I'm 74. I've found that cheap night driving glasses from Amazon to be a big help. They fit over my regular glasses. In addition to making objects clearer, they reduce the glare from on-coming cars. I gave a pair to a friend, also 74, and he said they helped him as well.
It's unclear to me, from the Amazon descriotions and the user reviews, whether these supposed glare-reducing glasses for night driving are any different from ordinary amber sunglasses any golfer already carries.
This is definitely a real, serious issue. My eyes check out well, but I have frequently been dazzled by modern headlights to the point where I was unable to see the road or anything surrounding the oncoming vehicle.
I believe that the main problem with LED's is that they are emitted from relatively tiny point sources and are far more coherent (laser-like) than halogens.
A halogen or other incandescent has a relatively huge filament that is emitting a much broader (and lower-energy/reddish) mix of wavelengths in all directions, which then bounce around in the reflector and quickly scatter over a wide area.
An LED is a tiny point source, heavily biased towards the most penetrating, high-energy blueish wavelengths that hit our retinal rods the hardest. The light is far more coherent, so it penetrates further and scatters less in air. Not only is it dazzling, it scatters into intense and disorienting halos when it hits a windshield, dirty lens, or a cataract.
Home LED bulbs are available in a variety of color temperatures so I assume they could make the headlights less blue if that turns out to be the problem. If the issue is the uniformity of the beam, perhaps they could point a bright beam down at the road and a secondary more diffuse beam optimized for road signs and their reflector paint. Then they could have a third, much less intense beam at driver eye and mirror level
Musk's cybertruck has a long light bar instead of headlights. While it looks like a terrifying UFO in the back window, it isn't as dazzling as typical headlight pairs. It seems like a clever way to put out the same light output over a broader, more diffuse area.
When this subject comes upon Reddit - which I know because about once a year I am exasperated enough to see if *anyone* else hates them as much as I do - the hive pipes up to assert that people are “changing the direction of their headlights” and all that needs doing is to point them correctly.
For starters, a new or lifted truck whose lights are 5-6 feet off the ground could have lights shining downward and it would make little difference.
But secondarily, I’m pretty sure Americans are too lazy to randomly alter the direction of their headlights after the car comes off the line.
If one is always blaming the pedestrians, then one is probably wrong. Black Pedestrians are being killed at a much higher rate because blacks live near black drivers who believe that rules are for others.
Another two issues is both drivers and pedestrians using ear buds and how everyone is dressed in black at night.
I read an article years ago which claimed it was nearly impossible to get a conviction on a motorist who hit a cyclist because everyone in the jury pool identifies as a motorist (that coulda been me!)
I find headlights progressively more dazzling over the last ten years although this is possibly fully confounded by my eyes getting older.
I live at a high latitude and driving in winter evenings is a real chore due to visual overload. It’s particularly bad in wet weather when there is glare from streaks on the windshield.
The worst offenders are cyclists many of whom point 1,000 flashing lumens straight in the eyes of oncoming traffic.
I find it increasingly hard to notice hazards (like pedestrians and potholes) which aren’t fully lit up.
A late night around 1999 driving south on I-5 toward LA has a particular place in my memory. I was tired, and the white-hot halogen bulbs on some cars in my rearview mirror were a problem. They were not exactly blinding, but the intensity was very tiring on the eyes and the rest of me in a way that the more standard, somewhat yellowish lights were not.
A late night in 1985 driving south on I-5 toward L.A. has a particular place in my memory. I was driving a "probable cause vehicle" (76 Eldorado), doing about 65, and listening to the Dodger-Giant game, when I was pulled over by CHP. He came to the window and asked who was winning. I said, "2-1 Giants in the 8th." He said, "OK, find someone to run with."
My cataracts are still about four years from qualifying for the fix, so I really need help with blinding lights on the night road. Found a cheap outlet for Rx glasses selling a deep amber sunglass lens that works great; really cuts back the headlight glare. Of course after dialing back the LED glare I can’t see shit else, but being handy with a dent puller and having a drain in the garage floor for evidence removal is Way of the Boomer basics, right? Man, I hate the ones that go over the top, though.
I live out in the country and the LED headlights make a big difference in seeing deer but I know my lights are pretty blinding. The high beams will melt the eyes out of your socket like the guy in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Would I need them if I lived in town where there are streetlights? Probably not but where I live the only light is what you get from the headlights.
Add taller cars and more pickup trucks on the road to the problem. LEDs in low-slung vehicles are not usually the problem. It's the lights 5' off the ground that blind you.
My peeves are pedestrians in dark clothing, holding cell phones, and wearing ear buds.
