A new community where people can just vent about or actually do coordinate action against the pest of ultra bright LEDs.

  • @[email protected]
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    4 months ago

    That’s the kind of freedom I love not to have in Europe (it’s regulated).

    For the ones wanting proof (fair):

    https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2011/48(2)/oj/eng

    One such regulation. It’s not perfect.

    For me mainly bicycle lights are sometimes brighter than cars but mostly far too high and some on the back blinking too (illegal here, but still seeing it often).

    Regulations not being enforced is another issue…

    • @[email protected]OP
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      154 months ago

      I’m from Europe and headlights suck here too! It’s spectrum of LEDs and tall cars and probably bad regulations too.

      • @[email protected]
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        34 months ago

        What?

        Seems heavily country v dependent then.

        But there def is regulation (even candles at different distances) & technically a car isn’t road worthy if its blinding oncoming traffic.

        I haven’t seen it much enforced by the cops, just by the mandatory scheduled road-worthiness checkups.

        Also, how tf is automatic headlight leveling not standard equipment? It has been on the market for like 20 years now (& I think we need it bcs of people, not bcs that lil 1-5 scroll switch of the olden days wasn’t sufficient … do people not see their own lights shining in peoples faces?).

        However I do wish cops would regularly stop & fine people (foreigners :)) with misaligned headlights (the needed equipment is ez & smol, tho level ground is needed) … or those fuckers cruising with fog lights “bcs it looks sporty” or whatever.

      • @[email protected]
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        64 months ago

        Yes, some specific cars and lights are surprisingly bad, but in general it’s not comparable to the US. Maybe also depends on the specific country, too, of course.

      • @[email protected]
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        34 months ago

        Some cars now even have break lights that shine brighter than the light of a thousand suns. I don’t get it, there ought to be some regulation for this. This is Germany speaking.

    • @[email protected]
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      84 months ago

      It technically is in the US as well, but this is a corrupt, late stage Capitalist shithole, so, no one with power cares.

    • Rolivers
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      24 months ago

      Regulated? In the Netherlands I can’t tell.

    • @[email protected]
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      4 months ago

      I mean, sort of, but I live in a place with narrow winding roads that all too often don’t have a line painted on the edge of the road.

      There’s definitely a strategy to look down at the edge of the road until the perpetrator has passed, but that assumes you have something to look at that will help

  • FQQD
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    264 months ago

    That’s so oddly specific but I love it

  • @[email protected]
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    974 months ago

    Oh, it’s bullshit. It’s a bunch of cockfucking bullshit.

    You’re sitting, waiting for the bus, trying to look down the street to see if you notice the bus coming. What do you see instead? White. Just an all encompassing blinding white light which just consumes all reality and everything you’re experiencing right now.

    NOW how am I supposed to know if I should be getting my bus pass out? Also, 50% chance my retinas were just singed to a crisp.

  • @[email protected]
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    194 months ago

    When there’s someone behind me with their brights on, i roll down the window and hold my palm over my left mirror so they can see me blocking the light (it has never worked)

  • wander1236
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    94 months ago

    My car’s headlights blind me sometimes when they reflect off road signs. I tried to find warmer replacements, but it seems like that’s just not a thing

    • @[email protected]OP
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      44 months ago

      Yeah, I guess that’s one part of the problem. It’s not like most people care that much. But if that’s the only replacement lights you can get… :/

  • fraksken
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    374 months ago

    I’mma get some downvotes for this. But is this community also for the headlights of bicycles who like to shine into the face of other road users instead of illuminating the road?

    • @[email protected]OP
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      264 months ago

      Totally, I’m commuting by bike almost every work day of the year and it’s infuriating how many cyclists have their headlights misaligned.

      • @[email protected]
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        164 months ago

        Yesterday, some idiot on a bike came right at me with a strobing light pointing at my eyes. Fuck you…

        • @[email protected]OP
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          134 months ago

          What I currently do is to take out my own headlight from its holder and deliberately point into their eyes. At least the message should be clear.

      • Thelsim
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        74 months ago

        Oh god yes, especially now that all of them use led lights. Mine still uses an old-fashioned light, which is great when you’re alone on the road because your night vision can deal with the rest. But I turn completely blind when an oncoming bike shines one of those led-lights directly in my face.
        I’ve already ran off the path twice so far because I couldn’t see where I was cycling (it was at a bicycle path through the park without street lights)

    • @[email protected]
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      74 months ago

      No downvotes from me. I cycle every day, it’s my only mode of transportation, and the number of poorly adjusted lights on other people’s bikes is staggering.

