Main beam

I was just looking at another thread on here about Audi concept lights and it prompted me to ask this question:

Has anyone else noticed an increasing number of car drivers who are driving with headlights on main beam?

I’ve come across this on various types of road and it appears to me to be increasing.

Thoughts please…

Not really but i have noticed a massive increase in the amount of cars that have the headlights adjusted as high as they will go. This often gives the appearance of being on full beam when they’re on dipped.

Eyesight.

goshow:
Not really but i have noticed a massive increase in the amount of cars that have the headlights adjusted as high as they will go. This often gives the appearance of being on full beam when they’re on dipped.

Yeah fair point drive. I’d not considered that.

Another bugbear are the number of headlamp bulbs which have been replaced upside down.
Now they are bright!

Butcher:

goshow:
Not really but i have noticed a massive increase in the amount of cars that have the headlights adjusted as high as they will go. This often gives the appearance of being on full beam when they’re on dipped.

Yeah fair point drive. I’d not considered that.

Another bugbear are the number of headlamp bulbs which have been replaced upside down.
Now they are bright!

That’s when they can be bothered to replace the bulb and not just use fogs instead

It’s just part of the light wars, everyone trying to outdo or impress (they look like ■■■■ with bling lights but don’t tell 'em Pike) everyone else, either brightest or the blingiest or the most stupid looking or most camp lights they must have.

Poor old pedestrian and cyclist and even motorcycles disappear into the background, unless lit up like Blackpool themselves, so much light now that the average persons night vision is all but destroyed.

How ironic that in the 80’s we managed perfectly well at far higher average road speeds, both cars and lorries, than now and in comparison to now the lights were candles, but arguably due to light scatter (the beam patterns weren’t so precise) and not so intense lights we still retained enough night vision for safe driving, something that is no longer the case.

I remember one wet late crystal clear evening on the M6 coming back home past B’ham, this must have been late 70’s or very early 80’s when the mk5 Cortina was the repmobile of the time, they came with rear fog lights as did other equivalent tat where the previous models didn’t, so the 80’s equivalent of the current Aldi knobs simply had to switch the rear fogs on to impress the lesser beings behind who didn’t have rear fogs…being up in the cab of the Sed Ack all i could see for about half a mile in front were hundreds and hundreds of bright red rear fog lights reflecting off the wet road, hardly another lorry about to ‘shelter’ behind.
It was like a premonition of the light hell that is now, these days bloody pervy rear led’s flickering like buggery blind you all the time, and sear you eyeballs when brake lights go one, no wonder rear shunts are on the increase, you can’t bloody see any more for light.
Rant over.

Juddian:
It’s just part of the light wars, everyone trying to outdo or impress (they look like ■■■■ with bling lights but don’t tell 'em Pike) everyone else, either brightest or the blingiest or the most stupid looking or most camp lights they must have.

Poor old pedestrian and cyclist and even motorcycles disappear into the background, unless lit up like Blackpool themselves, so much light now that the average persons night vision is all but destroyed.

How ironic that in the 80’s we managed perfectly well at far higher average road speeds, both cars and lorries, than now and in comparison to now the lights were candles, but arguably due to light scatter (the beam patterns weren’t so precise) and not so intense lights we still retained enough night vision for safe driving, something that is no longer the case.

I remember one wet late crystal clear evening on the M6 coming back home past B’ham, this must have been late 70’s or very early 80’s when the mk5 Cortina was the repmobile of the time, they came with rear fog lights as did other equivalent tat where the previous models didn’t, so the 80’s equivalent of the current Aldi knobs simply had to switch the rear fogs on to impress the lesser beings behind who didn’t have rear fogs…being up in the cab of the Sed Ack all i could see for about half a mile in front were hundreds and hundreds of bright red rear fog lights reflecting off the wet road, hardly another lorry about to ‘shelter’ behind.
It was like a premonition of the light hell that is now, these days bloody pervy rear led’s flickering like buggery blind you all the time, and sear you eyeballs when brake lights go one, no wonder rear shunts are on the increase, you can’t bloody see any more for light.
Rant over.

I’m still laughing Ian!! Nice one.

But why is there now such a huge number of cars with only one headlight? And why don’t the police prosecute them?
Personally, I’d confiscate their cars and crush their goolies!

Juddian:
It’s just part of the light wars, everyone trying to outdo or impress (they look like ■■■■ with bling lights but don’t tell 'em Pike) everyone else, either brightest or the blingiest or the most stupid looking or most camp lights they must have.

That’ll be Scania drivers then!!!

And why don’t the police prosecute them?

What is this word “Police”?

SWEDISH BLUE:
And why don’t the police prosecute them?

