Back when I was a busdriver I used to imagine what it would be like driving a double decker from upstairs, it would certainly be more enjoyable at night being well above most headlight beams!

Agree...the "light wars" seem to continue.....an ever increasing race to see who can outshine the competition.

Fortunately I rarely have to drive at night...but at least when I do the higher driving position in my MPV does help to get above the worst of the glare.

the darker peripheral bits are all but black.

That's the thing that's begun to trouble me in last few years (I'm all but 59).

My route home at night has been same for last thirty years. There's a bit of road in village before ours that never used to bother me but now I'm acutely aware my vision of the darkened periphery of the carriageway isn't what it was. Not the road itself but the verge or pavement from where a stray child or even just a cat could suddenly appear. May in part be due to transition between different colours of street lighting but no definite factor I can blame.

The unlit B road between the villages is no problem at all though.

Badbusdriver said:

"Back when I was a busdriver I used to imagine what it would be like driving a double decker from upstairs, it would certainly be more enjoyable at night being well above most headlight beams!"

My dreams often feature driving various types of vehicles and bbd's post reminded me of a recent nightmare where I was driving a double decker from the upper deck. Problem was my seat was in the gangway about halfway along the deck, so that my all-round view was severely restricted! To make things worse, I was driving through a narrow London street market with stalls and people on both sides.

I wont mention the blackout cyclists around, you'd think they would know better?

Had an occurrence of this last winter joining a poorly lit road from an angled/hidden junction - not claiming that I was 100% blameless but he didn't seem to realise that hi-viz jackets (he had black trousers) only work if they are clean, you don't crouch over & if there is light falling on them. Also, that modern LED bike lights are very bright but only within a very small angle, if you are outside that beam, nada.

TLDR they believe that they are more visible than they actually are.

Edited by Heidfirst on 03/11/2018 at 22:58

There have been several threads on this topic over the years, with the complaints about excessive brightness steadily increasing, as one might expect. I think it is due to focusing too much on 'being seen' without allowing for the unavoidable difficulty of 'seeing'.

We all know - and car makers and designers should too - that vision, especially night vision, deteriorates slowly with age, for some earlier than for others. I therefore suggest that the steady trend to brighter lights amounts to age discrimination, possibly because those who design and build cars may not have reached that stage of life - and new models are aimed mainly at younger people anyway. We oldies just have to get along.

One other thing - even if one manages to survive a close encounter with a brilliantly-lit car, one is effectively blind in the moments afterwards when readjusting to normal illumination.

In street-lit rain-soaked traffic-packed 30/20mph suburbia, one would be less dazzled and see more hazards if only side lights were used. On country roads, my pet hate as a cyclist is oncoming cars who don't dip for bicycles.....until they see my up-yours gesture followed by shielding my eyes as I wobble to a blind halt.

Many years ago there 'dim-dip' headlights which were good in street-lit roads. Not sure why they stopped being fitted, EU regulations, reduced bulb life, certainly would be better now in urban areas than the mobile searchlights we suffer.

In street-lit rain-soaked traffic-packed 30/20mph suburbia, one would be less dazzled and see more hazards if only side lights were used. On country roads, my pet hate as a cyclist is oncoming cars who don't dip for bicycles.....until they see my up-yours gesture followed by shielding my eyes as I wobble to a blind halt.

The opposite is also true though, there are some phenomenally powerful lights available for (well heeled) cyclists these days, but even relatively cheap ones can blind car drivers. When i used to do a lot more cycling, often in the dark, the light set i used had twin lights on the handlebars, the more powerful of the two i used as a 'main beam' and had it pointed a fair bit in front of me, the other was less powerful and with a wider spread of light which was pointed closer to me, covering maybe 20-30' in front. If i was on, or beside a road in the dark, i would switch off my main beam for all other oncoming traffic (be it pedestrians, other cyclists or motorised traffic). If a car did not dip for me, the main beam would go back on, which usually had the desired affect!. In my experience, many cyclists do not seem to consider how bright their lights are for oncoming vehicles.

I think HIDs have to have auto-levelling, and probably LEDs too, the ones on the MX-5 are.

I think HIDs have to have auto-levelling, and probably LEDs too, the ones on the MX-5 are.

Yes, all OE HIDs get auto-levelling - but some conversions from halogen bulb don't bother which is illegal and inconsiderate.

Self levelling doesn't stop the flash when the opposing traffic is going over a road hump, yet another reason to get rid of them.