    • Dark Arc
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      94 months ago

      Ugh yeah that’s been an increasing problem too. I had some guy last year just as dusk was starting to set with a bike headlight blinding me on the bike trail.

  • @[email protected]
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    794 months ago

    There’s a load of cars with headlights that are overly bright, but there is an even bigger epidemic of idiots driving around with high beams on as part of regular course.

    In the city there is no need for those, ever. Let alone always being on.

    • @[email protected]
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      134 months ago

      I’ve noticed quite the influx of highbeams in recent years. I simply can’t understand why though. Stupids wanting to see better, by making other’s vision worse? Western Canada here, and I thought it was just me taking notice. Fuckn why??

      • @[email protected]
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        44 months ago

        I mean I guess I’m stupid but I straight up can’t see if there’s oncoming traffic and my brights aren’t on. Doesn’t go for every oncoming car (if its lights are reasonable then I have no issues) but the vast majority of cars have newer, hilariously bright headlights that shine in a way where my normal lights simply don’t seem to cut it.

    • _NetNomad
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      464 months ago

      it’s hard to tell the two apart these days because many cars have regular headlights that are as bright as normal high beams. there have been a few times i’ve been mad at someone behind me with their high beams on, and then they flash their actual high beams because they’re mad at me for not also speeding while blind

      god, driving at night used to be so fun, now it’s ruined

      • @[email protected]
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        14 months ago

        because many cars have regular headlights that are as bright as normal high beams

        You seem to have no grasp of how car headlights work, because almost every single car that has ever been produced has high beams that are as bright as their low beams

      • @[email protected]
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        164 months ago

        I don’t disagree. There are plenty of led upgrade kits that are way too bright regularly and also probably misaligned causing them to be double bad. Brighter than normal and aimed directly into your eyes.

        I’m with you though, driving at night used to be a lot different and more enjoyable than it is today with all these extremely bright lights pointed at your eyes.

    • @[email protected]
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      104 months ago

      Meanwhile I’m out here driving a 20 year old car with correspondingly dim headlights and need to have the highbeams on just to be able to see anything when there’s oncoming traffic. My normal headlights are fine when there’s nothing coming the other way, but that’s not really how that’s supposed to work lol. Kinda defeats the purpose of ever turning the brights off! I swear any newer car’s normal lights are brighter than my brights

      • @[email protected]
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        14 months ago

        need to have the highbeams on just to be able to see anything when there’s oncoming traffic.

        Let me get this straight: you are turning on your brights when there is oncoming traffic?

      • @[email protected]
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        54 months ago

        I don’t see how running high beams held you see when there is oncoming cars with brighter lights. Maybe it has more to do with the fact that older cars are smaller and lower?

        I am not disputing new cars have higher brightness on regular lights, that absolutely is true. Though running high beams throws light both forward and up toward the oncoming drivers eyes.

        • @[email protected]
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          34 months ago

          Unfortunately I don’t know the physics, maybe something to do with how lights scatters through the windshield? Idk, all I can tell you is my repeated experience: turning the brights on definitely helps with seeing through oncoming traffic. But you are right, my older car is both smaller and lower, so I’m sure even the modern cars with lights aimed downward are more likely to shine directly at me

    • @[email protected]
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      144 months ago

      Dude YES. 20 years ago driving in the country you see some high beams in the distance and people would go back to low beams as they get around a corner or crest a hill when they see other cars.

      My commute is through a lot of schools and parks and pedestrian crossings and it’s somewhat poorly lit, so everyone has high beams on regardless of traffic but as a result I can’t see shit. If there’s oncoming cars stopped and a pedestrian tries to squeak through I literally wouldn’t be able to tell.

      It’s gotten so bad, either people have their brights on all the time or they’re not adjusted properly. In either case headlights DONT HAVE TO BE SO BRIGHT.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      314 months ago

      My problem is that I drive a low car (Ford fiesta) and most other cars are taller, this makes them way more blinding.

      • @[email protected]
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        204 months ago

        Our problem is not that we drive small cars (I drive a Focus). It’s that newer vehicles are enormous, usually for no reason.

        Nearly every time I get on the highway, I’m tailgated by someone in some newer massive SUV where the headlights are at the same height as my rear view mirror. I don’t understand why those vehicles are allowed to operate on the same roads as me. They aren’t safe. By default, stock, out of the factory, they blind the other drivers in reasonable cars. I can’t imagine what getting into a wreck with one would do to my car (and me in it).

        • @[email protected]
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          144 months ago

          Oh, there is a reason, and it’s the fucking NHTSA. Those absolute fuckrockets mandate proportionally stricter emissions standards on smaller cars than larger cars. They base it on the area of the rectangle formed by where the tires touch the pavement.

