driving at night with the highbeams on

Here in NJ (even in deepest darkest southern NJ) If you use your high (main beams to those that use real english) for more than a minute, you have probably blinded oncoming traffic... I have noticed more and more people driving on the highway with them on all the time.

Granted, you cannot blind oncoming traffic on some of our divided highways due to the trees between the opposing lanes, but it gets really annoying to have somebody behind you for MILES with their car's putting out every candlefoot of light it can.

Anybody else notice this annoying habit and where did it come from? Last night I had to do a favour for an old employer and take his box truck up to NY to pick up his stuff at Midnight and for a while there, I had THREE cars with their highbeams on following me (not directly behind me, but spaced out with the other cars.

This is quickly becoming my new petpeeve

No, but I get flashed every night by people thinking I'm driving with my beams on, and I'm not. Some of the newer vehicles have very bright lights.

my high beams are very low beams in most cars...

A few years ago I was driving in south Dade at night. An oncoming car had his brights on, and even after I flashed him twice, no change. Then the car right behind me lit up his red and blues, and guess what? He dimmed his lights.

I find that fog lights are more annoying, but YMMV.

Down here everyone goes straight from no lights to high beams about an hour after sunset. Flashing does nothing. Some more daring people drift into the oncoming lane to get the message across.

I hate all the people around here that drive around with their highbeams on during the day. Seems to be mostly old people in buicks and camrys.

suprf1y wrote: Some of the newer vehicles have very bright lights.

I thought that to be the case. That would make more sense to me, as it takes effort to turn on your high beams. If people can't/don't use their signal, I can't see them making the extra effort to turn on their high beams.

Drive anywhere near the front of a modern BMW on a dark night and you will think UFO's have come to search your nether regions!!

I really don't see why they allow these obscenely bright lights these days (brighter than stock sealed beams used to be illegal). What are they hoping to gain? All it really does is allow people to drive faster at night, is that really what they are looking for in this age of "safety"?

Confidence is NOT something you want to inspire in drivers...

aircooled wrote: Confidence is NOT something you want to inspire in drivers...

Automotive Darwinism?

the worst is being infront of a new Toyota Tundra with their headlights on...

mistanfo wrote: I find that fog lights are more annoying, but YMMV.

Why?

Because they're extra photons being driven into your retina for no reason.

I would love to confirm this - but a friend who used to work for Transport Canada commented that headlight beams were checked by measuring heat output in a pattern. It could be that the HID lights don't throw as much heat, and therefore can get away with a looser pattern. I don't know, I'd love to know more about it. But I really don't understand why so many new cars have either really bad patterns or really bad aiming, combined with super-bright bulbs. it's a pet peeve of mine.

Most of my cars have upgraded lighting. But that doesn't just mean "brighter". It means they have a better pattern, putting the light where I need it and keeping it out of the eyeballs of those driving towards me. It's not just a courtesy thing, it's also for survival. There's no benefit for me in having the driver of an oncoming two-ton (or more!) car, with a closing speed of over 100 mph, blind.

I almost never turn my brights on. Around town here, I'm more likely to go a couple of miles and realize I don't even have my lights on.

When I get out of town, I'm almost surprised to discover that I can make my lights brighter.

I had a friend who used to turn on his Hella rally lights at people who wouldn't dim their highbeams.

There are vehicle I have driven at night whose lights, whether high or low beam, were obviously designed by Caleb, Ezekial or one of the other near electric Amish for use on the family wagon.

Keith wrote: ...But I really don't understand why so many new cars have either really bad patterns or really bad aiming, combined with super-bright bulbs...

You may have stumbled upon something here. One thing that I noticed while driving a car with HID's is that the cutoff on the pattern is VERY sharp. Somehow this is seen as a feature, I hate it! What is does when you are driving is give you an area where you can see very clearly, but also makes it much harder to see outside that area! Perhaps people who drive with there high beams on are trying to see more of what the sharp cutoff is hiding? More like what they had with "normal" headlights.

To me, that sharp cutoff is good. It allows you to throw more light where it can do you good and without blinding other drivers. If they're aimed right, you'll have the roadside illuminated as well as the road surface in front of you for a good distance. What it won't do is light up the trees, the reflectors on a turn a half mile away or the opposite shoulder. Fair enough, and great when they're aimed right.

In fact, the "normal" sealed beam headlights that were required for so long in the US weren't even legal for use in Europe because they were so poor. Because you're putting as much light into the eyeballs of oncoming traffic as you are on to the road, there's a limit to how much light you can throw.

Lesley, I've often had the same temptation. But again, the concept of a blind driver hurtling towards me always gave me pause. I did once flash my big Hella 3000s at a taxi when he cut me off. It was broad daylight and I had the plastic covers on . It freaked him out so much he started doing the most unbelievable things to mess with me - stopping in the middle of the road, then accelerating when I'd try to pull by, etc. He was so mad he forgot he had a license number on his taxi along with the phone number of his employer...

I once heard a cool idea. Why not polarize headlights on a 45 degree angle, and put matching polarization on the windshield? You'd be able to see your own lights just fine, but oncoming traffic would be 90 degrees out and therefore much dimmer.

Lesley wrote: I had a friend who used to turn on his Hella rally lights at people who wouldn't dim their highbeams.

I've done the same with th KC lights on my truck. Had a friend with a set mounted to the rear of his truck so if someone tailing him had their brights on he could "flash" them...

with the computing power in a modern car it seems that it would be very simple to have the lights recycle to low beams every time they are turned off.... would solve most of the high beams during the day problem....

I was tailing a friend somewhere in my E30 awhile back and he actually got out his phone and called me to tell me to turn off my dang highbeams... thats when i switched them ON. I actually need to re-aim my lights for when i swapped the springs, they are aimed down too much now.

For some reason my headlights are SURPRISINGLY bright on that car (especially compared to my 2000 exploder)

rebelgtp wrote:

Lesley wrote: I had a friend who used to turn on his Hella rally lights at people who wouldn't dim their highbeams.

I've done the same with th KC lights on my truck. Had a friend with a set mounted to the rear of his truck so if someone tailing him had their brights on he could "flash" them...

i had an aircraft landing light i bought in a surplus store mounted under the rear bumper of my cutlass for just that purpose. when i turned that puppy on , it was instant daylight, and my volt meter dropped two points. I eventually yanked it out, fearing i would fry something important by using it , but it was a bit of fun!

I like effective lighting, but brighter isnt always better. I only very rarely use the brights, though i do like amber fogs and use them often, they're great in the rain or fog and do make a big difference. But i don't understand why people think auxiliary lighting is necessary on well lit roads, or in town.

Am I the only one who thinks it is funny that someone from Jersey is upset that the people around the City have bad manners?

Cop car spots strategically placed and appropriately turned on will cure people of this habit, or at least make you feel better for a moment.

I know that in Europe if you use high powered lights you must have a self leveling device so they don't blind people when you go over a bump. It must have been for a few years because they have a range limiting device on some of the new(late 80s) mercedes sl's. It was a vacuum controlled knob.