Right, but why would the trend only show up at night? I'm not sure the headlight thing is the cause since the bright headlight revolution only started in 2015 or so when the IIHS made it their new big push for getting their Top Safety Picks. I'm genuinely curious what the causes are since none of the hypotheses I've seen fit the data.
I like the home LED bulbs after resisting and being forced by California to use them. The legislature did something clever. The regulations only allow the sale of certain LEDs that are judged to be visually pleasing. So I would go to amazon and find that no incandescent bulbs would ship to California and even some LEDs wouldn't. The point I assume, is that when the voters were unhappy about being forced to use LED bulbs, at the very least they wanted them to not be worse looking light than what they replaced.
Only issue is flicker which is random and often caused by incompatible dimmers.
I had to replace all the dimmers in our house to get our new LED downlights to dim properly (the Lutron LED+ line should work with pretty much everything going forward).
Dimming LED's is technically somewhat difficult. Generally, only the better bubs and fixtures clearly labeled as dimmable function adequately.
Don't LED dimmers just work on PWM? If so the light is turning on and off rapidly to dim and you only notice that some of the time (your eyes have a pretty low "refresh rate")
Some incandescent streetlights in my town have been replaced with LEDs. They are purplish and dont seem to illuminate much of anything. Apparently the power company supplies the power for streetlights free of charge and wants to use LEDs because they are cheaper.
The purple light means they're defective. My power company's website has a way of reporting them, and their contractor replaced 10 near me within a couple of days of my doing so. Sometimes I miss the indigo light in the distance, but it is the city's major thoroughfare that needs good illumination. You'd think the police would have reported the lights.
I'm 74. I've found that cheap night driving glasses from Amazon to be a big help. They fit over my regular glasses. In addition to making objects clearer, they reduce the glare from on-coming cars. I gave a pair to a friend, also 74, and he said they helped him as well.
I have a friend who's mom is in her 70s and he says that those glasses have really helped her with night driving as well.
I'm 74. I'm buying some!
It's unclear to me, from the Amazon descriotions and the user reviews, whether these supposed glare-reducing glasses for night driving are any different from ordinary amber sunglasses any golfer already carries.
> Blinded by the Light
The only number 1 song written by Bruce Springsteen, but it was the Manfred Mann's Earth Band cover that had this distinction
I had completely forgotten that Bruce wrote it and sang it first.
Ultra-bright LEDs don't do much for seeing if a pedestrian is wearing dark, non-reflective clothing.
As Americans get fatter, they tend to wear darker clothing.
Maybe Ozempic will reverse that fashion trend?
Some people have discovered the importance of not being seen. "It was the middle one."
This is definitely a real, serious issue. My eyes check out well, but I have frequently been dazzled by modern headlights to the point where I was unable to see the road or anything surrounding the oncoming vehicle.
I believe that the main problem with LED's is that they are emitted from relatively tiny point sources and are far more coherent (laser-like) than halogens.
A halogen or other incandescent has a relatively huge filament that is emitting a much broader (and lower-energy/reddish) mix of wavelengths in all directions, which then bounce around in the reflector and quickly scatter over a wide area.
An LED is a tiny point source, heavily biased towards the most penetrating, high-energy blueish wavelengths that hit our retinal rods the hardest. The light is far more coherent, so it penetrates further and scatters less in air. Not only is it dazzling, it scatters into intense and disorienting halos when it hits a windshield, dirty lens, or a cataract.
Home LED bulbs are available in a variety of color temperatures so I assume they could make the headlights less blue if that turns out to be the problem. If the issue is the uniformity of the beam, perhaps they could point a bright beam down at the road and a secondary more diffuse beam optimized for road signs and their reflector paint. Then they could have a third, much less intense beam at driver eye and mirror level
Musk's cybertruck has a long light bar instead of headlights. While it looks like a terrifying UFO in the back window, it isn't as dazzling as typical headlight pairs. It seems like a clever way to put out the same light output over a broader, more diffuse area.
When this subject comes upon Reddit - which I know because about once a year I am exasperated enough to see if *anyone* else hates them as much as I do - the hive pipes up to assert that people are “changing the direction of their headlights” and all that needs doing is to point them correctly.
For starters, a new or lifted truck whose lights are 5-6 feet off the ground could have lights shining downward and it would make little difference.
But secondarily, I’m pretty sure Americans are too lazy to randomly alter the direction of their headlights after the car comes off the line.
If one is always blaming the pedestrians, then one is probably wrong. Black Pedestrians are being killed at a much higher rate because blacks live near black drivers who believe that rules are for others.
Another two issues is both drivers and pedestrians using ear buds and how everyone is dressed in black at night.
I read an article years ago which claimed it was nearly impossible to get a conviction on a motorist who hit a cyclist because everyone in the jury pool identifies as a motorist (that coulda been me!)