          If your car can’t quite pass emission standards, just make it a little wider, a little longer, and you get a looser standard.

          Repeat the process for a few model years, and now 2025 subcompacts are larger than 1995 sedans.

          Fuck the NHTSA with a rusty bayonet.

      • @[email protected]
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        64 months ago

        Same, and they might even have properly adjusted headlights, but as soon as they tilt up (e.g. due to a speed bump), the flashing lights make it look like they are sending me a light signal. Usually takes a few seconds until I realise they just hit a speed bump.

    • Dark Arc
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      4 months ago

      100% this; I’ll see the same make a model go by, with LED lights, and it will be fine one time the next time I’ll be like 🔥 MY EYES 🔥.

  • @[email protected]
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    104 months ago

    Now this is a community I can get behind, like a lifted pickup truck tailgating with his LED high beams on.

  • Lovable Sidekick
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    4 months ago

    I thought it was just me getting older and my eyes getting worse, but headlights have really gotten ridiculous in the last 20 years or so. Related pet peeve is people walking at night in dark clothes, not even looking up when they cross the street.

    • @[email protected]
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      34 months ago

      I thought the same, until my teens started driving. Both of them complained they can’t see in the glare and ask me to drive at night sometimes, LoL

  • @[email protected]
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    234 months ago

    I recently had a high beam tailgating me. I moved my side and rearview mirrors to reflect it back and he passed me on a double yellow line with him in front of me I just turned on my own high beams. He turned off soon after but I hope it made his day a little more frustrating ¯_(ツ)_/¯

    • Match!!
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      134 months ago

      perhaps there could be an automatic mirror to handle this for you. that’d be a good project

      • @[email protected]
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        24 months ago

        Hah I’ve thought of this maybe I can look into it, I’m an amateur Arduino enthusiast but it might even be more simple than that.

      • @[email protected]
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        54 months ago

        I’ve thought about turning my entire rear window into a mirror, but I imagine there is a law against it, so I haven’t looked into it.

        • @[email protected]
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          34 months ago

          The same crossed my mind but that would be hell for everyone around you on a sunny day. Sometimes even just a car with a lot of chrome is annoying 😔

  • @[email protected]
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    14 months ago

    A quick question for Americans: here in the UK, cars have to pass an annual inspection once they reach three years old. It’s called an MOT test and it’s primarily concerned with making sure the car is safe - they check for rust, seatbelt tension, brake wear, and, yes, they make sure all the lights are not just working but also aligned properly. Do you not have an equivalent?

    • @[email protected]
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      14 months ago

      We used to have inspection in Oklahoma but I think it violated our “freedom” so they got rid of it.

    • @[email protected]
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      14 months ago

      I’ll add onto the answers already. I lived in both an inspection state (Virginia), and a non inspection state (Washington state). I was in Va for about 2 years. I never saw more janky ass cars on the road and broken down ones. I saw more in those 2 years than the 20+ years I’ve lived here in Wa.

      When it came time for mine, all my neighbors sent me to a mechanic down the road. It was a long ass line, but moved pretty fast. No appointment needed. “WTF is this?” I thought. I got to my turn. The guy was in a short stool, like a dr’s one. He didn’t even leave it. I was in and out in 5 minutes. I’m anal retentive on our vehicle maintenance. So I’m not a danger, but man, I know how others are.

      One of our neighbor’s friends brought his car by one time. When it was off, oil was flooded into the spark plug holes. I swore it would never start. He cranked it. It turned over right away and all the oil sucked back down into the engine. I’ve never seen anything like it, nor since. I’m still flummoxed by it.

      I saw one car where the person cut the roof away from just behind the driver’s seats. Regular old car. They half ass put a piece of plywood and, what I assume, is plexiglass to act as a wall. The “bed” of the vehicle was now the passenger seat area. It also had some janky work going on back there.

      Our inspection system is really shitty, even in the states with them. There are so many, “I know a guy”, things going on that they might as well not have them. Then there are exemptions as well. Year ranges exempt. They do no real good if they’re there. Completely defeats the purpose.

    • @[email protected]
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      4 months ago

      It’s by state. I’ve always lived in states with relatively strict inspections, at least compared to other states, but I’ve never heard of them checking lights or window tint. They’re supposed to

      I suppose it’s good that they focus on more urgent things like brakes, emissions, that there be lights, tire treads, and windshield chips/cracks, but I wish they’d do everything

      Actually it’s mildly annoying that I have to pay the same for inspections that include the emissions check, with my EV

    • @[email protected]
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      24 months ago

      Some states have something similar, but it’s more for emissions I think. Michigan doesn’t seem to care AT ALL.