Submitted by aspiringharlequin t3_ylj2q9 in vermont
I’ve done a lot of driving on the interstate and on back roads at night all over vt. Maybe my eyes are bad but it seems like, if someone is behind me, they are as likely to be using their brights as not. Assuming they are, that’s the kind of disrespectful and dangerous driving that I’d expect out of a New Yorker, vt drivers need to do better. What’s have y’all’s night driving experiences been?
It’s just you.
> Modern lights are brighter than 10 years ago, most new SUVs and trucks set on low beam project as far as a high beam was a few years back, and some high beams are now downright blinding.
They're brighter, but the beam pattern is also vastly better controlled. On a reasonably flat road if I'm driving against oncoming traffic I'd absolutely prefer to have a modern LED headlight coming at me than a traditional halogen in a reflector housing. Where this doesn't work out so well though is on roads with a lot of undulation (i.e. most of Vermont) where even with a well controlled beam pattern you're going to be periodically shining headlights directly into the cabin of oncoming traffic or cars you're following.
The real problem though is people who put HID/LED bulbs into reflector housings; now you get the worst of all scenarios: headlights output much more light, the beam pattern is completely unfocused because reflector housing cannot handle HID or LED lights properly, and to make matters worse while the ground right in front of the modified vehicle often appears brighter how far down the road people can actually see is decreased so they're more likely to run their high beams more often anyway.
On this note, self darkening rear view and side view mirrors are one of the best add-ons I've experienced yet for a car.
Thank you for this explanation! Everybody drives such large vehicles these days (why?) that most headlights shine into my rear-view mirror. I know that people aren't doing it on purpose, but this technical explanation makes me feel better anyway.
Stay between the ditches, friends.
It seems the more expensive the car the worse they blind you. I hate Acura’s with there damn so white it’s almost blue headlights.
I'm surprised how often I encounter oblivious high beam drivers in town. More than anywhere else I've lived. I usually chalk it up to the large senior population.
That's part of it, but I do see a fair share of high beam users leaving them on all the time. Chalk it up to forgetful seniors? VT does have more of those per capita than many other states.
Most people don’t have their led lights properly aligned so they always shine too high but yeah a lot do use high beams
Ok Kyrie
If they're especially obnoxious I change the mirror angle. If I'm in a decent-person mood then I just aim it down, if I'm pissed off or their on my bumper then it gets aimed back at them.
I took mine off auto dim for this reason. They didn’t dim half the time when a car was approaching.
Less than 40% of people living here were born here. So they are likely not Vermonters.
changes are coming. in typical US automotive fashion, we're late adopters to new technology
The lights on my Subaru (not high beams) are incredibly bright - I get people flashing their highs at me all the time - I flash them back mine (sounds like a bigger, better story in the making 😂). I do it so they realize that I’m not an inconsiderate idiot and also so maybe folx start realizing that lights aren’t lamps any more and this is the way of the world now - bright ass lights.
Ive actually more irratated at the knobs with highbeams on in the daytime.
Over the past year i have been counting and so far over 90% are subarus!
Wtf subaru owners? Daytime, highbeams??
I came here to tell the same story! I make sure to flash back so people don’t think I’m a dick lol
Very likely you need to aim them properly. I'm a big fan of subarus, but I've heard that they often come from the factory misaligned
I feel you as a person who drives 20+ year old cars. I've upgraded bulbs and whatnot but newer cars just have far better lights that blind us.
Subaru uses the high beams for DRLs but they run at a low voltage so they should be just barely visible. If you put aftermarket LED or HID bulbs into the high beam housing the bulbs don't understand that they're supposed to run at low output and instead run full blast.
Thanks for this, my first instinct is to get pissed off but it’s nice to know that it’s not always intentional and that someone flashing back could be them showing that they aren’t brights-ing me
Sooner the better
It’s a ‘17 Impreza base. Incandescent style lights for the record. Definitely lower to the ground
Indeed thanks for the explanation. I honestly have been resorting to putting on cruise control and folding my mirrors so I don’t literally go blind. It’s not safe but it’s safer than losing my vision, I don’t pass or do anything that would require my mirrors.
I’ve noticed that if you see a car head on with bright lights, but the running lights are also on- it’s not the brights. Only if there’s just two lamps - then it’s the brights.
