it's not just you, ~everyone fucking hates bright LED headlights
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@davidgerard Thanks for sharing the article. It's not just affecting other drivers. I was walking a side street yesterday and the oncoming vehicles headlights blinded me to the point I could not see the sidewalk in front of me. Bonkers side range and intensity.
@davidgerard They are even worse on the oversized vanity pickup trucks.
It's also not just cars. A load of bikes here have these, and point them directly in front, instead of down. Cycle towards them and you're completely blinded until after they've passed.
@david_chisnall @davidgerard If you're riding on unlit cycle paths in the countryside at night you *need* a bright light pointing in front not down if you want to go any faster than walking pace. On my previous bike I could nudge the front lamp to point left and down with my thumb, thus providing a "dim headlights" switch.
@david_chisnall @davidgerard I often walk when it’s dark and those extremely bright and straight forward headlights on bikes actually hurt. So I’ve recently bought a headlight of my own, so that I can light my own way when an oncoming cyclist blinds me with theirs. Strangely enough, they seem to find that annoying, judging from the murmuring when they pass.
@david_chisnall
You mean bikes as in bicycles, right? Good thing is that you can call to them that their light blinds and they should tilt it downwards. Though, here in Germany, most cyclists ignore me calling them, but not all. @davidgerard
@martinrust @david_chisnall @davidgerard That's odd. Many UK cyclists buy German-made lights because they are made to a standard intended not to dazzle, which the others available in UK aren't.
@davidgerard There was a study released this year that indicated for places where the specific direction of the brightest bit of beam is controlled, some car companies were deliberately providing modified headlamps for testing, to pass the tests even though the actual cars on the road would fail, knowing it was fraud.
@davidgerard yup. https://mastodon.social/@idropyou/115419372771747952
I've been wearing yellow safety glasses to correct the color temp some and it does help. Still, it really is awful. I just bought a new vehicle and the lights are bright, but still can't see shit with them. My 10yo car with halogen bulbs is way better.
@davidgerard Forward-facing vehicle lamps need to be less blue and more green-orange.
@davidgerard I swear as a trains person I always see car people who supposedly love driving going on about how much it sucks. This just seems to be one of the ways in which it manifests.
@davidgerard Oh, god, I ran across the worst possible version of these damn LED headlights. The car had really bright but very focused tiny little lamps on them such that if you were coming at it head on you got blinded but if the car was *behind* you then you could barely see it in the dark because the directed spots they used as headlamps were focused elsewhere.
"Luckily" it was mostly behind me, though I thought the car had forgotten to turn their headlights on for a while.
@davidgerard They are crazy... It shouldn't be allowed to be like this. They totally blind you as the oncoming traffic.
