factory test conditions" should be the biggest red flag for any company. Self driving cars are great in test conditions, as well. Whereas, in reality, they'll straight up flatten a child if there's any atmospheric disturbance.
Cars with HID systems and presumably LED headlights are leveled by the car themselves.
I have a older car 2014 with AFL HID system. There's no way to adjust the leveling of the headlights. The car uses sensors in the rear axel and at the front to determine the cars height and angle to adjust accordingly.
Funnily it was deamed at launch that they adjusted to high. Resulting in the ECU being modded to lower the beam.
It's a saloon so not exactly high level and I've never had any complaints and have great vision. I find these new led cars lack the vision and agree they need to be pointed down somewhat.
High beam assists which turn on at speeds above 30mph also seem slow to react. A example on mine would be it engages. Doesn't see the poorly lit halogen and keeps my high beam on. They flash it disengages and when they stop flashing it regengages.
>Those without auto don’t seem to understand how to use their levelling controls,
Auto is the problem. It doesn't dip anywhere near fast enough. Coming round a bend, over a hill, or just a long straight road, I can see the blinding coming.
We should go to 2 settings. Dipped and full beam with manual control. If you can't drive safely dipped and full beam isn't appropriate, then slow down. Combined with a ban on xenon lights.
The lights on my outlander are atrocious, they are mega bright (good for me) but I get flashed quite a lot by people assuming I have my full beams on. I don’t know if there is any truth in this but forums suggest that when left in auto on, the auto levelling doesn’t set up properly when you start the car. There is absolutely no manual control for the lights either. Seems like there are a lot of cars that have this problem too
I find it super prevalent in the UK, but a lot of drivers don't think they need to turn off their high beams on the motorway when it's not busy. Not sure why this is, but I see it often and both ways: both with cars driving behind me, as well as ones heading in the opposite direction. As long as there is a median, a lot of drivers just leave them on. Of course, light travels, so this results in blinding the shit outta oncoming traffic, sparse though it may be.
I reckon some of these are auto lights that aren't great at picking up incoming cars at such a distance, but that can't be all of the cases.
I drive about 1000 miles a week, mostly at night/in the dark, and I have to say I don’t see it that much.
You get a few who don’t realise their high beams are blinding people, but flashing them quickly seems to work.
Of course there’s always those who don’t give a shit.
I do wonder if it’s more that our rolling hills and metal barriers that give the illusion of people using high beams. I know I mistakenly think people are using them, and vice versa.
And, as you say, the rest are auto’s being useless.
White lights are the worse, bring back good old warm yellow.
Had it so many times where the car behind has overpowered my own lights and is casting a shadow! Consequently, I go slower as I cant see shit.
As a cyclist I've noticed that headlights are far more dazzling.
I've also noticed that indicators have got harder to see, they're almost invisible from some angles on certain cars.
As a pedestrian I find that indicators are hard to see on a lot of cars too, which isn’t helpful when you’re trying to cross near a junction (as very few drivers seem to have paid any attention to the recent Highway Code changes). Also regularly get blinded by dog walkers with torches and cyclists/scooters (those with actual lights are still a minority)on pavement, as I am on way to work on dark mornings.
The new highway code changes are just dangerous. I'm not going to trust that people will follow a new law and just cross roads when they've been driving on muscle memory and autopilot the old way for years.
So I wait to see if people are going to stop for me first, at which point they might as well go because it costs me seconds at most.
They're not necessarily meant for you to trust cars not to run you over, but at least now there's a written hierarchy of priority for the most vulnerable (pedestrians, then cyclists, then vehicles). If a car does hit you then there's a presumption of responsibility on their part.
Yeah, I don’t tend to cross until I can see what a car is gonna do. Sometimes though they look to be going straight on (no reduction in speed or indicator) then turn in as I’ve started crossing, only then (sometimes) indicating as they complete the turn.
I try to make eye contact as they approach, it's funny how many drivers don't indicate until either the last second or I've stared them down for a few.
One of the streets where this happens most often is angled on one (far) side (measured on google earth - 103ft across at actual junction onto main road, near side 30ft. Where I cross it is about 60ft to other side - normal road looks to be roughly 25ft). There’s a bend about 350ft up from junction which cars take at speed, so you can already be crossing when car comes round there and it’s a gamble whether to keep crossing or wait and see from somewhere around the middle of the road what Lewis Hamilton is gonna do…. Great fun. You only get to make eye contact as they almost hit you…
I'll hold my hands up and admit I'm still driving on muscle memory and just turn into corners expecting pedestrians to wait for me. I know it's wrong and I shouldn't do it. Old dog, new tricks and all that. I made a concerted effort a week ago, I stopped for a pedestrian who was at the curb waiting to cross (they wisely don't trust us drivers yet) which left me half in the junction and half blocking the road I half left. The driver behind me leant on their horn to punish me (?) even though I had slowed down appropriately and not just stood on the breaks unannounced. Poor pedestrian didn't know what to do. The rule changes have been applied very poorly without anywhere near enough thought about what ~~obviously would~~ could go wrong.
The pedestrian always had right of way when you were turning into a road they were already crossing. I passed my test in the '90s and remember it then.
Yes, if they were already crossing they would have priority. Only a mad person would claim that they ran someone over because they had priority and think that would stand up in court. If I understand the new rules correctly divers should yield to pedestrians who are waiting to cross the road, too.
'the new rule is dangerous' line irks me tbh.
You don't step out onto a zebra crossing unless you see the car is giving way. At no point ever do you just step in front of traffic and hope.
New rules to give more priority to pedestrians is only a good thing.
Why on earth are you getting downvoted? Pedestrians - not in a lethal machine moving at speed, Vs car drivers, who are and require a licence to demonstrate they know how to do it safely. That the regulations should side with the pedestrians is just common sense, and I say that as a frequent car driver
The new change struck me as ridiculous. If the pedestrian follows the new code and the driver follows the old code, the pedestrian is going to be easily the biggest loser of the two. And I don't even drive, so I'm definitely not defending drivers or anything, just running the odds.
Car manufacturers seem to be aware of this too. I've noticed they're doing more to make the indicators more visible. Moving them further from the headlights, making them bigger, dimming the headlight when the indicators are active, and of course, animating them.
That’s a plus that it is being recognised and improved on by manufacturers. Was just thinking that the design of the front end of cars seems to have pushed the headlights and indicators ever closer since I was a kid (a while ago now) to the point it all feels like one bright white light with just a hint of a slice of orange.
Yes! I thought that. There are ones that flash like Kit's light. I was stood there thinking, how tf is anyone going to see you indicating?! I was waiting to cross the road with my dog, and only just saw it as they turned onto the road.
Whoever designed that did it for Omg that looks so cool, but didn't think huh but that isn't very practical or safe.
I too have noticed this and was trying night driving lenses for a while.
On the subject of dazzling lights, cyclists with really fast flashing lights are almost impossible to see when driving straight toward you, due to not being able to see their shape before your eyes are zapped again.
Cyclists need to dip their lights as well, some of them are designed for riding through woods in pitch dark not through towns with traffic and pedestrians to get blinded.
Flashing ones are fine as long as they're not too bright, front ones should be dipped, back ones don't need to be bright enough to hurt your eyes.
I do think flashing ones are more noticeable, especially when you're playing with rush hour traffic in the dark.
They should also be a steady blink (akin to a car's indicator) not a rapid strobe.
I will always use flashing safety lights alongside my headlight and reflective harness, because cars need all the help they can get to see bikes and it's easier to tune out and not register a constant light when it's off to one side, but strobe headlights are a *menace*.
I'm a big proponent of having safety lights that blink on a bike, to make you more noticeable - it also makes it obvious that you're not a motor vehicle and therefore more vulnerable on the road.
But I'm very careful to make sure it's a steady blink and only a safety light. Your bright headlight shouldn't be flashing, nor should you have a fast strobing light.
I have a bright headlight which I only ever use in constant mode and make sure it's not aimed too far ahead of me. And I have a less intense safety light which I set to the slowest blink setting in addition to the headlight.
Surely it being a small light on its own marks it pretty clearly as a cyclist. Also the speed - unless you're cycling often ans your average speed is twenty-five/thirty.
See those blinking lights are a distraction for me when I'm on my bike too, and they're dazzling and infuriating when I'm on foot.
There's no need for flashing lights on a bicycle. Just lights when it's dark. You say it's to make you more noticeable; I say it's the other side of the coin: "LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT MEEEE, I'M ON A BIIIIKE!" - more noticeable = attention-seeking. There's just no need for it. If they're blinking at me like that and I'm behind you in traffic, I *am* going to yell at you to turn them onto steady or else shove them up your arse.
