#Musings: Are headlights becoming too bright?
When driving between Tongaat and Ballito along the R102 recently, I found myself almost blinded by an electric blue LED laser beam shot through my back window. The interior of my car was so bright that I had to pinch my arm just to check I hadn't lost focus and inadvertently landed at the pearly gates.
After gathering myself and squinting to see the cause, I saw five letters that made my heart sink. GP SUV. Naturally, as a KZN native, I muttered under my breath, cursed the Joburger in his oversized car who thought he was still driving down Jan Smuts with his brights on and planned to move on with my evening.
But after the driver eventually overtook me after camping on my tail for five minutes, I was astonished to see the halo of his headlights increase tenfold. He hadn't had his brights on after all.
It begs the question, are headlights becoming too bright?
After a bit of research, it turns out I'm not alone in feeling personally selected for spotlight torture. Two key shifts in automotive engineering and consumer trends seem to be to blame.
Firstly, almost all new cars are fitted with LED headlights, which emit a white-blue hue, rather than the softer white-yellow colours of halogen headlights that were formerly the standard.
According to American lighting scientist John Bullough, quoted in Vox, light intensity – typically measured in lumens or candelas – does not take into account how different colours impact the eye. That means a given LED headlight might measure at the same intensity as a halogen option, but our eyes perceive the LED as brighter because it is more likely to also be picked up by our peripheral vision.
Secondly, bigger cars are becoming more popular, particularly in affluent areas. If you drive through Salt Rock or Sheffield now, you will no doubt recognise the parade of Range Rovers, Land Cruisers, Hiluxes and every other model of SUV or bakkie you can imagine. When was the last time you saw a real beat-up skadonk rolling around the suburbs?
Combine the height of a large vehicle's headlights with the enhanced perceived brightness, and if you're in a hatchback or sedan, you've got your own private blue-light brigade following you.
This is likely the new normal, with car manufacturers incentivised to include LED headlights for improved safety ratings.
So, if you're behind the wheel of one of these monster machines, do the decent thing and give the smaller car in front a fair following distance so as not to burn their retinas.
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