There aught to be a law!

[orbital]

+

Guess we should take down all the overpass sings since light will not go over 30" on the Hummer

There will always be glare,,
at 30" height placement also at 40" height placement

 

[EJR]

Guess we should take down all the overpass sings since light will not go over 30" on the Hummer

There will always be glare,,
at 30" height placement also at 40" height placement

You seem to be confused as to the appropriate definition of glare with respect to automotive lighting.

Glare is regarded as any light that reaches above the horizon which may impede the visual ability of the driver to perform the task of seeing at night. Glare is categorized in two manners: either discomfort or disability glare. Discomfort glare generally causing an uncomfortable sensation but not causing the reduction of visibility. Disability glare, the most severe, causing a driver to lose some level of perceptibility. Neither of which is desirable. FMVSS 108 allows a maximum of 700cd and 1000cd within the glare zone. Well designed headlamps emit half of that.

Is there light that shines above the cutoff for all headlamps? YES.
Is that on purpose? YES.
Is it glare? NO.

LIGHT ABOVE THE CUTOFF IS NOT GLARE
until it reaches glare intensity thresholds.

 

[jzchen]

@EJR Those lower mounted headlamps are not as butt ugly as I thought they would be!

 

[bykfixer]

+

Guess we should take down all the overpass sings since light will not go over 30" on the Hummer

There will always be glare,,
at 30" height placement also at 40" height placement

The new overhead signs are installed at an angle and have such high reflectivity that headlights of the average vehicle light them up. We just installed some on a project I'm working on and I was surprised that there was no electricity running to them.

What irks me is those vehicles with tinted front windshields and super-nova bright headlights. Both are illegal in my state but so are a whole bunch of other things the cops don't seem to have the time to bother with anymore.

 

[idleprocess]

What irks me is those vehicles with tinted front windshields and super-nova bright headlights. Both are illegal in my state but so are a whole bunch of other things the cops don't seem to have the time to bother with anymore.

There is no practical level of headlight output that will compensate for a windshield with any immediately discernible level of tint.

 

[bykfixer]

^^^*
1) Cool
2) Practical
Pick one 'cause ya can't have both

 

[orbital]

You seem to be confused

+

Not confused, so take a full step back on your wording.
Do you even own a car?

A while back I was driving on a busy two lane highway and coming at me was a new car with modern headlights.
These were factory lights, you could tell. Also not on high beams because they would have been flashed by other drivers for sure...

It was the cooler tint and the overall sharp intensity of the beams that was a concern. Rather blinding, really from the 6000K'ish tint
It wasn't a height issue at all.

Now take your 3D model and factor in road undulation & curves for a small cluster led lamps, in cooler tint, at high Amps.

 

[EJR]

Do you even own a car?

Really? Is that a real question?

A while back I was driving on a busy two lane highway and coming at me was a new car with modern headlights.
These were factory lights, you could tell. Also not on high beams because they would have been flashed by other drivers for sure...

Could you? I've seen modern factory halogen projector lamps with LED bulbs shoved inside that are indistinguishable aesthetically from modern factory LED projector lamps. Meaning, to most people without a keen eye for that sort of thing, they would mistake the vehicle for having factory LEDs when in reality its just LED retrofit bulbs.

It was the cooler tint and the overall sharp intensity of the beams that was a concern. Rather blinding, really from the 6000K'ish tint
It wasn't a height issue at all.

And it wasn't because of IMPROPER AIM right?? Or did your superman vision allow you to see that too?? Like, could you tell from the angle of your position that you could properly judge that the beams were aimed correctly? Or maybe, just maybe, the pitch of that vehicle (or yours) caused the beams (or rather the heavy blue fringe along the cutoff that is common for LED lamps) to temporarily shine at your eye level giving you a false impression? Come on man, get outta here with that nonsense.

Here are 3 LED projector equipped vehicles I've selected to demonstrate the various levels of color aberration along the cutoff that can be found on LED headlamps today. Even when aimed correctly, if the beams just happen to blip up into your eyes for a moment or a few seconds or a minute, you could get a face full of heavy blue light or a little blue light or close to no blue light (depending on the lamp).

Look, I'm not dismissing the fact that the high blue spectrum of LED lighting does cause glare sensitivity issues. There are some good papers on the subject. What I don't agree with is that you are ignoring the more critical fact that this "piercing" effect (as you put it) MAY be from aim or pitch.

Now take your 3D model and factor in road undulation & curves for a small cluster led lamps, in cooler tint, at high Amps.

High amps? Ok now you've solidified that you don't know what your talking about.

 

[orbital]

+

High Amps = emitters pushed hard

I know the exact car I was talking about, had to be '22 or '23 year.
They were the main headlamps, no emitter swap here.
_____________________________________________________________

Poppy was talking about height in his OP
Height doesn't bother me that much,, tint does.

 

[theory816]

I'd even argue that you don't even need headlights if you just drive within city limits.

 

[John_Galt]

I'm half convinced at this point Virgil/Alaric is back, and trolling.

 

[EJR]

I'm half convinced at this point Virgil/Alaric is back, and trolling.

