In the last few years, car headlights seem to be much worse with glare. I don’t know if people no longer turn down their high beams, or if it’s raised trucks or aftermarket bulbs, or just shitty car design but it’s getting much tougher to see at night. And my teens complain more, so it’s not just me getting old
I’m looking for a way to improve my nighttime safety without adding to the problem.
Does anyone have experience with aftermarket LED bulbs for fog lights? Are they enough brighter to help see the road in the glare of oncoming high beams, while being enough lower to not just blind other drivers?
The problem used to be blamed on aftermarket bulbs in cars not designed for them. But now, completely factory cars have insane, nuclear fusion reactors for headlights. I mostly get blinded by tall trucks and SUVs. Almost all stock headlights.
I improved things a bit by having my rear window tinted as dark as legally allowed. It helps take the edge off the brightness of trucks behind me. Can’t really do much about the on-comming traffic.
You might be able to put good bulbs in the fog light position and then aim them…most fog lights I’ve seem don’t project light very far out though.
Depending on what you drive, you might be able to aim your low beams down a bit after installing some LED replacement bulbs. I’ll line my car up to a big painted wall to see the bulb projection pattern. This will get my left and right even with each other. Then when you drive, make sure the light is projected under people’s rear windows on level ground.
The lumens haven’t gone up as much, but the factory rarely aims them properly to account for a full tank of gas, passengers, and suspension break in. On top of that, the compact nature of projectors or LED reflectors has made the lights closer to a pinpoint source, affecting a smaller area of your retina to a greater to degree.
I’m noticing more and more newer vehicles with insanely bright headlights that are also tightly focussed. Aside from a brief flash over a bump or turn, they are much less blinding. Hopefully this is a problem that will take care of itself over the next decade or two