What is this word “Police”?

'cos there isn’t enough of them to go round anymore. They’re swamped with red tape, legislation and mountains of paperwork.

Definitely to many idiots driving with full beam.
Another thing is more and more idiots driving with fog lights on and this includes trucks…
Shame

heres the difference over here…
in uk…2 cars approach each other,and simultaniously dip.(usually)…
in eire,north and south…2 cars approach…you decide to dip…8 seconds later once you realise the approaching nugget aint gona dip,you hit main beam…at the same time,it has now registered that you were approaching and had dipped,so just as your hitting main,he dips,so you dip again,at this point barney o shamrock has now registered that you had hit main beam again,so he now does the same,and so on and so on till your passed each other…then repeat with 3 out of 5 approaching cars…
in Donegal and similar areas…it wont matter what you do as 1, they wont care anyway…2 ,itl be at random as to what number of lights they will have on assuming they work.1 sidelight,and 1 main beam is quite acceptable(on the same or opposite sides) and they may not know that they are on or not…all great fun,but usually nobody gets hurt as theyre all ■■■■■■ at night anyway.no taxis,no buses.too drunk to walk,so about 9 will pile in to the 1 car,and then rally it home.if the guards take an interest in you,then flat to the mat till you roll it into a bog,then leg it up the road back to the pub for someone elses car.the death rate for car crashes over here is somewhat similar to hitlers blitzkrieg on Poland.

goshow:

SWEDISH BLUE:
And why don’t the police prosecute them?

What is this word “Police”?

'cos there isn’t enough of them to go round anymore. They’re swamped with red tape, legislation and mountains of paperwork.

Agree with previous comments about badly adjusted and incorrectly used lighting. Regarding shortage of police, local force is supposedly recruiting a few hundred, but at present, I’m told, most coppers are burdened with more than a dozen active cases, each of which swallows up hours and hours of paperwork, court attendance etc etc.
Precious few of them on road patrols.

dieseldog999:
heres the difference over here…
in uk…2 cars approach each other,and simultaniously dip.(usually)…
in eire,north and south…2 cars approach…you decide to dip…8 seconds later once you realise the approaching nugget aint gona dip,you hit main beam…at the same time,it has now registered that you were approaching and had dipped,so just as your hitting main,he dips,so you dip again,at this point barney o shamrock has now registered that you had hit main beam again,so he now does the same,and so on and so on till your passed each other…then repeat with 3 out of 5 approaching cars…
in Donegal and similar areas…it wont matter what you do as 1, they wont care anyway…2 ,itl be at random as to what number of lights they will have on assuming they work.1 sidelight,and 1 main beam is quite acceptable(on the same or opposite sides) and they may not know that they are on or not…all great fun,but usually nobody gets hurt as theyre all ■■■■■■ at night anyway.no taxis,no buses.too drunk to walk,so about 9 will pile in to the 1 car,and then rally it home.if the guards take an interest in you,then flat to the mat till you roll it into a bog,then leg it up the road back to the pub for someone elses car.the death rate for car crashes over here is somewhat similar to hitlers blitzkrieg on Poland.

Pmsl reading that …

The Syrian Truckers had a ‘brilliant’ solution in the 70s when I guess they had no dip switch

And this one was still running in 2016 until it got hit in a missile attack near Aleppo - RIP my Syrian Driver Friends

As you got close enough to be dazzled by Full Beam, one driver would kill his lights completely & drive on the light from his approaching oppo
From memory about 10 seconds, then he would switch full on & you full off - amazingly it worked really well.

It took me a while to work it out, but once you were familiar with it it was just like flashing in

LED lights and retro fitted HiD’s fitted into a standard reflector are the main cause of dazzle, even DRL’s can be very bright on their own. Juddian has it with the ‘light wars’, every manufacturer is trying to out do each other. A guy at work has one of the new Audis with their new concept laser lights, just ridiculously bright…fine for the driver but not so oncoming traffic…

Have you noticed how car indicator lights are getting smaller and near invisible , even when flashing. With headlamps on as well and being so bright they are easy to miss. That is if they bother to use them at all !!!.

tortoise:
Have you noticed how car indicator lights are getting smaller and near invisible , even when flashing. With headlamps on as well and being so bright they are easy to miss. That is if they bother to use them at all !!!.

I have noticed (just about) the boy racer bikers who replace their indicators with tiny dim lights tucked up under the plastic fairings. Dam near useless, most of them, and these indicators are no better. They think they look cool and more racerie I spose. I just think theyre without any self preservationist instinct.

I saw a complete twonk with his ‘angel eyes’ on the front of his BMW replaced with red ones
Red lights on the front of your car? You really are special aren’t you?