Submitted by ResponsibleExcuse727 t3_10ac5kh in vermont
Faerhun t1_j43ph5m wrote
I've wanted to make this exact post so many times. Low beams today are brighter than high beams used to ever be a while ago and still so much high beaming for no reason.
So many people install mini suns(Bright white LED) in their cars and don't realize that the bright white ones need to be aimed down further than your normal yellow lights. Mix that with people who can't see at night and refuse to concede they shouldn't be driving and just keep their high beams on all the time.
The ones on the highway piss me off a lot too, just because we're a little further to the side doesn't make it okay to just high beam everyone, including people you're behind.
McGrupp1979 t1_j441mt6 wrote
It drives me insane how many people drive on the interstate with their bright lights on. It is like you said. Some people have automatic lights and don’t bother adjusting themselves which is annoying. Others can’t see well and think of you are a few car lengths in front of them l it’s on.
Some people just don’t care.
Finnn_the_human t1_j448r0v wrote
I'm not sure there's a problem with high beams on the Interstate if there aren't cars around you for a couple hundred yards...
Don't understand the downvotes. I'm speaking the truth. You can't react quick enough at speeds over 60mph with only low beams on, it's literally physically impossible.
However, I rarely use high beams up in Vermont because the traffic is so much more than I remember growing up. It's on/off/on/off every 5 seconds.
McGrupp1979 t1_j451501 wrote
My personal policy is if I can see someone else’s lights then I’m switching to low beams. I rarely find myself in a situation like you describe, a straight stretch of road with a couple hundred yards between the vehicle in front of me.
Finnn_the_human t1_j4810de wrote
Proper education is needed on high beam usage. You simply cannot see far enough at ~60mph with low beams. It's physically impossible at those speeds to react quick enough.
McGrupp1979 t1_j48en2k wrote
Are you seriously suggesting the “proper” thing to do when driving 60 mph or above is have your lights set to a 5 second intervals rotation from high beam to low beam because the human body’s vision cannot react at that speed with low beams?
Finnn_the_human t1_j49ldc2 wrote
Wtf lmao no...I'm talking about the amount of cars you need to turn them off for. It was an exaggeration
Also, in talking about northern Vermont. It Syed to be way less populated. But just the other day, the roads were ice, and some idiot blew by me in the interstate to go flying off the road just ahead of me. Literally pulled over and had to tell them when they got out to not be driving that fast in those conditions...they were chill, just said "thank you brother" and left lol. But there's a ton of people up there now and they don't have any idea how to drive in Vermont...
stokeledge2 t1_j44nkyg wrote
Not only do the bright white ones need to aimed down but they need to be in an LED specific housing that reflects the light beams in a different way. A lot of people throw LEDS into their halogen headlights and end up with lights that are both worse for them and oncoming drivers.
theweeeone t1_j44z6vz wrote
Almost as if the housing was designed for a specific lightbulb.
raptor3x t1_j44zm2g wrote
Housings designed for halogens with a refractor design can still be ok with LED bulbs, especially if they're retrofit with the new ultrathin type LED bulbs so they can produce a sharp cutoff. Reflector housings should never be used with LED, or HID, bulbs though. That combination is the absolute worst.
Reasonable_Bend_1472 t1_j4667ds wrote
The sharp cutoff is one of the worst aspects of the LEDs... Well so are brightness and blue-white blindingness... They are just all-round terrible!
But the sharp cut-off provides a flashing effect whenever a car hits a bump, and if there is enough chromatic aberration in the lense the cut-off includes red and blue bands, so they even flash like emergency vehicles.
Catatonic27 t1_j47ia5t wrote
Thank you for describing that thing I've noticed every time one of these guys is behind me and I keep thinking I'm getting pulled over.
nomadicbohunk t1_j470f6m wrote
HID's and the wrong lenses... I'll share. Like 10 years ago, my car was a 20 year old pile. It's was great. My headlights were basically unusable at night. I got brighter bulbs a few times, and finally got the brightest HIDs I could source. They were adjusted right. I had to buy a safety torx driver to adjust them slightly in grad school after someone hit my car. I never got flashed. I knew the housings were yellow, but new ones cost too much and the ones at the salvage yard were yellowed too, but not as bad as mine. Anyway, I was visiting my parents and went to my mechanic buddy's house. We were talking and he saw my headlights. WTF duder? Those are the most oxidized shitty things I've ever seen. Let me fix that for you. At work I get $300 a set to do these on a semi. So he polished them up and clear coated them. I drove home right at dark. I no joke could see a stop sign light up over a mile away in one particularly downhill spot. The roads in that area are gridded by one mile so it's easy to tell distance. The reflections off the road signs I drove past were blinding me. I went to napa the next morning and got normal bulbs. It's a really low population area, so I never met anyone, but I was worried I was going to. It was absurd like an airplane light or the brightest offroad lights I'd ever seen. We had just bought my dad a $600 or something absurd brightest spotlight made for checking cattle and these were brighter.
raptor3x t1_j478odb wrote
Yeah, HIDs in a reflector housing are a complete disaster. At least with the average LED bulb the beam pattern sort of matches what you would get from a halogen bulb (there are some that are really close now but they're super expensive). With HIDs the beam pattern is completely different and so the headlight often ends up throwing more light up, to the sides, and immediately in front of the car than down the road where you actually want it. What ends up happening is not only do you blind everybody but everything else is so bright, and so little light actually makes it down the road, that you're visibility can actually end up being noticeably worse since your night vision is impaired by how bright everything is immediately around you.
nomadicbohunk t1_j47grqj wrote
That's hilarious. Well, they do help if your car has almost opaque lenses. They've got that market cornered.
That does make sense with the lights blinding me on the highway signs. I vividly remember that one half hour drive.
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