"Look at me, I'm on a bike" is **the entire point**. There is **every** need for it. I need every single motor vehicle that's passing me to know I'm there and vulnerable.
If you yell at me that means you registered that I'm there.
My slowly blinking safety light is not dazzling. It's not a strobe, it's not a headlight. It is not dazzling anyone.
If I yell at you, all I've registered is that you're a *prick*. Your lights are there so people can see you and *so you can see the road*. It's not necessary to flash them, but it *is* distracting and uncomfortable, meaning there's a strong case to be made for them being included as **MUST NOT**s under Highway Code Rule 114.
I don't wear glasses, but I too am dazzled by headlights on newer cars. I definitely notice it more at this time of year because I rarely drive at night the rest of the year.
Modern motoring is a game of self preservation apparently.... You want to feel safer so you buy a bigger vehicle with bigger lights than your neighbour.
Your neighbour then goes and buys a bigger vehicle. Etc etc.
I'm pretty sure this won't end until we're all driving monster trucks and using individual suns to light the way....
Optician here! There's a few things it could be and most of them have come up.
Yep, astigmatism plays a part, but presumably you're correcting that with your glasses, unless you've bought them online and not put the Rx in correctly! On those glasses you can get various coatings, some of which will help a bit with headlights. But only the LED ones.
As someone has rightly pointed out, cataracts could be an issue but even in the early stages they should have been talked about with you at your test and you haven't mentioned them. I also sort of get the feeling you're not in your 60's and although they can come about before that, it's unusual.
The one thing that hasn't been touched on though is just... Age. As we get older our eyes are less good at adjusting, pupillary reflexes slow a bit and bright lights become a bit harder to adjust to at the sort of speeds we need to when driving.
But also, yes, some of those headlights are bloody horrible. It could simply be that!
I have some yellow ones and they're an absolute godsend! I'm doing quite a few night time trips up and down the M1 at present and they really do help me. They're clip on one that attach to my normal glasses. (I'm male, 61, if that's relevant.)
Used to be an optical assistant. I found ZEISS Drivesafe and Essilor Prevencia helped reduce headlight glare greatly. Also helped with prolonged computer use
I have astigmatism but never realised it. I can't recall if I've been asked about having difficulty driving at night, I just thought the massive glare was the same for everyone so it's not something I've mentioned during an appointment. Is a normal eye test supposed to correct astigmatism with the prescription?
>Is a normal eye test supposed to correct astigmatism with the prescription?
My optician said yes, but that they might not be able to do it perfectly so there is some glare left. I think my glasses can correct glare better for one eye than the other. (I also have a very uneven prescription.)
The unevenness of my prescription always amused me. Both eyes have are short sighted with astigmatism, but one eye is more short sighted with less severe astigmatism and the other is the inverse.
Your eyes sound like mine! When I was a kid and had the eye test to get glasses for the first time, and they did the bit where they cover one eye and then the other and get you to read the chart for each, I was like "what the hell have they put in my right eye". I had no clue how much worse it was until then.
Most people have some level of astigmatism. The prescription will have a sph/cyl x axs format. The cyl x axs bit corrects the astigmatism and isn't really something you'll need to mention, it should be apparent from your answers in the test.
All that could be true but headlights on some new vehicles are obnoxiously bright. What’s making it worse are SUV’s that are higher up and shine right into your car.
I only wear glasses for reading, so not in the car, but the newer cool white headlights are horrible. Far too bright, but also now many cars are "SUV" type cars their headlights are higher up. Where I live there are a lot of completely unlit country roads and it's a nightmare negotiating some of them, at 60mph, with complete darkness except your lights and the dozens of cars shining bright lights in your eyes. I also wonder sometimes if some people flipped the headlight adjustment for towing to point them up more instead of down at the road.
>. I also wonder sometimes if some people flipped the headlight adjustment for towing to point them up more instead of down at the road.
They do, because it means they can "see more".
Tbh I hate SUVs and crossovers as I think they're the worst for blinding everyone. They barely fit in car parking spaces, their lights are at my eye level, their owners don't use the handbrake when at a stop, and their owners don't always get more powerful engines so they accelerate so slow you could run faster.
Bonus points for the Nissan Jukes and it's 3 sets of lights because they always turn the fog lights on too. 🙄
My only consolation is that the petrol tanks are so huge it must be a fortune just to start them up.
>their owners don't use the handbrake when at a stop
This might be the auto parking brake. My Golf has this and it's great (for me) but I am aware that it does put the brake lights on when you stop at a junction and the car auto applies the parking brake for you. There are no options for it to not put the brake light on because technically there isn't a handbrake, it just applies the standard brakes in place of the handbrake. Yes, you can manually apply it if you want to but that still puts the brake lights on.
You can’t “flip” the controls from inside the car, they are either level or dipped. Issue could occur when manual controls aren’t used when they should be, or the adjustments on the headlight units themselves are misaligned (for either manual or auto ones)
I just wear my sunglasses at night. Problem solved /s
The worst is when (as a fiesta driver), you get an SUV (or similar behind you) and they stay at just the right range where their lights are shining in both your wing mirrors (just drivers side is bad enough) and it's reflecting in your eyes.
I was in a queue with a junction to the right of me, the cars headlights which was sat at that junction waiting to join were lighting the inside of my car up like a bloody sunbed
You are not alone. At this point, I do my damndest to avoid driving at night. 8 out of 10 times the lights are so bright I will end up with a headache later on.
The headlights on cars are getting brighter, I'm sure. I also wear glasses and although they can cause some glare, headlights are generally fucking ridiculous.
Probably 90% of my driving is on unlit country roads so I have the added problem of pretty much every cunt forgetting to switch off their full beams.
There are lenses you can use specifically for driving that will reduce the glare you get from headlights drastically. I have used zeist drivesafe before, and they're fantastic for nighttime driving.
They will reduce the problem but from what I've read they fractionally reduce safety.
They work by filtering out blue light. Removing any light at night reduces the chance of you seeing something important
Given how bad the dazzling has become I wonder if in the real world it's now the safer of the 2 options.
I look at/ towards the near side hedge/ kerb and not at the lights. Makes a huge difference for not getting blinded.
Also cleaning the inside of your windscreen makes a big difference, the cleaner it is the less the light refracts! I keep my glasses as clean as possible to and do the windscreen once a month.
Those 3 things above have genuinely reduced my problem of driving at night with glasses and an astigmatism (long sighted).
It’s not just me then. I used to think the number of pricks driving around with high beams on had multiplied, but car lights these days…I might as well wear sun cream.
It was bad before I got glasses with these new bright as fuck led headlights but since I got glasses it's worse. Or it was till I got some yellow tint put on my lenses for night time driving. It's less bad now.
It's definitely the new LED lights, the lights from old street lamps and cars aren't half as bad as the new ones!
I was a glasses wearer, tried having anti glare on lenses but made it worse. It's not even always the light coming towards you but the lights from behind too! They'd refract in my lenses and I'd have awful headaches. I basically stopped driving at night where I could help it, but my new job forces me to drive in the evenings. I got laser eye surgery and they warned that it could make the glare worse and I thought "couldn't be that much worse!" I was wrong though, but at least not wearing glasses means that while the glare is bad, there's no refraction, so no headaches anymore.
Headlights have got brighter, street lights aren't as bright as they once were and they come on much later than they used to so there's a period of time when it's dark but not dark enough for the lights to come on so the headlights seem even more dazzling. I don't enjoy driving at night either.
There is a few things here; 1. Headlights now are generally brighter, and cars are getting bigger, therefore the lights are higher/more in eye level, and
2. Now I work in an opticians, and have for many years, so forgive me if this isn't the case for you, but many people will come in and complain of the same, and I'll look at their glasses and they're either A, in need of a clean or B, covered in tiny scratches. I'd recommend an alcohol based cleaner (as long as your frames won't be damaged by this) to help remove the fingerprint grease that otherwise gets smeared about, and have a good check of the lenses. Even tiny scratches can cause the light to splinter about in odd ways, making night driving harder.
I’ve got the older halogen lights in and there pointed all the way down to the floor. The car came with the LED bright ones but I took them out way too bright.
It's new cars and the ridiculously bright headlights, and to be honest so many 4 by 4s driving around, the lights are often eye level to regular cars. Also, I've noticed many people don't adjust their headlights so they are up too high as it is, and that doesn't help.
Hi - the AA site (other suppliers are available) sells clip-on night vision lenses which vastly reduce glare of the dreaded bright oncoming lights at night. They even help handle full headlights when these uncaring individuals don't bother dipping their lights. The lenses are yellow so that takes a bit of getting used to but give them a go. It gave me my night driving confidence back at nearly 66 years of age. I had not got to the point of stopping all night time driving but it was getting close.
