So AAA asks, “What’s the Story With Headlight Glare?” Good question…

Headlight glare

It used to be if an approaching vehicle’s headlights were on the bright setting, it was nearly always readily apparent. Now headlight glare seems to be an epidemic.

Well, the AAA article I just saw was marginally helpful, noting among other things that today’s LED (light emitting diode) lamps produce a bluer light that human eyes do not prefer, that their own studies have not found a problem, and managed to get a jab in to older drivers, blaming them because of the loss of the ability to recover from glare over time.

I despise that particular explanation, being in the “older” group, but the fact is that I’ve been seeing this problem grow for twenty years!

Meanwhile, the primary issues are these, and I’d bet anything that you’d agree: newer headlights are brighter, period, and they are frankly placed and pointed poorly! The competition for bigger and bigger cars results in too many vehicles whose headlights are far too high in reference to other vehicles.

And we’ve all experienced and approaching vehicle that is climbing an incline, which results in their headlights pointing into the eyes of oncoming traffic.

LEDs are supposed to be an improvement because they use multiple bulbs which can be pointed individually. And auto adjustment systems exist that respond to other criteria: why not a change in drive angle?

The best news is that there is actually an online petition from the Soft Lights Foundation that asks Congress and federal agencies to properly regulate LEDs. More than 73,000 people have signed the petition so far (plus one…) and you can too right here. It turns out that they are part of Change.org, if it matters.

It’s at least good to know that the issue is not being ignored. There’s lots more in the AAA article that you can read here.

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