Modern LED technology promised safer roads. Instead, it’s creating a blinding menace that regulators refuse to address.
The Bright Headlights Crisis Is Far From Over
If you find yourself squinting while driving at night, you’re not alone. The IIHS reports that average headlight brightness has roughly doubled in the last decade. The NHTSA receives growing consumer complaints regarding headlight brightness. There’s a real, widespread anger out there; there’s even a subreddit with over 44,000 members complaining about this growing and very real crisis.
The numbers support the public’s frustration. Older halogen bulbs produced approximately 1,000 lumens. Newer factory-fitted LEDs produce up to 4,000 lumens or more. Some aftermarket LEDs have been found to produce 10,000 lumens or more. But the problem is that the federal brightness standards for automotive headlights have not changed for decades.
Modern Law enforcement vehicles have become excessively over lit. They’ve become a hazard on the highways.
The latest and greatest is not always necessary and not always the best.
Thanks for posting this. We’re all being temporarily blinded on the roadways by oncoming flamethrower headlights and in our mirrors by those behind us, especially late model )Ford and GMC) pickup trucks that have 24/7 headlights that could light a stadium.
Recovery from being dazzled by these lights takes time, especially for older drivers.
The problem needs fixing.
Bicycle riders on the Mt Hermon road near Phillip Morris and Tighman are risking death at dusk and later. There is very little shoulder, which they don’t like to use anyway” and when meeting a vehicle with very bright headlights they are impossible to see along with the line marking the shoulder.