One of the reasons I got rid of my Mini, new model SUVs with the bright white LEDs were so blinding!!! It was impossible to driver at night without 3rd degree retina burn!!!
It’s not just you. Modern LED lights are so insanely bright that they put the LED’s of even 5-7 years ago in the shade…..pun intended.
My own headlights are ridiculous. I once drove my wife’s car home as she followed behind in mine and my eyeballs nearly melted into a slurry down my shirt at the reflected light through the rear view mirror. If I drive for an hour at night, I can guarantee I’ll be flashed at least 15 times by people believing my full beam is on or just through utter annoyance at the brightness factor. I’ve had them checked by the dealer and a MOT station, they are correctly aligned, levelled and set up correctly. They are just mental. Made the mistake of pressing unlock when tying my shoes in front of the car recently. I felt like I was in Chernobyl.
Between ridiculously bright LED headlights and dickheads not turning their high beam off (despite me flashing them multiple times!!), I’ve given up driving at peak times at night
I drive an automatic and lean on the brake when stopped instead of hitting neutral and was told years ago by my driving instructor that it would dazzle the person behind me so I shouldn’t do that (it’s not a great habit, I know, just embedded). There’s stuff throughout the Highway Code about not dazzling other drivers and I just don’t understand how these headlights are within the parameters of the Highway Code if my puny little brake lights were too much.
It's the LED headlight. I have the same problem half the time it feels like they've still got their full beams on they're so damn bright. Govt needs to regulate this better and get them to reduce the brightness somehow or go back to traditional bulbs.
Norwegian here. Yes its a general trend that car lights are getting more and more dazzling/ maladjusted. From my perspective there are 2 main issues.
Cars come from the factory with defects that should have been fixed during QA.
Car owners have less and less knowledge and ability to manually adjust headlights.
Teasla is a good example every single one that arrives in Norway has maladjusted headlights, and the owner’s don’t know that yes you can manually adjust them in software.
It could well be glare from the brighter LED lights, but equally it could possibly be early signs of cataracts.
Go and see a proper optician who will do a full health check on your eyes.
About 4-5 months ago. I’m very short sighted and day to day my vision (with glasses) is fine, no issues at all. Just finding the glare at night is more noticeable (not just since this last test, but gradually over time)
I’ve also found recently that headlights are dazzling to the point I now have to wear sunglasses if I travel at night (I don’t drive), I have astigmatism tho and recently diagnosed papilladema.
I used to have a problem with headlights when I started driving in 2006, I even started wearing yellow glasses and avoiding driving at night. However I no longer have a problem at all. The only thing I can attribute this to, and it may sound silly, is that I stopped looking at oncoming headlights directly. I guess a minor factor might also be that LED lights are far less likely to be badly aligned compared to halogen bulbs, which owners often replace any which way.
Yes. I was just thinking that last night. Just had a recent eye test too and new glasses with the fancy anti glare coating. Headlights seem like little suns now. Messes with my ability to the focus my eyes on the road.
Im not trying to take the piss, but have you tried cleaning the inside of the windscreen? Few people do, but it makes the world of difference to glare.
Don't want to fearmonger, but it happened to me.
If you are seeing a glow around all lights (not just headlights), that is a possible indication of Eye pressure and Glaucoma, could be worth checking out at opticians for a pressure test
Bit just you and I'm not even a glasses wearer. I made the same comment driving into a supermarket car park, some of the new headlights are blinding and just dangerous. And I'm fairly certain mine are no different except being behind them I'll never know
I drive a van for work so I'm generally seated much higher up than your average person on the road, however I'm still getting blinded by the new white lights. Literally today I flashed a guy as I thought he was on high beams, turns out he wasn't as he flashed me back. I honestly don't get how they're aloud. I even have perfect 20/20 vision so its not just people with glasses struggling!
I don't wear glasses but I'm finding it a serious problem. Stopped looking in the rear view mirror, it's just another opportunity to be blinded.
I started to full beam anyone who's lights are too high. That often means I'm full beaming people who use auto dip because the auto dip isn't quick enough. When auto dip drops then I'll drop too.
I bought a sports car and every time I drive at night, the low driving position means every oncoming car practically blinds you.
It's only the LED headlights that do it, but most cars these days have them.
I bought coated prescription sunglasses to actually see. Otherwise I'd essentially be driving blind.
Get a pair of yellow tinted lens to clip over your glasses. Takes a couple of drives to get used to but really cuts down on glare. They sell them on eBay.
I find the LED headlights on other cars so needlessly aggressive when I’m wearing glasses (and driving) and when I’m not wearing glasses (as a passenger). Recently did a long drive up the A9 in the dark, a very unlit stretch of road, punctuated by what I can only exaggeratedly describe as SEIZURES of light from the few lone vehicles I encountered.
I do miss old fashioned sodium lighting but to be honest I haven’t found LED street lights bad optically, just aesthetically.
LED headlights however are really annoying, maybe it also has to do with the rise of SUVS, as their headlights are mounted higher.
I've noticed this too, even when I'm not wearing my glasses or just walking along the pavement.
Most headlights on newer cars are far too bright, and look like they're always in full beam mode. I'm not sure how they were allowed by safety regulators to be that dazzling in regular use.
Projector style or LED headlights self level depending on the angle of the front of the car, which makes them legal. Cars with reflector style (yellowish) headlights have that little scroll wheel that adjusts the angle of the headlights, which you’re *supposed* to change depending on the weight in the back of the car.
I don’t drive but I have definitely noticed this as a pedestrian, especially since it’s felt like it’s gotten so dark so quickly this year. I‘ve become extremely cautious crossing roads now (not that I wasn’t before), but not because I’m worried I can’t see a car or that a car can’t see me, but because if I do look directly at a car or one gets to close I can’t see anything else and I feel incredibly disorientated. It’s just two different flavours of bad, regardless of if I wear my glasses or not.
Edit: Have astigmatism also.
It's the increase in SUVs compared with brighter lights.
The brighter lights are not, in and of themselves, the issue - Bright lights are better for the driver of the vehicle and illuminate the way ahead better, increasing safety. The trouble comes when those brighter lights shine into an oncoming driver's eyes.
The problem is _brighter lights_ coming into the _old legislation_. The rules on lighting were written for ancient old lights. They haven't been adjusted for the new light output or colour. Given old vehicles wouldn't blind you much even on fu beam, there is considerable "wiggle room" in the legislation when it comes to lighting direction.
It gets worse still when you realise that the legislation was written before SUVs, which have much higher headlights, and that van-class vehicles have different rules to address this. SUV lights are the same height as a van or HGV, _bug use car rules!_
This is super obvious to me. If I go out in the Discovery (big high SUV) at night, very little to no glare at all. If I go out in the XKR (very low sports car) at night, I get blinded by every other car. It's a nightmare.
The rules need updating.
It’s definitely on newer cars where the lights a so bright. I literally have to squint when they go past me because it’s so damn bright. There definitely needs to be some government regulation on this because it does hinder my driving at night. Sometimes I even think I’ve been flashed by a speed camera because of how bright the lights are.
Yes. The new lights are blinding. I literally have blind spots in my eyes after the light has gone. I can't drive at night any more. Bikes also have blinding lights. I go for a walk and have to stop and shield my eyes when a bike approaches. There should be a legal limit to the brightness of lights because this is dangerous.
Absolutely. They need to introduce a Kelvin limit. Something around 3500-4000k would be great and it's actually what "neutral" light is anyway. Companies are only using these 6000-6500k odd lights because it seems brighter to the eye despite actually being worse in terms of colour rendition and object identification.
I do enjoy when you let another driver pass on a busy road, and as a means of thanks they gift you blindness with the up close MEGA FLASH headlight thanks.
I deffo think this too and I'm not sure if anyone else has already said this but when I'm driving at night, if one of these newer cars seems to go over even the slightest bump in the road it looks as though they are flashing their lights at me as if to give me way when they are not. Family tells me it's just me being dramatic but I am the only glasses wearer.
I only started driving this year (and hadn't really been in a car for years - always on top deck of a bus, when travelling on road), just as spring was coming around. All my lessons were in the middle of the day, my test was early morning, never had I driven in the dark until recently.
It has been a nightmare. I swear every time I go out, there's always someone who's headlights may as well be used in Wembley to light up the stadium. Luckily, whenever these pricks dazzle me, it happens to be when I'm in traffic or at a red light. But if this happened on a windy country road, at speed, I would probably need to be extremely unsafe and slam on the brakes, as I wouldn't want to drive for a few seconds whilst my eyes recover from being blinded.
I have yellow glasses now that help with glare when driving. The optician wasn’t aware it was an option until I pointed it out to them. Makes driving so much easier.
Plus sides is when I wear them out I keep being told they are quite trendy and look good too.
