Hey a-holes, turn off the high beams

I don't know if this counts as an old man rant or just a rant rant, but am I alone in thinking a LOT more assholes are driving around with their high beams on at all times?

(Cue up Jerry Seinfeld meme ... what's the deal with?)

I live in a small college city. Not an urban jungle, but not a one stoplight podunk town either. Was driving home down a four-lane street back to my house after a game.

Three people on the other side of the road had their high beams on in the middle of the city. Why? There are street lights, it's well-marked, visibility was perfectly fine. I flashed one of them, something I never thought I'd ever do in an urban environment.

And, of course, high beams aren't your father's high beams. They're seemingly pulled straight out of a disused Great Lakes lighthouse somewhere. Halogens on PCP. LEDs on PEDs.

Wearing glasses, I have trouble with bright lights in my face. Even if I didn't wear glasses, I'm pretty sure I'd have trouble with brights in my face. The protocol of going to your dims temporarily while you pass someone and then putting your brights back on when the coast is clear seems to be a concept lost to history in the same way we don't know how the pyramids were built.

Then there's the mental midgets who turn them on when it's raining or foggy. Hey stupids, all it does is reflect off the moisture and fuck with your visibility more than it would with them off. Please go straight to the BMV, take a written test, and may God have mercy on your souls.

It's fucking endemic. I suppose I could chalk it up to yet another part of everyday life that's just more rude, but it's like, why? How is this something a selection of people said, "Yeah, I'm totally going to start doing that now."

Fuck off, high beam riders.

 

Do people in cities ever use their brights? Is there ever a reason? I ask this legitimately.

 

An article that might be of interest: Nate Rogers (@naterogers.bsky.social)
Inside the War Against Headlight Brightness - The Ringer

 

I think part of the problem, for those of us who drive sedans or other low-riding passenger cars, are the way SUVs and pickup trucks are a bit higher off the ground, meaning their bright lights shine directly into our rear view mirror when they’re behind us.

 

Drivers in the cities don't grow up learning the rural message that an oncoming car flashing its high beams at YOU means "HEY, kill your high beams, dummy!" ... That, and maybe it's just not taught much anymore, anywhere.

I see it all the time, and the brighter high-tech bulbs are blinding. I don't even flash my own high beams much anymore, since the message never seems to register. I just move straight to rural rule No. 2: For the last 200 feet, light up your high beams and lay on the horn all the way.

Of course, them being dummies, they'll probably wonder why you did that. But at least they might figure it out sometime.

 

Yeah, newer vehicles have some bright lights. I have a buddy with a new F-150, and his low beams are so bright, people flash him thinking he is bright lighting them, and then he hits them with the brights.
My new truck has an auto high/low beam feature. I turned it off after a few days because it was quite annoying. Most of my night driving anymore is city streets with street lights, so I don't have much reason to have on the high beams anyway.

 

Like you said, Drift, feels like some of the problems could stem from the automatic feature, which I hate. I don't need my brights to be turned on and off as my vehicle/sensor decides is needed, and same with the auto lights option, where my car will turn lights on and off as it dictates. I'm capable of turning my lights on and off, and brights on and off, on my own.

Sometimes I hate being a crotchety old bastard. But I'm OK with this one.

 

I'm one of the a-holes. One of my low lights is burned out and difficult to replace. Been putting off taking it in for a couple hundred dollar repair that I could do if I can just find the correct YouTube video and panel to unscrew. But at least it's not a new car.

 

There’s going to be a serious accident one day and I hope the manufacturers who install the lights get sued into the stone age. It’s about the only way to get rid of these lighthouse caliber headlights.

States aren’t going to ban them. You’d have to phase them out and grandfather in and all kinds of nonsense that doesn’t fix the problem. Meanwhile, the “I can see just fine, what’s the problem” dipshits continue to make it impossible to drive safely at night.

 

I have auto lights with auto high beams. Y’all think about your lights that much?

 

A friend told me something that was so obvious I don't know how I didn't realize it. People "think" they need more powerful lights because they have a hard time noticing their own lights. Why? Because oncoming traffic with brighter beams reduces the dilation of our pupils making it harder to see our own headlights. The topic was brought up at a recent town hall with one of our Senators, it is a legit issue. There is a cap on wattage, but with the LEDs using less wattage they can crank up the brightness a few clicks.

 

I don’t think about my lights. I think about the lights of the dude behind me making it hard to actually drive.

I don’t think it actually does anything, but it makes me feel better. If I have particularly bright lights behind me, I adjust my side mirror as far to the left as it will go. I hope I can reflect the light back. I know it doesn’t work that way, but it’s what I tell myself.