Bruce
2025-01-01 17:37:26 UTC
Reply
PermalinkSome driving expert from the UK says:
Rule 114 of the Highway Code states: “In stationary queues of traffic,
drivers should apply the parking brake and, once the following traffic
has stopped, take their foot off the footbrake to deactivate the vehicle
brake lights. This will minimise glare to road users behind until the
traffic moves again.”
And the Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations’ rule 27 prohibits the use of
any light “so as to cause undue dazzle or discomfort to other persons
using the road”.
Does this mean it’s against the law to keep your foot on the brake
pedal, thus displaying your brake lights, at traffic lights? You could
argue it is, but I would question whether you’d be successfully
prosecuted for doing so.
Either way, I try to avoid it, simply because, like you, I find it
horribly dazzling when I’m behind a stationary car at night with LED
brake lights shining directly in my eyes.
But it’s not only manufacturers of electric cars that fit exceedingly
bright and potentially dazzling headlights. Almost every new car either
has LED headlights as standard, or as an optional extra.
None is in contravention of the current lighting regulations; the
problem is that the rules themselves are no longer fit for purpose. The
beam patterns the regulations describe are reliant on the fact that
halogen lights’ brightness falls away with distance. The trouble is that
LEDs do so to a far lesser degree – which, of course, is one of the
reasons they’ve taken over.
What’s more, LED lights’ colour temperature is more toward the blue end
of the spectrum – making them much harder for your eyes to adjust to
than the yellower tint of halogen bulbs; indeed, France kept yellow
headlights for 40 years after the war because they were deemed to be
less dazzling than pure “white” bulbs.
You’re not alone in finding these new headlights to be blinding: 89 per
cent of drivers believe the problem is getting worse, according to a
survey carried out by the RAC. Meanwhile, a report produced by a group
of experts earlier this year concluded that modern LED headlights are
not fit for purpose.
The report suggested greater controls on brightness, glare, flicker and
colour temperature for headlights. The good news is that the Department
for Transport commissioned the Transport Research Laboratory to conduct
an independent study on the subject earlier this year, which is ongoing.
We await the results – and hope that the Government acts on them.
In the meantime, there isn’t much that can be done, though if you’re the
owner of a car with LED lights (or even xenon bulbs, which aren’t quite
as bright at LEDs but operate at a similar colour temperature), it’s
probably considerate to make sure the lights are levelled correctly –
and, of course, to use the handbrake at traffic lights.
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