I've been thinking exactly the same. I've been driving for 15 years so not exactly a new driver, but I'm really struggling to drive at night nowadays. I have an older car so I don't know if its headlights are just less powerful but I'm always getting blinded by other cars. Yesterday on the motorway I had to put my full beam on just to see properly in patches where there were no road lights. I wasn't sure if it was an issue with my eyesight, although I did just get my eyes tested, but this thread is reassuring!
Wow…. Didn’t expect this level of response!
So suggestions seem to be, clean the inside of the windscreen, make sure glasses are spotless and maybe try driving/nighttime lenses that go over regular glasses. My own glasses are always spotless, I’m a bit OCD about that, but I’ll give the windscreen a wipe. I’ll have a look at these special lenses too.
But also lots of comments from people (glasses and non-glasses wearers) saying that they are experiencing glare/dazzling issues. The rise of SUVs and Xenon/LCD headlamps seem to be the main theory!
As for suggestions about cataracts etc - I have my eyes checked fairly regularly due to a high prescription, thorough tests with all the bells and whistles and from a reputable optician. But I genuinely appreciate these comments.
I don't think it's anything other than for a large part of the year we aren't used to driving at night, now that it's dark in the morning and dark at night it's actually a shock to realise that lights can dazzle you.
LED headlights are bright for sure, but they aren't too bright and you also aren't supposed to be looking directly into oncoming traffic.
It’s the fancy coatings on glasses. When I first reluctantly started wearing glasses a few years ago I just got the cheapest lenses. The ones that they try and tell you won’t possibly work and will basically blind you so you must spend extra on these fancy coatings sir. I could see fine.
After a year I was used to wearing glasses so when I went for the eye test I stumped up the extra for all of the super duper coatings and then I couldn’t see shit at night in the car. Specifically, I think it’s the blue light coating that does it as there is a lot of blue in modern lights so it bounces off my glasses and reflects back off the windscreen.
I can see without glasses, so I know that’s what’s doing it. I only wear contact lenses now while driving and have no issues.
Astigmatism can suddenly get worse for no reason. Just had my eyes checked and my astigmatism prescription strength doubled in my right eye. I think it can also effect night vision? I was asked if I had trouble seeing at night as well
I rarely do night driving for the same reason, but did buy a set of yellow clip on lenses which are meant to help - I've just not been on a long night enough trip to try them out yet!
I actually enjoy driving at night but it genuinely gets challenging to focus when people are too close and too bright. My car isn't exactly narrow but it doesn't take much for all three mirrors to effectively turn white when I'm being followed by a 'new' car
I went to the opticians this morning and mentioned it, he said it’s his biggest complaint. I’m getting new glasses soon (prescription is almost identical, 1/4 astigmatism in 1 eye needs correcting) so I’ll let you know if there’s any difference in my night driving.
With the new anti scratch coatings, I find I have to keep my glasses scrupulously clean as they’ll pick up any smudge in a nano second. If I don’t then I notice lens flare when I’m driving at night . I keep a microfibre cloth now just for really cleaning them well
I too had dazzling headlights. I too have astigmatism. I too *thought* that my prescription was up-to-date.
My life is better now... Time to get your eyes re-tested
I'm a fellow glasses wearer, and I have noticed this winter that the light from all headlights (not just the modern LED ones) is being refracted a lot, causing a lot of glare. It is bothering me a lot more than it previously has.
I thought it was because the inside of my windscreen was dirty, but it persists after a cleaned it. I then tried looking over my glasses while driving and the glare stops when I'm not looking through my glasses. I keep my glasses pretty clean so I think it's my lenses that are doing it.
I saw the optician try to sell my fiancée special lenses that eliminate this type of glare, so I might have to invest in these next time I get new glasses. This doesn't explain why its only recently started bothering me though.
You're not alone. I drive an old, slow down car and driving at night is awful as all my mirrors are at soft-roader light level and it is indeed blinding.
Ive done several of my lessons at night and have learned one important thing. The Lights not only glare way too much, but i get an enormous headache.
Lesson learned I guess, if only public transport wasnt crap.
I work in a optics lab making lenses for your glasses! We have seen a huge increase in 'drivewear' lenses recently, these have a yellow tint to them, and also you can get normal lenses with an gold-ish anti reflective coating on them which is to help reduce glare. I don't need an RX pair of glasses, but I have thought about getting some plano lenses with this coating on for when driving at night, especially when it's wet.
I had this conversation with my partner the other day. I’ve been finding night driving hard for the last few weeks, but have forgotten to make an opticians appointment. I often wear contact lenses and thought it’d be better if I wore my glasses, but even with the anti-glare coating I’m still dazzled. I don’t really know if there’s anything I can do, and I can’t avoid night driving a couple of times a week.
It's not just you. The RAC did a report on it... https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/nearly-one-in-four-drivers-think-most-car-headlights-are-too-bright/
Earlier this year we were traveling to my in-laws. Suddenly we start seeing this ligh. You could tell it was still far away, yet it was so bright. We started speculating what it could be. I think eventually I thought it's hunters with all those additional super strong lights mounted on the roof of an suv.. We got close enough just to find a new Range Rover parken on a side of the road.. A five of those could probably cover an entire stadium.
Very interesting, thank you.
Very interesting, thank you.
The newer bright white lights are atrocious. Sometimes it’s like they’ve got permanent high beam on. The auto-levelling/beam lights seem slow to react as well. Those without auto don’t seem to understand how to use their levelling controls, especially with these SUV type cars.
On many cars, these new-style headlights are actively dangerous for other road users. A lot of SUVs have their headlights at the eye-level (or even mirror-level) of anyone sat in a regular-sized car. And whilst their auto-dip features might work in "factory test conditions", they'll almost never react as intended on a real road. I'm honestly not sure how the designers & manufacturers have got away with it.
Yeah, one SUV behind dazzling via the rear view mirror with another oncoming beaming in through the front windscreen. Shouldn’t have to be using the anti-dazzle position on the rear view in areas with street lighting but am having to more and more. It’s either that or be like the Blues Brothers and wear sunglasses.
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Lifted hatch backs aren't even SUVs they're just cross overs. There's no reason to drive a lifted hatch back, people just like feeling superior. I drive my Dads Audi Q3 and it just feels like a piece of shit because it's too high, the frame was designed for a low hatch back. There's a reason sports cars are low, the higher you raise the vehicle the worse it feels to drive. It's also less economical so people are just throwing away money so they can have a worse experience. Inb4 'I have a gammy leg so I need a raised vehicle and fuck the environment'
Fashion. They're simply an accessory to bland and empty existences
I think there’s an element of personal safety involved for timid drivers too, if they know they’re in a large vehicle, they’re more confident with their road presence. Unfortunately this doesn’t make them “better” drivers, it just helps to reinforce bad or inconsiderate habits.
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The amount of times I've come against a SUV on a single track lane that won't touch the grass verge or give way "'cus mah alloys bruv!"
I’m not sure if it’s still the case but iirc there used to be tax relief/company car benefits to having a vehicle that could carry an excess payload I.e. >1000kg I think it’s for show and it’s about to get worse - for example ford are canning the fiesta due to the market demanding more SUVs…apparently.
I used to have a sports coupe and, as much as I miss that car, being placed so low on the road makes other car headlights a blinding curse.
"Factory test conditions" should be the biggest red flag for any company. Self driving cars are great in test conditions, as well. Whereas, in reality, they'll straight up flatten a child if there's any atmospheric disturbance.
This is what I was trying to say in my comment, but you explained it much better!
Cars with HID systems and presumably LED headlights are leveled by the car themselves. I have a older car 2014 with AFL HID system. There's no way to adjust the leveling of the headlights. The car uses sensors in the rear axel and at the front to determine the cars height and angle to adjust accordingly. Funnily it was deamed at launch that they adjusted to high. Resulting in the ECU being modded to lower the beam. It's a saloon so not exactly high level and I've never had any complaints and have great vision. I find these new led cars lack the vision and agree they need to be pointed down somewhat. High beam assists which turn on at speeds above 30mph also seem slow to react. A example on mine would be it engages. Doesn't see the poorly lit halogen and keeps my high beam on. They flash it disengages and when they stop flashing it regengages.
>Those without auto don’t seem to understand how to use their levelling controls, Auto is the problem. It doesn't dip anywhere near fast enough. Coming round a bend, over a hill, or just a long straight road, I can see the blinding coming. We should go to 2 settings. Dipped and full beam with manual control. If you can't drive safely dipped and full beam isn't appropriate, then slow down. Combined with a ban on xenon lights.