Or maybe you're just trying to ignore the reality that there are a LOT of people who say/do really stupid she-it and make nonsensical arguments when it comes to automotive lighting. 😝

Trust me, this ain't nothing compared to what you'll find in other lighting groups.

 

[theory816]

I'm half convinced at this point Virgil/Alaric is back, and trolling.

Youre not that important to either Virgil/Alaric or myself to waste time trolling. Stick to the topic.

 

[John_Galt]

Youre not that important to either Virgil/Alaric or myself to waste time trolling. Stick to the topic.

Interesting level of insight to the virgil/alaric situation.

 

[theory816]

Interesting level of insight to the virgil/alaric situation.

You got me there but lets not get off topic.

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

This could be solved with those auto-blanking LEP headlights, or I guess maybe they can do it with LED arrays too. But like John Galt mentioned earlier, there's always going to be a range of lighting technologies as new improvements are marketed, but people still have working older cars. My current car only has halogen reflectors, for all trim levels offered in US, but it was made within the past 10 years. Even more annoying, the EU model of this car only has projector halogen lamps; you can't get halogen reflectors on this model. Then, I'll be driving the type of car everyone complains about getting glared by: them old non-blanking halogens.

Theory, I think you were talking about using no forward lighting at all in brightly lit places? Well, I like just leaving lights on whether in a city or not, and it's because I control the quality of light from my car, whereas most brightly lit places are lit brightly with that 589nm sodium yellow. But, it's an interesting chance to explore different ways of thinking, even if they might not be practical to implement in the real world, they can have some theoretical benefits. How about this one: just use one headlight, the passenger-side one. You'd then get the benefit of having potentially high contrast because your headlight would be illuminating the obstacle directly, but your other headlight wouldn't be there to fill in the shadow behind the object.

 

[theory816]

This could be solved with those auto-blanking LEP headlights, or I guess maybe they can do it with LED arrays too. But like John Galt mentioned earlier, there's always going to be a range of lighting technologies as new improvements are marketed, but people still have working older cars. My current car only has halogen reflectors, for all trim levels offered in US, but it was made within the past 10 years. Even more annoying, the EU model of this car only has projector halogen lamps; you can't get halogen reflectors on this model. Then, I'll be driving the type of car everyone complains about getting glared by: them old non-blanking halogens.

Theory, I think you were talking about using no forward lighting at all in brightly lit places? Well, I like just leaving lights on whether in a city or not, and it's because I control the quality of light from my car, whereas most brightly lit places are lit brightly with that 589nm sodium yellow. But, it's an interesting chance to explore different ways of thinking, even if they might not be practical to implement in the real world, they can have some theoretical benefits. How about this one: just use one headlight, the passenger-side one. You'd then get the benefit of having potentially high contrast because your headlight would be illuminating the obstacle directly, but your other headlight wouldn't be there to fill in the shadow behind the object.

I'm just proposing some ideas that may fix the current day lighting issues we face(most likely never fixed)

In low light roads, you need headlights that reaches far and wide. In city and urban streets, you dont need as much light because street lights work pretty good.

The problem is, people are using alot of light in places where they don't need it, like in city and urban streets. You'll find people blasting their highbeams and fog lights even on these streets. Its a very HIGHSTRUNG way to drive.

I'd love to say "that at the end of the day, one knows what they need when they drive". But that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm often blinded by people who don't know how to use their headlights properly.

I've been doing some research lately and noticed that decades ago driving was less highstrung. It seems like people were just less highstrung overall. All of this technology has made people more highstrung like a paranoid cat or dog.

 

[alpg88]

Youre not that important to either Virgil/Alaric or myself to waste time trolling. Stick to the topic.

And yet you took the time to reply and so are alleged "them" lmao. when you directly contradict your own immediate actions, guess how it affects your own importance in the eyes of other members,

 

[alpg88]

Given the increase in the price of new vehicles, combined with increasing interest rates, I don't see the average age of a registered vehicles decreasing suddenly. The opposite in fact, where those who are scraping by (and the thrifty) keep older and older vehicles on the roads. Safety issues, like visibility and glare will take second fiddle to people practical realities, namely keeping some semblance of a headlamp functioning. Current trends, like LED retrofit type bulbs (of various levels of imperfection) will make glare worse in the meantime.

I actually do see it, those that are scraping by will never buy a new car anyway, they always drive old used, and buy a bit newer used, but those who make enough, will no longer keep that car once it is out of warranty, cuz parts price increases, service required at 60-100k is not cheap at all, and with latest cars, you generally do not want to take it to a mom and pops shop, cuz they have neither tools nor skills to diagnose modern cars. You want to take it to a authorized dealer, but their prices are out of control even more than car prices, also parts shortage still somewhat exists, it is just more expensive keep a car off the warranty, then replace one every 2-3 years.

 

[theory816]

And yet you took the time to reply and so are alleged "them" lmao. when you directly contradict your own immediate actions, guess how it affects your own importance in the eyes of other members,

I had no choice but to respond to his comment which doesn't have anything to do with headlights. Your comment has nothing to do with headlights either. Stick to the topic, man.