Might just be the newish led lights that are super bright. I hate them.
Ofc someone who uses the word "folx" without a hint of irony would drive around with obnoxiously aimed lights
It’s just 50% of the people you encounter while driving in the evening. The national average is about 69%.
Recently I have chalked it up to lots of city people having moved here in the pandemic. You don’t need high beams in the city so out here city drivers put them on and don’t really know how to drive with them or forget to dim them when near oncoming traffic.
Yeah. I put new bulbs into my 82 300d and I couldn’t ask for more. Yesterday I was driving behind a new gen VW Passat and its break lights were crazy bright. Had to overtake him because I couldn’t take it no more haha. Overtake. In a 300d
It's a New England thing. I've lived and driven all over the country, and up here there is a disproportionately high number of people who think it's okay to blind everyone in front of them.
Or a law against having high beams on in someone's vision
I realize that as i used to work for subaru at a dealership and it was every week someone would come in saying at night their headlights were on but not their tail lights. I would have to show them how to use their headlamp switch.
I have informed a few and they did not know they were on and switched them off. High beams are blinding, drls are not.
Subaru places the high beam icon in a place where when most people hold the wheel its blocked.
The average person appears (at least in VT, to my experience) to rarely look at their dash for speed, MIL, or anything going on, much less a highbeam icon.
The govt needs to make headlamps auto mandatory.
I don't know what the rules on them are, but where I live here in WNY, most of the people are polite enough to dim them when we are driving close behind or facing another car. But we have a very large and active wild animal population and the only way you can see them in enough time to safely brake or dodge them, is to have the extra feet of visibility that high beams give you. I drive to work in the dark. I spend a lot of my time flipping them on and off. My car is small and some if these deer here are HUGE.
This is my favorite thing to do, since it’s usually all I can do haha
Yep - and the high beams doesn't make them brighter, just higher.
Had to night-drive with a starting migraine a couple months back. By the time I got safely home, that little starter was a full-blown, throw-up-in-my-own-bushes level pain in the skull. Seems like it's gotten worse over the years.
So I'm getting a bit older and noticing my eyes don't handle brights at night as well as they used to. I find myself thinking trucks/SUVs have high beams on when they are on a certain angle opposed to me. Also, fuck newer headlights that are unnecessarily bright. I saw a dude on 89 last week driving with high beams because he had a headlight out. Pretty irresponsible.
I love this idea
There are a lot of factors but I'm pretty sure most headlights are brighter than they are regulated, but they make them too bright because that's what sells, and it's difficult to enforce a lumen limit. As others said, lights aren't aligned well. But also a lot of roads in VT, I suspect, are angled such that even properly aligned lights will end up hitting you in the face. Finally, I suspect lots of people just use auto high beams and these are imperfect.
I think there are regulations, but most manufacturers break them because it's what sells more, and it's difficult to enforce. Too lazy to find sources but I'm pretty sure I read something to that effect the last time I was buying new lights.
I didn't even know headlights could be adjusted. I do know my son high-beams the hell out of everyone because his normals only have one headlight and he is too lazy to fix the brokwn one. Sorry everyone.
Shouldn’t the car come from the manufacturer properly aligned? Does alignment drift over time? I get flashed constantly because my LED lights don’t toggle brightness, it simply lift the shutter on high beam mode revealing the entire light. I can’t even get the satisfaction of flashing people back because the same brightness light is already in their eyes and the high beams just illuminate the trees above them. Kia Niro by the way, not a tall car.
I find this with large trucks a lot when they are behind me. A mix between not aligned properly and them riding my ass too close to be safe causing the lights to shine straight into my rear view mirror.
I just adjusted my low beams downward. The ‘proper’ way is level for normal low cars. If the top of the beam at the headlight is at 30” at the car, then it should measure the same 30” at a wall 20’ ahead. This works in flat areas, but leads to lots of blinding on our hills. It only takes one turn of the 6mm hex adjustment socket to make them just right.
Retrofitting LED lights into reflective housings can also cause big issues for other drivers.
New cars have auto dimming headlights but prefer high beams. My car embarrasses me at night as it will shift to high and wait until the last Minute to click low beam. Sometimes the sensors are off to, pick black road and then a high viz road sign will cause low beams. Just technology not being perfect
I think this is just another example of how many drivers on VT roads are totally oblivious.
