Lifestyle

How to Avoid Being Blinded by the LED Headlights of Oncoming Traffic

Driving at night has become a lot more illuminated in recent years. New technologies have given cars brighter lights and auto-dipping doesn’t always work, so high beams aren’t always turned down.

By
23 May 2022

If you’ve been cursing the brightness of oncoming traffic or worried your eyes are ageing too fast, you’re not alone. In the past few decades, car lights have changed from the warmer halogen headlights to brighter, cooler LED headlights. It makes seeing in the dark a lot easier – if you’re behind the headlights. It’s another story if you’re on the other side of them.

For other drivers, LED headlights can dazzle and even temporarily blind. In some ways, they’re better than the High-Intensity Discharge (HID) lights from the turn of the century. These HID headlights emit a bluish glow and make as much as five times the illumination of old school halogen headlights. LED headlights are cheaper, last longer and can be just as bright as the HID kind, but they also have a more natural glow.

How car headlights work

LED headlights use a semiconductor to release photons when there is a charge. The charge flows from a cathode to an anode. On the way, it passes through the semiconductor and ta-da! Bright, white light is produced.

Adaptive, LED headlights use matrix light technology which means they are made up of a collection of LEDs and mirrors. But not all LED headlights are adaptive.

The way light is produced for LED headlights is simpler than for halogen or even HID headlights. Because of this, there is less to go wrong with them. Still, they can be more expensive.

HID headlights, on the other hand, have two electrodes encased in glass. Light is created with a combination of xenon gas and vaporised salt. This combination gets activated by an arc of electricity sent between the two electrodes to form a light-emitting plasma. This light is three to five times brighter than traditional, halogen car headlights.

Traditional headlights, the halogen bulb kind, have a tungsten filament surrounded by halogen gas. When the filament has a current sent through it, the tungsten heats up and emits light. This is a warm yellowish kind of light, a little like a campfire.

The switch from halogen to HID to LED headlights

In the quest to continually improve the driving experience, most manufacturers have parted ways with halogen headlights. At least for the higher-end luxury vehicles. Initially, they turned to HID lights, otherwise known as Xenon headlights. The trouble is, these lights are expensive to make and only last for around 5,000 hours.

There is no doubt that brighter headlights make for better visibility, but replacing headlights isn’t a joy. Enter the LED headlight! This type of headlight is just as bright as the HID kind but lasts for 20,000 hours and has fewer small parts that can go wrong.

These brighter lights, either the HID or LED headlights are meant to be safer, but that’s not always the case.

Dangerous LED headlights

It’s not just the brightness of car headlights that’s a factor in being blinded by oncoming traffic. The increase of SUVs on the road means LED headlights are a little higher up. This level and angle of headlights are more likely to impair the vision of oncoming drivers. This is true even when people remember to dip lights for oncoming traffic.

As we age, our ability to recover from glaring lights is reduced. At 15 it takes a little less than 1 second to recover from glare. At 65 it’s more like 9 seconds. Recovery is worse for HID than LED headlights.

As for accident risk, around 300 accidents occur each year due to headlight glare. 91% of RAC survey responders thought headlights were mostly too bright and 45% had been dazzled by lights in their rear vision mirrors.

In some cases, being dazzled by headlights is just uncomfortable and annoying. In others, it can cause drivers to be temporarily blind to obstacles in their path and even briefly lose sight of the road.

How to avoid headlight dazzle

Fortunately, there are a number of tactics you can try to avoid being blinded by the lights on the road.

If a car heading toward you has lights on high beam or simply too-bright LED headlights, avert your gaze to the white edge line on the road. By moving your eyes, the beams from the headlights won’t be able to hit your pupil at an angle that dazzles you.

Purchasing some night driving glasses from Amazon or your optician is another option. These will cut the glare. Night driving glasses reduce the glare of LED headlights by filtering out blue light and scattering other light wavelengths.

If a car behind you is dazzling your vision through the rear vision mirror, use the anti-glare switch. This is the tab at the bottom of the mirror. Flip it one way and it’s great for daytime driving. The other way dims reflections and reduces glare from headlights.

Keep your windscreens clean. Both the inside and outside glass of the windscreen can impact the level of glare from reflected light and car headlights. A smeared or otherwise grimy windscreen tends to increase glare. Residue can build from condensation, off-gassing from the car’s interior plastics and touching it with bare hands. Regularly clean the inside of front and back windscreens with glass cleaner and a soft cloth.

There are a few things you can do if you’re worried about dazzling other drivers with your lights too. Firstly, increase the distance between you and the car ahead. The further away you are, the less likely you are to impair their vision with your lights.  Secondly, ask your mechanic to check the angle of your headlights to ensure the beams are directed optimally for you and other road users.

Staying safe on the road means being aware of the conditions and making sure you drive in ways that mitigate risks. Whether driving in wet conditions or at night, it helps to ensure you have the right equipment and approach. With headlights seeming to get brighter and brighter, taking care of your eyes at night is an important way to stay safe while driving.