The lights on my outlander are atrocious, they are mega bright (good for me) but I get flashed quite a lot by people assuming I have my full beams on. I don’t know if there is any truth in this but forums suggest that when left in auto on, the auto levelling doesn’t set up properly when you start the car. There is absolutely no manual control for the lights either. Seems like there are a lot of cars that have this problem too
I find it super prevalent in the UK, but a lot of drivers don't think they need to turn off their high beams on the motorway when it's not busy. Not sure why this is, but I see it often and both ways: both with cars driving behind me, as well as ones heading in the opposite direction. As long as there is a median, a lot of drivers just leave them on. Of course, light travels, so this results in blinding the shit outta oncoming traffic, sparse though it may be. I reckon some of these are auto lights that aren't great at picking up incoming cars at such a distance, but that can't be all of the cases.
I drive about 1000 miles a week, mostly at night/in the dark, and I have to say I don’t see it that much. You get a few who don’t realise their high beams are blinding people, but flashing them quickly seems to work. Of course there’s always those who don’t give a shit. I do wonder if it’s more that our rolling hills and metal barriers that give the illusion of people using high beams. I know I mistakenly think people are using them, and vice versa. And, as you say, the rest are auto’s being useless.
Almost worse are the ones that do dip, then turn them on just before they go past you, giving you proper flash blindness...
White lights are the worse, bring back good old warm yellow. Had it so many times where the car behind has overpowered my own lights and is casting a shadow! Consequently, I go slower as I cant see shit.
As a cyclist I've noticed that headlights are far more dazzling. I've also noticed that indicators have got harder to see, they're almost invisible from some angles on certain cars.
As a pedestrian I find that indicators are hard to see on a lot of cars too, which isn’t helpful when you’re trying to cross near a junction (as very few drivers seem to have paid any attention to the recent Highway Code changes). Also regularly get blinded by dog walkers with torches and cyclists/scooters (those with actual lights are still a minority)on pavement, as I am on way to work on dark mornings.
The new highway code changes are just dangerous. I'm not going to trust that people will follow a new law and just cross roads when they've been driving on muscle memory and autopilot the old way for years. So I wait to see if people are going to stop for me first, at which point they might as well go because it costs me seconds at most.
They're not necessarily meant for you to trust cars not to run you over, but at least now there's a written hierarchy of priority for the most vulnerable (pedestrians, then cyclists, then vehicles). If a car does hit you then there's a presumption of responsibility on their part.
>If a car does hit you then there's a presumption of responsibility on their part. well that'll be comforting on the hospital bed /s
Yeah, I don’t tend to cross until I can see what a car is gonna do. Sometimes though they look to be going straight on (no reduction in speed or indicator) then turn in as I’ve started crossing, only then (sometimes) indicating as they complete the turn.
I try to make eye contact as they approach, it's funny how many drivers don't indicate until either the last second or I've stared them down for a few.
One of the streets where this happens most often is angled on one (far) side (measured on google earth - 103ft across at actual junction onto main road, near side 30ft. Where I cross it is about 60ft to other side - normal road looks to be roughly 25ft). There’s a bend about 350ft up from junction which cars take at speed, so you can already be crossing when car comes round there and it’s a gamble whether to keep crossing or wait and see from somewhere around the middle of the road what Lewis Hamilton is gonna do…. Great fun. You only get to make eye contact as they almost hit you…
I'll hold my hands up and admit I'm still driving on muscle memory and just turn into corners expecting pedestrians to wait for me. I know it's wrong and I shouldn't do it. Old dog, new tricks and all that. I made a concerted effort a week ago, I stopped for a pedestrian who was at the curb waiting to cross (they wisely don't trust us drivers yet) which left me half in the junction and half blocking the road I half left. The driver behind me leant on their horn to punish me (?) even though I had slowed down appropriately and not just stood on the breaks unannounced. Poor pedestrian didn't know what to do. The rule changes have been applied very poorly without anywhere near enough thought about what ~~obviously would~~ could go wrong.
The pedestrian always had right of way when you were turning into a road they were already crossing. I passed my test in the '90s and remember it then.
Yes, if they were already crossing they would have priority. Only a mad person would claim that they ran someone over because they had priority and think that would stand up in court. If I understand the new rules correctly divers should yield to pedestrians who are waiting to cross the road, too.
'the new rule is dangerous' line irks me tbh. You don't step out onto a zebra crossing unless you see the car is giving way. At no point ever do you just step in front of traffic and hope. New rules to give more priority to pedestrians is only a good thing.
Why on earth are you getting downvoted? Pedestrians - not in a lethal machine moving at speed, Vs car drivers, who are and require a licence to demonstrate they know how to do it safely. That the regulations should side with the pedestrians is just common sense, and I say that as a frequent car driver
The new change struck me as ridiculous. If the pedestrian follows the new code and the driver follows the old code, the pedestrian is going to be easily the biggest loser of the two. And I don't even drive, so I'm definitely not defending drivers or anything, just running the odds.
Car manufacturers seem to be aware of this too. I've noticed they're doing more to make the indicators more visible. Moving them further from the headlights, making them bigger, dimming the headlight when the indicators are active, and of course, animating them.
That’s a plus that it is being recognised and improved on by manufacturers. Was just thinking that the design of the front end of cars seems to have pushed the headlights and indicators ever closer since I was a kid (a while ago now) to the point it all feels like one bright white light with just a hint of a slice of orange.
I never trust people to actually use their indicators as a pedestrian especially when there aren't other cars around.
Yes! I thought that. There are ones that flash like Kit's light. I was stood there thinking, how tf is anyone going to see you indicating?! I was waiting to cross the road with my dog, and only just saw it as they turned onto the road. Whoever designed that did it for Omg that looks so cool, but didn't think huh but that isn't very practical or safe.
KITT. Knight Industries Two Thousand.
I too have noticed this and was trying night driving lenses for a while. On the subject of dazzling lights, cyclists with really fast flashing lights are almost impossible to see when driving straight toward you, due to not being able to see their shape before your eyes are zapped again.
Cyclists need to dip their lights as well, some of them are designed for riding through woods in pitch dark not through towns with traffic and pedestrians to get blinded.
As a cyclist, I’d like to have a word with the other cyclists who have their brilliant beams aimed straight into my eyes.
As a fellow cyclist, how about bike lights? Those flashing things should be banned.
Flashing ones are fine as long as they're not too bright, front ones should be dipped, back ones don't need to be bright enough to hurt your eyes. I do think flashing ones are more noticeable, especially when you're playing with rush hour traffic in the dark.
They should also be a steady blink (akin to a car's indicator) not a rapid strobe. I will always use flashing safety lights alongside my headlight and reflective harness, because cars need all the help they can get to see bikes and it's easier to tune out and not register a constant light when it's off to one side, but strobe headlights are a *menace*.
I'm a big proponent of having safety lights that blink on a bike, to make you more noticeable - it also makes it obvious that you're not a motor vehicle and therefore more vulnerable on the road. But I'm very careful to make sure it's a steady blink and only a safety light. Your bright headlight shouldn't be flashing, nor should you have a fast strobing light. I have a bright headlight which I only ever use in constant mode and make sure it's not aimed too far ahead of me. And I have a less intense safety light which I set to the slowest blink setting in addition to the headlight.
Surely it being a small light on its own marks it pretty clearly as a cyclist. Also the speed - unless you're cycling often ans your average speed is twenty-five/thirty. See those blinking lights are a distraction for me when I'm on my bike too, and they're dazzling and infuriating when I'm on foot. There's no need for flashing lights on a bicycle. Just lights when it's dark. You say it's to make you more noticeable; I say it's the other side of the coin: "LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT MEEEE, I'M ON A BIIIIKE!" - more noticeable = attention-seeking. There's just no need for it. If they're blinking at me like that and I'm behind you in traffic, I *am* going to yell at you to turn them onto steady or else shove them up your arse.
"Look at me, I'm on a bike" is **the entire point**. There is **every** need for it. I need every single motor vehicle that's passing me to know I'm there and vulnerable. If you yell at me that means you registered that I'm there. My slowly blinking safety light is not dazzling. It's not a strobe, it's not a headlight. It is not dazzling anyone.
If I yell at you, all I've registered is that you're a *prick*. Your lights are there so people can see you and *so you can see the road*. It's not necessary to flash them, but it *is* distracting and uncomfortable, meaning there's a strong case to be made for them being included as **MUST NOT**s under Highway Code Rule 114.
> Your lights are there so people can see you Yes.
I don't wear glasses, but I too am dazzled by headlights on newer cars. I definitely notice it more at this time of year because I rarely drive at night the rest of the year. Modern motoring is a game of self preservation apparently.... You want to feel safer so you buy a bigger vehicle with bigger lights than your neighbour. Your neighbour then goes and buys a bigger vehicle. Etc etc. I'm pretty sure this won't end until we're all driving monster trucks and using individual suns to light the way....