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Sometimes yes, it’s high beams, but sometimes it’s just bright LED bulbs. I have an older car with new LEDs and have had folks flash me (as if to say “your high beams are on”) when I’m not running high beams. They’re adjusted properly, but they’re bright! When someone is behind me with bright headlights I often have to adjust my mirror(s).
We have allowed for our trucks and SUV to get too big for no real reason so now truck grills are much higher up than the use to. We need to regulate the size and weight of our larger vehicles more strictly, they are also the cause of our up tick in car fatalities nation wide.
Don't forget stopping on the on ramp because they haven't picked up enough speed and they are scared.
I'm looking at you Richmond folks....
Most dual bulb housings use the high beam bulbs at a lower voltage/wattage for daytime running lights which are a US requirement since 2001? 2005?
I see maybe about 1.7% of people driving with high beams inappropriately. Plenty of people use them and then drop them to regular beans when cars approach but I rarely experience someone misusing them.
But from the point of the driver.. they are so nice! I do feel bad as I drive an SUV with them from the factory and I line right up with people's rear view mirrors. I had one guy last year slow down to 35 on 89 and then slam the brakes. He yelled at me for having my high beams on.. I didn't, and they are aligned properly according to the dealer (I asked, as they are pretty damn bright when I drive my wife's Camry and she is behind me in the SUV) they are just bright from the factory .
I even let the nutjob see my high beams and he got back in his car real quick.
People are just angry!
Sounds like a Hyundai problem. I rented one over the summer while on vacation and ran into that exact same issue.. I hated them!
It’s a Vermont problem for sure. When driving home to Vermont, it’s almost endearing at this point to return home and be greeted by high beams in the face and in the rear view mirror. I think Vermonters are oblivious and simply are not as practiced at functioning around other people. Most of us who grew up in densely populated areas learned early to turn our high beams off before blinding other drivers, how to navigate four-way stops, and not to block aisles at the grocery store while carrying on conversations! While I’m at it, it’s also much more common to have to wait, sometimes several minutes, for a cashier to finish up a conversation with another shopper or coworker- that will almost never happen in a city where people are mindful to keep things moving.
Edit: also, Toyotas have dim high-beam indicators and seem to represent more than the fair share of this problem, in my experience.
I used to be able to tell when the SUV's with NJ and CT plates were arriving for ski vacations, because they'd never dim their high beams behind me like locals would.
This is actually what's going on. even low beams are now like a spotlight during a prison break
I have high quality, aftermarket headlights. They’re wicked bright, but I stay at least one or two car lengths between the car in front and mine.
Every day, someone angrily changes lanes, falls back, gets on my ass and high-beams me. 18 wheelers too. I try to flash my high beams to show them that my lights are not dimmer, just lower or higher.
OMFG, blocking aisles in the grocery store to have a chat really chaps my ass! And the cashier mindlessly yapping with a customer in front of me in line drives me up the wall.
HID headlights are to blame. They are arguably as dangerous as they are helpful. They are great for visibility on the road but are very blinding to oncoming traffic or to the person you are behind. I don’t like driving after dark because of them. People flash their brights at me all the time, but it’s just my bright af HID headlights blinding them, not my actual high beams.
Again, well aware of that. However when the headlight switch is off and the DRLs are lit the taillights are not on. Theres a very real brightness intensity differnce between the two.
Every single time i am noticing the highbeams in the daytime on a subaru, the tail lights are on, signifing that the headlight switch is in the on position, meaning they are highbeams.
There is, at least in NY. 500 feet is the limit.
And cars are just a lot bigger. I avoid driving my Miata at night because every other car's headlights are at my eye level and it's blinding.
Or stopping on the highway to let someone on the on ramp merge.
Have seen this happen too many times where I-91 intersects I-89.
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Oh I hear that!
Teach me your ways 🙏.
If I get one more obnoxiously big truck tailgating my tiny fucking car I'm going to lose. The worst part is that I have double astigmatisms so I really become a hazard if they're blinding me.
