More than 80 per cent of people in a recent study felt that headlight glare is a dangerous issue, an issue which is potentially exaggerated by LED headlights.
The study comes from the RAC, which it says "has raised the issue" of headlight glare with the Department for Transport (DfT).
The RAC found that 85 per cent of 2,000 respondents to a survey “think at least some headlights on cars on the road today are too bright,” while 28 per cent think that “most” are too bright.
Additionally, 91 per cent of the respondents said that they get “dazzled,” by headlights while on the road, according to the RAC, and 74 per cent said this happens “regularly”.
A significant number of people said that headlight glare affects their driving, with 67 per cent saying that they “have to slow down considerably until they can see clearly again,” the RAC says. Further, 64 per cent felt that headlights risk causing accidents, and five per cent of those people said they had nearly been involved in a collision themselves as a result of being dazzled by headlights. Government statistics show that, since 2013, 280 collisions happened on average per year as a result of a driver being dazzled by headlights.
Overall, seven per cent of people said they avoid driving at night because of headlight glare, and this is the case for 14 per cent of people aged 65 and over.
85 per cent of people said that the problem of headlight glare is getting worse. The RAC believes that the “increasing prevalence of cars fitted with LED headlights,” could be a factor in this perceived worsening of the issue. Of course, this would now go for motorcycles, too, where production models are also increasingly fitted with LED lights all around. LEDs create a more focused beam of light, which is beneficial for the driver or rider of the LED-equipped vehicle and their visibility, but also has a potentially negative impact on those coming in the opposite direction. The RAC says that the human eye reacts differently to light from LEDs than that from halogen bulbs.
Additionally, in the four-wheeled world, automatic full-beam systems in newer cars - which don’t always switch back to dipped beam when they should do - might also be a factor.
On the other hand, 44 per cent of people think that poor headlight alignment is to blame for glare. The RAC submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) in November 2023, which showed that five per cent of class four vehicles - which includes passenger cars - fail their MOT as a result of bad headlight aim. That percentage could be higher, though, as the DVSA said in 2016 that headlight aim is the check which is most likely to be carried out incorrectly by an MOT assessor.
Another factor in the issue of headlight glare is the height of a vehicle. The RAC said that 62 per cent of people who drive what the RAC describes as “conventional cars” (hatchbacks, saloons, and estates, for example) blamed headlight glare on high vehicles like SUVs, which are becoming more popular. Among drivers of what the RAC calls “higher vehicles”, 35 per cent blamed taller vehicles for the issue.
81 per cent of people said that something should be done to address the issue of headlight glare, including 87 per cent of people aged 45-54.
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