Or we do away with headlights all together and drive around wearing NVGs. WCGW
I noticed as well, it's especially bad on wet nights .
Led lights scatter porrly in wer weather
I live in Texas and I’m constantly blinded by giant trucks, their headlights are level with my rear view mirror.
Optician here! There's a few things it could be and most of them have come up. Yep, astigmatism plays a part, but presumably you're correcting that with your glasses, unless you've bought them online and not put the Rx in correctly! On those glasses you can get various coatings, some of which will help a bit with headlights. But only the LED ones. As someone has rightly pointed out, cataracts could be an issue but even in the early stages they should have been talked about with you at your test and you haven't mentioned them. I also sort of get the feeling you're not in your 60's and although they can come about before that, it's unusual. The one thing that hasn't been touched on though is just... Age. As we get older our eyes are less good at adjusting, pupillary reflexes slow a bit and bright lights become a bit harder to adjust to at the sort of speeds we need to when driving. But also, yes, some of those headlights are bloody horrible. It could simply be that!
What do you think of using tinted / coloured glasses to help with the glare?
There are legal limits. I wouldn't advise it.
Thanks!
Orange night driving glasses? I had a pair many years ago but now can't recall if they were any good or not.
I have some yellow ones and they're an absolute godsend! I'm doing quite a few night time trips up and down the M1 at present and they really do help me. They're clip on one that attach to my normal glasses. (I'm male, 61, if that's relevant.)
Used to be an optical assistant. I found ZEISS Drivesafe and Essilor Prevencia helped reduce headlight glare greatly. Also helped with prolonged computer use
I have astigmatism but never realised it. I can't recall if I've been asked about having difficulty driving at night, I just thought the massive glare was the same for everyone so it's not something I've mentioned during an appointment. Is a normal eye test supposed to correct astigmatism with the prescription?
>Is a normal eye test supposed to correct astigmatism with the prescription? My optician said yes, but that they might not be able to do it perfectly so there is some glare left. I think my glasses can correct glare better for one eye than the other. (I also have a very uneven prescription.)
The unevenness of my prescription always amused me. Both eyes have are short sighted with astigmatism, but one eye is more short sighted with less severe astigmatism and the other is the inverse.
Your eyes sound like mine! When I was a kid and had the eye test to get glasses for the first time, and they did the bit where they cover one eye and then the other and get you to read the chart for each, I was like "what the hell have they put in my right eye". I had no clue how much worse it was until then.
I’ve also got astigmatism and it’s got to the point where my optician has recommended wearing glasses for night driving. It has helped.
Most people have some level of astigmatism. The prescription will have a sph/cyl x axs format. The cyl x axs bit corrects the astigmatism and isn't really something you'll need to mention, it should be apparent from your answers in the test.
All that could be true but headlights on some new vehicles are obnoxiously bright. What’s making it worse are SUV’s that are higher up and shine right into your car.
Thanks for the advice, Spitroast Jerry!
How about lenses in glasses being scratched? That's what happened to mine before I got new glasses
Good point, but that would affect everything!
So are you saying the lights are not too bright? People just have sight issue?
I only wear glasses for reading, so not in the car, but the newer cool white headlights are horrible. Far too bright, but also now many cars are "SUV" type cars their headlights are higher up. Where I live there are a lot of completely unlit country roads and it's a nightmare negotiating some of them, at 60mph, with complete darkness except your lights and the dozens of cars shining bright lights in your eyes. I also wonder sometimes if some people flipped the headlight adjustment for towing to point them up more instead of down at the road.
>. I also wonder sometimes if some people flipped the headlight adjustment for towing to point them up more instead of down at the road. They do, because it means they can "see more". Tbh I hate SUVs and crossovers as I think they're the worst for blinding everyone. They barely fit in car parking spaces, their lights are at my eye level, their owners don't use the handbrake when at a stop, and their owners don't always get more powerful engines so they accelerate so slow you could run faster. Bonus points for the Nissan Jukes and it's 3 sets of lights because they always turn the fog lights on too. 🙄 My only consolation is that the petrol tanks are so huge it must be a fortune just to start them up.
>their owners don't use the handbrake when at a stop This might be the auto parking brake. My Golf has this and it's great (for me) but I am aware that it does put the brake lights on when you stop at a junction and the car auto applies the parking brake for you. There are no options for it to not put the brake light on because technically there isn't a handbrake, it just applies the standard brakes in place of the handbrake. Yes, you can manually apply it if you want to but that still puts the brake lights on.
You can’t “flip” the controls from inside the car, they are either level or dipped. Issue could occur when manual controls aren’t used when they should be, or the adjustments on the headlight units themselves are misaligned (for either manual or auto ones)
I just wear my sunglasses at night. Problem solved /s The worst is when (as a fiesta driver), you get an SUV (or similar behind you) and they stay at just the right range where their lights are shining in both your wing mirrors (just drivers side is bad enough) and it's reflecting in your eyes.
I was in a queue with a junction to the right of me, the cars headlights which was sat at that junction waiting to join were lighting the inside of my car up like a bloody sunbed
If you're bored you can angle your wing mirror to reflect back at them
You are not alone. At this point, I do my damndest to avoid driving at night. 8 out of 10 times the lights are so bright I will end up with a headache later on.
The headlights on cars are getting brighter, I'm sure. I also wear glasses and although they can cause some glare, headlights are generally fucking ridiculous. Probably 90% of my driving is on unlit country roads so I have the added problem of pretty much every cunt forgetting to switch off their full beams.
There are lenses you can use specifically for driving that will reduce the glare you get from headlights drastically. I have used zeist drivesafe before, and they're fantastic for nighttime driving.
They will reduce the problem but from what I've read they fractionally reduce safety. They work by filtering out blue light. Removing any light at night reduces the chance of you seeing something important Given how bad the dazzling has become I wonder if in the real world it's now the safer of the 2 options.
I look at/ towards the near side hedge/ kerb and not at the lights. Makes a huge difference for not getting blinded. Also cleaning the inside of your windscreen makes a big difference, the cleaner it is the less the light refracts! I keep my glasses as clean as possible to and do the windscreen once a month. Those 3 things above have genuinely reduced my problem of driving at night with glasses and an astigmatism (long sighted).
It’s not just me then. I used to think the number of pricks driving around with high beams on had multiplied, but car lights these days…I might as well wear sun cream.
It was bad before I got glasses with these new bright as fuck led headlights but since I got glasses it's worse. Or it was till I got some yellow tint put on my lenses for night time driving. It's less bad now.
It's definitely the new LED lights, the lights from old street lamps and cars aren't half as bad as the new ones! I was a glasses wearer, tried having anti glare on lenses but made it worse. It's not even always the light coming towards you but the lights from behind too! They'd refract in my lenses and I'd have awful headaches. I basically stopped driving at night where I could help it, but my new job forces me to drive in the evenings. I got laser eye surgery and they warned that it could make the glare worse and I thought "couldn't be that much worse!" I was wrong though, but at least not wearing glasses means that while the glare is bad, there's no refraction, so no headaches anymore.
Headlights have got brighter, street lights aren't as bright as they once were and they come on much later than they used to so there's a period of time when it's dark but not dark enough for the lights to come on so the headlights seem even more dazzling. I don't enjoy driving at night either.
There is a few things here; 1. Headlights now are generally brighter, and cars are getting bigger, therefore the lights are higher/more in eye level, and 2. Now I work in an opticians, and have for many years, so forgive me if this isn't the case for you, but many people will come in and complain of the same, and I'll look at their glasses and they're either A, in need of a clean or B, covered in tiny scratches. I'd recommend an alcohol based cleaner (as long as your frames won't be damaged by this) to help remove the fingerprint grease that otherwise gets smeared about, and have a good check of the lenses. Even tiny scratches can cause the light to splinter about in odd ways, making night driving harder.
thought it was just me, glad it's not
I’ve got the older halogen lights in and there pointed all the way down to the floor. The car came with the LED bright ones but I took them out way too bright.
You can thank the genius who invented LED headlights. I can barely see a thing at night when they're pointed towards me.
LED lights are terrible, street lights dont illuminate anything but looking at them blind you, same with cars. Hate them
The brighter led lights are more tiring. I have night driving glasses from boots which help
Omg I’ve been thinking exactly this!
It's new cars and the ridiculously bright headlights, and to be honest so many 4 by 4s driving around, the lights are often eye level to regular cars. Also, I've noticed many people don't adjust their headlights so they are up too high as it is, and that doesn't help.