It's absolutely ridiculous dude, but it isn't even 20 years. I think it's really like 2011 and on. I've owned several cars in the past few years in the 2007-2009 range and decided that cars just a few years newer have brighter lights on normal than I do with highbeams on.
1.) You don't need to use turn signals if no traffic is around or your turn doesn't involve a downard change of speed.
2.) People don't understand swing radius of their vehicle so it isn't a smart practice to let people swing by on the right to make a turn at a stop. It isn't worth the risk or your car getting scraped up.
3.) Vermont speed signage makes literally zero sense. In the summer a section of i-89 from Winooski to Williston shouldn't be 55. If anything it makes it more dangerous for people merging. I don't fault anyone who completely ignores speed limits, as long as they're a competent drive. Sometimes Vermont drivers do go below the speed limit which can be annoying, but ultimately it's their responsibility to make sure they are driving at a pace comfortable for their skill.
4.) Isn't the speed limit for ramps like 25-35??? Shouldn't they be following that according to you?
5.) No they don't. New cars have brighter lights than old cars.
You've got an answer for everything eh? Trying to justify behavior that is idiotic, illegal, dangerous, and annoying. I bet you're a skilled driver.
Your explanation for not using turn signals sounds a lot like: "If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, does it still make a sound?"
I am a skilled driver. I have never been in a car accident and only off-roaded into a guardrail once when a tire popped in the middle of a snowstorm in a car that didn't have working brakes (only the E-Brake) and I still drove it home the rest of the way after throwing on a donut. I can drive automatic, manual, and the hybrid mode on automatics. I can pull trailers and drive box trucks. I can operate a liftruck, lull, skidsteer, tractor, boom lift, ATV, motorcycle, dirtbike, 4x4, dump truck, excavator, zero turn lawnmower, scissor lift, go kart, dunebuggy, scooter, tow truck, plow, etc. About the only land vehicle I can't operate is a tractor trailer with 18 gear, but I could probably pick it up fairly quickly given the chance.
I don't follow the rules but I know my limits. I don't drive like a maniac. I always use my turn signals with traffic and am usually at around the speed limit except on long straight stretches. I feather my brakes and accelerator like a grandma, I don't even trust my automatic to downshift for me.
I can drive year round in Vermont with all-seasons. I slow down considerable in winter and leave 20 minutes early to compensate.
There is no reason for the absurd speed limits.
And I never said to not use turn signals. I said you technically shouldn't have to if your turn doesn't require a change or speed. I don't do aggressive cornering like that, but for people who do I don't see the issue.
Your comment sounds like a job interview. I'm not hiring.
Huh, works perfectly in my cx-5. I love it.
They're being blinded and you flash your brights, making it worse, to prove you're not as ass. Think about that.
New trucks and suvs are stupid tall and if you are in a car, you can count on them to blind you constantly.
It' often (too often) also headlight adjustment, IE. poor headlight adjustment. Headlights are in adjustable mountings, and those mountings often shift slowly over time or have just never been properly adjusted.
Then there's those who put in brighter or directional headlight bulbs and don't re-adjust the mounts to accomodate the the more powerful and different beams. Then also those many who simply drive on out of town roads with their brights/high beams on basically all the time.
High beam lights aren't supposed to illuminate the trees, people... -_-
Have you ever had them properly adjusted? That's a very common issue when brighter aftermarket bulbs are installed.
Yes, they’ve been fully adjusted. Just super bright.
Turn your side mirrors as far out to the left as you can to reflect the high beams from cars behind you. They will either pass or turn them off. If someone oncoming is high beaming, turn yours on also to signal how much of an ass they are.
If it's a pickup truck or larger suv, the lights are physically higher, which makes them shine directly into your face via the rear view mirror even when the low beams are on. Might seem like the brights are on when they're not.
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somedudevt t1_iuynray wrote
What do you drive? Modern lights are brighter than 10 years ago, most new SUVs and trucks set on low beam project as far as a high beam was a few years back, and some high beams are now downright blinding. My gut says you drive something lower to the ground, and drive slower than average leading to having people behind you on a regular basis. Most probably don’t have high beams on. But some may especially if your driving really slow. I sometimes forget to lower mine if I’m doing 60 and roll up on someone doing 35, my frustration about the slow driver fogs my mind and I forget to lower them (usually remember after a minute or so and then feel bad)