Black pedestrians also believe that rules are for others
I find headlights progressively more dazzling over the last ten years although this is possibly fully confounded by my eyes getting older.
I live at a high latitude and driving in winter evenings is a real chore due to visual overload. It’s particularly bad in wet weather when there is glare from streaks on the windshield.
The worst offenders are cyclists many of whom point 1,000 flashing lumens straight in the eyes of oncoming traffic.
I find it increasingly hard to notice hazards (like pedestrians and potholes) which aren’t fully lit up.
Around me, the Mexican kitchen workers are notorious for walking or cycling home, unlit and clad in black pants and dark hoodies.
My theory puts the blame on “driving while texting”, a practice especially dangerous for pedestrians.
I have noticed that since LED lights began to predominate, there are far more crazy stupid humans around and about.
A late night around 1999 driving south on I-5 toward LA has a particular place in my memory. I was tired, and the white-hot halogen bulbs on some cars in my rearview mirror were a problem. They were not exactly blinding, but the intensity was very tiring on the eyes and the rest of me in a way that the more standard, somewhat yellowish lights were not.
Doesn't your rear view mirror have a tab that causes it to dim what it reflects?
A late night in 1985 driving south on I-5 toward L.A. has a particular place in my memory. I was driving a "probable cause vehicle" (76 Eldorado), doing about 65, and listening to the Dodger-Giant game, when I was pulled over by CHP. He came to the window and asked who was winning. I said, "2-1 Giants in the 8th." He said, "OK, find someone to run with."
My cataracts are still about four years from qualifying for the fix, so I really need help with blinding lights on the night road. Found a cheap outlet for Rx glasses selling a deep amber sunglass lens that works great; really cuts back the headlight glare. Of course after dialing back the LED glare I can’t see shit else, but being handy with a dent puller and having a drain in the garage floor for evidence removal is Way of the Boomer basics, right? Man, I hate the ones that go over the top, though.
I live out in the country and the LED headlights make a big difference in seeing deer but I know my lights are pretty blinding. The high beams will melt the eyes out of your socket like the guy in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Would I need them if I lived in town where there are streetlights? Probably not but where I live the only light is what you get from the headlights.
Add taller cars and more pickup trucks on the road to the problem. LEDs in low-slung vehicles are not usually the problem. It's the lights 5' off the ground that blind you.
My peeves are pedestrians in dark clothing, holding cell phones, and wearing ear buds.
Pickups with blinding lights are the worst because their lights are right at eye level for me in my car.
I ask rhetorically, what road hazards do you need to see 6' above the road? ? Are pythons dropping from the trees?
I agree. All I can see is teefs and iballs.
Notice that pedestrian deaths started going up around 2008/2009. Just about when smartphones started to take off.
Right, but why would the trend only show up at night? I'm not sure the headlight thing is the cause since the bright headlight revolution only started in 2015 or so when the IIHS made it their new big push for getting their Top Safety Picks. I'm genuinely curious what the causes are since none of the hypotheses I've seen fit the data.
Aging boomers with poor night vision and sensitivity to bright lights?
I like the home LED bulbs after resisting and being forced by California to use them. The legislature did something clever. The regulations only allow the sale of certain LEDs that are judged to be visually pleasing. So I would go to amazon and find that no incandescent bulbs would ship to California and even some LEDs wouldn't. The point I assume, is that when the voters were unhappy about being forced to use LED bulbs, at the very least they wanted them to not be worse looking light than what they replaced.
Only issue is flicker which is random and often caused by incompatible dimmers.
I had to replace all the dimmers in our house to get our new LED downlights to dim properly (the Lutron LED+ line should work with pretty much everything going forward).
Dimming LED's is technically somewhat difficult. Generally, only the better bubs and fixtures clearly labeled as dimmable function adequately.
I have a ceiling fan with an LED in it, not on a dimmer and it flickers sometimes. It went nuts when I plugged in my iron.
Don't LED dimmers just work on PWM? If so the light is turning on and off rapidly to dim and you only notice that some of the time (your eyes have a pretty low "refresh rate")
Has urban street lighting decreased along with law enforcement? It seems like city governments and street gangs are often on the same side.
It's odd how we went from the world's strictest headlight regs to essentially none at all.
Your graph really shows what I suspected here at the time--many Mexicans went home in 2008-9.
Some incandescent streetlights in my town have been replaced with LEDs. They are purplish and dont seem to illuminate much of anything. Apparently the power company supplies the power for streetlights free of charge and wants to use LEDs because they are cheaper.
The purple light means they're defective. My power company's website has a way of reporting them, and their contractor replaced 10 near me within a couple of days of my doing so. Sometimes I miss the indigo light in the distance, but it is the city's major thoroughfare that needs good illumination. You'd think the police would have reported the lights.