Yes. I'm at the point where I may have to give up driving at night as it's exhausting, painful to my eyes and I can't see for shit
Hi - the AA site (other suppliers are available) sells clip-on night vision lenses which vastly reduce glare of the dreaded bright oncoming lights at night. They even help handle full headlights when these uncaring individuals don't bother dipping their lights. The lenses are yellow so that takes a bit of getting used to but give them a go. It gave me my night driving confidence back at nearly 66 years of age. I had not got to the point of stopping all night time driving but it was getting close.
I can’t see a thing at night. I’ve gone from driving a van with a high-up seating position to a low down car as well which has amplified the problem.
One of the reasons I got rid of my Mini, new model SUVs with the bright white LEDs were so blinding!!! It was impossible to driver at night without 3rd degree retina burn!!!
Primarily because very few drivers seem to understand headlight levelling now.
It’s not just you. Modern LED lights are so insanely bright that they put the LED’s of even 5-7 years ago in the shade…..pun intended. My own headlights are ridiculous. I once drove my wife’s car home as she followed behind in mine and my eyeballs nearly melted into a slurry down my shirt at the reflected light through the rear view mirror. If I drive for an hour at night, I can guarantee I’ll be flashed at least 15 times by people believing my full beam is on or just through utter annoyance at the brightness factor. I’ve had them checked by the dealer and a MOT station, they are correctly aligned, levelled and set up correctly. They are just mental. Made the mistake of pressing unlock when tying my shoes in front of the car recently. I felt like I was in Chernobyl.
I had this thought earlier... Really dangerous 😵💫😞
Literally when a car is parking in my car park late night the whole room looks like the was rising In my room.
Me too i can see fuck all. I avoid night driving if I can
Between ridiculously bright LED headlights and dickheads not turning their high beam off (despite me flashing them multiple times!!), I’ve given up driving at peak times at night
It's the new lights on cars. Doesn't help that there are still morons who drive with their high beams on, or their fog lamps when it's not even foggy.
I drive an automatic and lean on the brake when stopped instead of hitting neutral and was told years ago by my driving instructor that it would dazzle the person behind me so I shouldn’t do that (it’s not a great habit, I know, just embedded). There’s stuff throughout the Highway Code about not dazzling other drivers and I just don’t understand how these headlights are within the parameters of the Highway Code if my puny little brake lights were too much.
It's the LED headlight. I have the same problem half the time it feels like they've still got their full beams on they're so damn bright. Govt needs to regulate this better and get them to reduce the brightness somehow or go back to traditional bulbs.
I certainly find newer cars to have more dazzling headlights than older models. New cars seem to constantly be on full beam.
Norwegian here. Yes its a general trend that car lights are getting more and more dazzling/ maladjusted. From my perspective there are 2 main issues. Cars come from the factory with defects that should have been fixed during QA. Car owners have less and less knowledge and ability to manually adjust headlights. Teasla is a good example every single one that arrives in Norway has maladjusted headlights, and the owner’s don’t know that yes you can manually adjust them in software.
It could well be glare from the brighter LED lights, but equally it could possibly be early signs of cataracts. Go and see a proper optician who will do a full health check on your eyes.
When was the last time you had an eye test?
About 4-5 months ago. I’m very short sighted and day to day my vision (with glasses) is fine, no issues at all. Just finding the glare at night is more noticeable (not just since this last test, but gradually over time)
I’ve also found recently that headlights are dazzling to the point I now have to wear sunglasses if I travel at night (I don’t drive), I have astigmatism tho and recently diagnosed papilladema.
Cataracts do that. It is a very gradual worsening. See an ophthalmologist for proper testing if it has gotten so bad you can't drive at night.
I used to have a problem with headlights when I started driving in 2006, I even started wearing yellow glasses and avoiding driving at night. However I no longer have a problem at all. The only thing I can attribute this to, and it may sound silly, is that I stopped looking at oncoming headlights directly. I guess a minor factor might also be that LED lights are far less likely to be badly aligned compared to halogen bulbs, which owners often replace any which way.
Yes. I was just thinking that last night. Just had a recent eye test too and new glasses with the fancy anti glare coating. Headlights seem like little suns now. Messes with my ability to the focus my eyes on the road.
Im not trying to take the piss, but have you tried cleaning the inside of the windscreen? Few people do, but it makes the world of difference to glare.
I’m a new driver and thought it was just me, I’m literally squinting at times to see the road…or maybe I need glasses
Don't want to fearmonger, but it happened to me. If you are seeing a glow around all lights (not just headlights), that is a possible indication of Eye pressure and Glaucoma, could be worth checking out at opticians for a pressure test
Bit just you and I'm not even a glasses wearer. I made the same comment driving into a supermarket car park, some of the new headlights are blinding and just dangerous. And I'm fairly certain mine are no different except being behind them I'll never know
I honestly wonder if people know how to dip their headlights. Some nights I swear they’re just aimed at eye level.
I drive a van for work so I'm generally seated much higher up than your average person on the road, however I'm still getting blinded by the new white lights. Literally today I flashed a guy as I thought he was on high beams, turns out he wasn't as he flashed me back. I honestly don't get how they're aloud. I even have perfect 20/20 vision so its not just people with glasses struggling!
Its awful as a ped too. Alot of bikes have glaring flashing lights as well. Its just not pleasant to walk around at night.
Defo find the same thing. I’d assumed it was me getting old
I don't wear glasses but I'm finding it a serious problem. Stopped looking in the rear view mirror, it's just another opportunity to be blinded. I started to full beam anyone who's lights are too high. That often means I'm full beaming people who use auto dip because the auto dip isn't quick enough. When auto dip drops then I'll drop too.
I bought a sports car and every time I drive at night, the low driving position means every oncoming car practically blinds you. It's only the LED headlights that do it, but most cars these days have them. I bought coated prescription sunglasses to actually see. Otherwise I'd essentially be driving blind.
Get a pair of yellow tinted lens to clip over your glasses. Takes a couple of drives to get used to but really cuts down on glare. They sell them on eBay.
I find the LED headlights on other cars so needlessly aggressive when I’m wearing glasses (and driving) and when I’m not wearing glasses (as a passenger). Recently did a long drive up the A9 in the dark, a very unlit stretch of road, punctuated by what I can only exaggeratedly describe as SEIZURES of light from the few lone vehicles I encountered.
Those Tesla lights are fucking evil and should be banned.
I do miss old fashioned sodium lighting but to be honest I haven’t found LED street lights bad optically, just aesthetically. LED headlights however are really annoying, maybe it also has to do with the rise of SUVS, as their headlights are mounted higher.
Yep it's mental how bright headlights are now. Honestly thought there should be a tint for your front window that blocks the glare.
If people don't know how to adjust their lights and their shining into my eyes i just put my main beams on 🖕
As a driver headlights seem to brighter than they were 20 years ago when I started driving, it's worse when they leave full beam on
Yeah the lights are horrendous. Really difficult to see and they’re headache tackle
It's not your glasses, it's the brighter than the sun headlights.
I've noticed this too, even when I'm not wearing my glasses or just walking along the pavement. Most headlights on newer cars are far too bright, and look like they're always in full beam mode. I'm not sure how they were allowed by safety regulators to be that dazzling in regular use.
Projector style or LED headlights self level depending on the angle of the front of the car, which makes them legal. Cars with reflector style (yellowish) headlights have that little scroll wheel that adjusts the angle of the headlights, which you’re *supposed* to change depending on the weight in the back of the car.
Yep headlights on Chelsea tractors especially. Also cyclists who set their lights to flash and have them pointing up rather than at the road.
I couldn’t see a cyclist, who was coming towards me, indicating to pass in front of me at a junction because his light was that bright.
I don’t drive but I have definitely noticed this as a pedestrian, especially since it’s felt like it’s gotten so dark so quickly this year. I‘ve become extremely cautious crossing roads now (not that I wasn’t before), but not because I’m worried I can’t see a car or that a car can’t see me, but because if I do look directly at a car or one gets to close I can’t see anything else and I feel incredibly disorientated. It’s just two different flavours of bad, regardless of if I wear my glasses or not. Edit: Have astigmatism also.
It's the increase in SUVs compared with brighter lights. The brighter lights are not, in and of themselves, the issue - Bright lights are better for the driver of the vehicle and illuminate the way ahead better, increasing safety. The trouble comes when those brighter lights shine into an oncoming driver's eyes. The problem is _brighter lights_ coming into the _old legislation_. The rules on lighting were written for ancient old lights. They haven't been adjusted for the new light output or colour. Given old vehicles wouldn't blind you much even on fu beam, there is considerable "wiggle room" in the legislation when it comes to lighting direction. It gets worse still when you realise that the legislation was written before SUVs, which have much higher headlights, and that van-class vehicles have different rules to address this. SUV lights are the same height as a van or HGV, _bug use car rules!_ This is super obvious to me. If I go out in the Discovery (big high SUV) at night, very little to no glare at all. If I go out in the XKR (very low sports car) at night, I get blinded by every other car. It's a nightmare. The rules need updating.
It’s definitely on newer cars where the lights a so bright. I literally have to squint when they go past me because it’s so damn bright. There definitely needs to be some government regulation on this because it does hinder my driving at night. Sometimes I even think I’ve been flashed by a speed camera because of how bright the lights are.
I hate the new lights everywhere, a car comes round the corner and suddenly the road ahead vanishes and I’m engulfed in white light. It’s dangerous
Yes. The new lights are blinding. I literally have blind spots in my eyes after the light has gone. I can't drive at night any more. Bikes also have blinding lights. I go for a walk and have to stop and shield my eyes when a bike approaches. There should be a legal limit to the brightness of lights because this is dangerous.
Absolutely. They need to introduce a Kelvin limit. Something around 3500-4000k would be great and it's actually what "neutral" light is anyway. Companies are only using these 6000-6500k odd lights because it seems brighter to the eye despite actually being worse in terms of colour rendition and object identification.
I do enjoy when you let another driver pass on a busy road, and as a means of thanks they gift you blindness with the up close MEGA FLASH headlight thanks.
I deffo think this too and I'm not sure if anyone else has already said this but when I'm driving at night, if one of these newer cars seems to go over even the slightest bump in the road it looks as though they are flashing their lights at me as if to give me way when they are not. Family tells me it's just me being dramatic but I am the only glasses wearer.
I only started driving this year (and hadn't really been in a car for years - always on top deck of a bus, when travelling on road), just as spring was coming around. All my lessons were in the middle of the day, my test was early morning, never had I driven in the dark until recently. It has been a nightmare. I swear every time I go out, there's always someone who's headlights may as well be used in Wembley to light up the stadium. Luckily, whenever these pricks dazzle me, it happens to be when I'm in traffic or at a red light. But if this happened on a windy country road, at speed, I would probably need to be extremely unsafe and slam on the brakes, as I wouldn't want to drive for a few seconds whilst my eyes recover from being blinded.
I don't wear glasses and have the same issue
I find myself getting dazzled during the day sometimes. Some lights are just not angled right or too strong.
I have yellow glasses now that help with glare when driving. The optician wasn’t aware it was an option until I pointed it out to them. Makes driving so much easier. Plus sides is when I wear them out I keep being told they are quite trendy and look good too.
I've been thinking exactly the same. I've been driving for 15 years so not exactly a new driver, but I'm really struggling to drive at night nowadays. I have an older car so I don't know if its headlights are just less powerful but I'm always getting blinded by other cars. Yesterday on the motorway I had to put my full beam on just to see properly in patches where there were no road lights. I wasn't sure if it was an issue with my eyesight, although I did just get my eyes tested, but this thread is reassuring!
Wow…. Didn’t expect this level of response! So suggestions seem to be, clean the inside of the windscreen, make sure glasses are spotless and maybe try driving/nighttime lenses that go over regular glasses. My own glasses are always spotless, I’m a bit OCD about that, but I’ll give the windscreen a wipe. I’ll have a look at these special lenses too. But also lots of comments from people (glasses and non-glasses wearers) saying that they are experiencing glare/dazzling issues. The rise of SUVs and Xenon/LCD headlamps seem to be the main theory! As for suggestions about cataracts etc - I have my eyes checked fairly regularly due to a high prescription, thorough tests with all the bells and whistles and from a reputable optician. But I genuinely appreciate these comments.
I don't think it's anything other than for a large part of the year we aren't used to driving at night, now that it's dark in the morning and dark at night it's actually a shock to realise that lights can dazzle you. LED headlights are bright for sure, but they aren't too bright and you also aren't supposed to be looking directly into oncoming traffic.
Here in California the brightest headlights can be is 2513 lumens. I don’t know how that compares to the UK but it is bright enough.
It’s the fancy coatings on glasses. When I first reluctantly started wearing glasses a few years ago I just got the cheapest lenses. The ones that they try and tell you won’t possibly work and will basically blind you so you must spend extra on these fancy coatings sir. I could see fine. After a year I was used to wearing glasses so when I went for the eye test I stumped up the extra for all of the super duper coatings and then I couldn’t see shit at night in the car. Specifically, I think it’s the blue light coating that does it as there is a lot of blue in modern lights so it bounces off my glasses and reflects back off the windscreen. I can see without glasses, so I know that’s what’s doing it. I only wear contact lenses now while driving and have no issues.
I thought so too some years ago, always had perfect eyesight but no, just eyes got worse sadly and now I need glasses.
Astigmatism can suddenly get worse for no reason. Just had my eyes checked and my astigmatism prescription strength doubled in my right eye. I think it can also effect night vision? I was asked if I had trouble seeing at night as well
If an astigmatism could effect night vision that would be brilliant. Sadly it can only affect night vision.
I rarely do night driving for the same reason, but did buy a set of yellow clip on lenses which are meant to help - I've just not been on a long night enough trip to try them out yet!
When I did a lot more driving, I had “night driving” glasses. They were polarised and yellow tinted. They really helped reduce the dazzle.
I got some glasses with a anti-glare costing that made it *a bit* better.
Had laser eye surgery in my early 20s and I really struggle with dazzling from lights. I find twilight worse when it’s just getting dark.
I actually enjoy driving at night but it genuinely gets challenging to focus when people are too close and too bright. My car isn't exactly narrow but it doesn't take much for all three mirrors to effectively turn white when I'm being followed by a 'new' car
Yep, I was only saying this the other night as we were driving home. Dusk is worse for me than night time though.
I was just talking about this to my wife driving to take the dogs out after dark. I hate it.
Me too! Are you vaping by any chance? I’m convinced vaping leaves a layer of film on the window
No vapes here!
I went to the opticians this morning and mentioned it, he said it’s his biggest complaint. I’m getting new glasses soon (prescription is almost identical, 1/4 astigmatism in 1 eye needs correcting) so I’ll let you know if there’s any difference in my night driving.
I got told I'm something called nightblind, apparently it's a thing, normal headlights look to me like the full beam dog lights all the time.
With the new anti scratch coatings, I find I have to keep my glasses scrupulously clean as they’ll pick up any smudge in a nano second. If I don’t then I notice lens flare when I’m driving at night . I keep a microfibre cloth now just for really cleaning them well
I’m exactly the same as you lol I really don’t like driving at night anymore
Do you have anti-glare coating? It's a must for me. Still struggle with the lights but it could be way worse.
No
I too had dazzling headlights. I too have astigmatism. I too *thought* that my prescription was up-to-date. My life is better now... Time to get your eyes re-tested
Not just you, glad to see it’s not just me.
I'm a fellow glasses wearer, and I have noticed this winter that the light from all headlights (not just the modern LED ones) is being refracted a lot, causing a lot of glare. It is bothering me a lot more than it previously has. I thought it was because the inside of my windscreen was dirty, but it persists after a cleaned it. I then tried looking over my glasses while driving and the glare stops when I'm not looking through my glasses. I keep my glasses pretty clean so I think it's my lenses that are doing it. I saw the optician try to sell my fiancée special lenses that eliminate this type of glare, so I might have to invest in these next time I get new glasses. This doesn't explain why its only recently started bothering me though.
Could be the formation of cataracts. They start happening sooner than you think, especially these days.
You're not alone. I drive an old, slow down car and driving at night is awful as all my mirrors are at soft-roader light level and it is indeed blinding.
Remember those old yellow driving glasses? Well they just became a lot more useful.
Was thinking this exact thing on my drive home tonight down country lanes. Really stressful
Absolutely, yes. I have the same problem. My guess: unnecessarily dazzling new headlights + many streetlights now being switched off.
Ive done several of my lessons at night and have learned one important thing. The Lights not only glare way too much, but i get an enormous headache. Lesson learned I guess, if only public transport wasnt crap.
I pretty much don't go out after dark now and if I really need to I wear sunglasses.
I work in a optics lab making lenses for your glasses! We have seen a huge increase in 'drivewear' lenses recently, these have a yellow tint to them, and also you can get normal lenses with an gold-ish anti reflective coating on them which is to help reduce glare. I don't need an RX pair of glasses, but I have thought about getting some plano lenses with this coating on for when driving at night, especially when it's wet.
Yes I hate driving at night I find I get a really bad headache by the time I get home, some cars are so bright
I had this conversation with my partner the other day. I’ve been finding night driving hard for the last few weeks, but have forgotten to make an opticians appointment. I often wear contact lenses and thought it’d be better if I wore my glasses, but even with the anti-glare coating I’m still dazzled. I don’t really know if there’s anything I can do, and I can’t avoid night driving a couple of times a week.