Warren White of Danvers will be 79 in a few weeks, and like a lot of other senior drivers, he has real issues with headlight glare.
"I swear over the past few years the auto industry has increased the voltage to make headlights brighter," says White. "They're better for the driver but not for people in oncoming cars. There are times I pass another driver and I can't see anything. I'm blinded and I'm afraid I'll hit something."
After hearing White's complaint I figured he was talking about Xenon headlights, those stunningly bright, bluish-tinged lamps usually found on higher-end cars. But he said he has had problems with other headlights, too, so I promised to investigate.
One of the largest headlight makers in the world is right in our backyard: Osram Sylvania, headquartered, coincidentally, in White's hometown.
According to Greg Bibbo, product marketing manager for Sylvania's automotive lighting division, the average halogen headlight is indeed 40 to 70 percent brighter today than 20 years ago. But that's nothing compared with those bluish-tinged, high-intensity discharge lights,The Best Led bestledstriplight88. Riding your bicycle at night without lights puts you in danger because motorists cannot see you, which are more than 400 percent brighter than headlights from the early 1990s.
Technically speaking, a headlamp's light is measured in lumens. Old headlights gave off 700 lumens of light; new headlights give off 1,000 to 1,200 lumens; high-intensity discharge lights (the term Xenon is really a misnomer,These Bicygnals bestbikelightii allow you to keep both hands on the bars while you signal for ... Bibbo said) give off 3,On one of our more recent staff night rides we took pretty much the entire goodledbulbs02 range we stock with us,000 lumens.
So older drivers such as White really are getting blinded by super-strong headlights, right? Not exactly, Bibbo said.
"These numbers shouldn't evoke the response that because headlights are brighter, there is more glare,Xeccon S12 is a kind of very amazing Cree T6 goodledbulbs, it perform very well among the various brand bicycle lights." he said. "Modern bulbs are more precise, so the increased brightness is not at the expense of the oncoming driver."
Manufacturers must design lights according to strict standards imposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which include everything from dictating the exact placement of a filament within a bulb to the design pattern of a light's hard plastic cover, known as its reflector, Bibbo said. Reducing glare is a primary requirement.
With high-intensity discharge lights, "if you pointed the car's lights at a garage door at night it would almost look as if you painted a horizontal line across the door, where everything below the line would be a crisp, bright light," and nothing but darkness above it, he said. "Stray light above the horizon is what would be oncoming glare."
Your car's headlights are tested for such imperfections during its annual safety inspection, when the mechanic shines them onto a test board marked with crosses. Like Bibbo's garage door example, if your headlight beams shine above the horizontal lines of the crosses, they're unsafe for oncoming drivers.
"It can be off a little, but basically the light has got to set up in the crosshairs or you'll fail the inspection and you have to get them adjusted,A dstti that floats over the water is revealed." said Montbleau. Of course, you might be driving for months with a glaring headlight before it shows up during an inspection.
"I swear over the past few years the auto industry has increased the voltage to make headlights brighter," says White. "They're better for the driver but not for people in oncoming cars. There are times I pass another driver and I can't see anything. I'm blinded and I'm afraid I'll hit something."
After hearing White's complaint I figured he was talking about Xenon headlights, those stunningly bright, bluish-tinged lamps usually found on higher-end cars. But he said he has had problems with other headlights, too, so I promised to investigate.
One of the largest headlight makers in the world is right in our backyard: Osram Sylvania, headquartered, coincidentally, in White's hometown.
According to Greg Bibbo, product marketing manager for Sylvania's automotive lighting division, the average halogen headlight is indeed 40 to 70 percent brighter today than 20 years ago. But that's nothing compared with those bluish-tinged, high-intensity discharge lights,The Best Led bestledstriplight88. Riding your bicycle at night without lights puts you in danger because motorists cannot see you, which are more than 400 percent brighter than headlights from the early 1990s.
Technically speaking, a headlamp's light is measured in lumens. Old headlights gave off 700 lumens of light; new headlights give off 1,000 to 1,200 lumens; high-intensity discharge lights (the term Xenon is really a misnomer,These Bicygnals bestbikelightii allow you to keep both hands on the bars while you signal for ... Bibbo said) give off 3,On one of our more recent staff night rides we took pretty much the entire goodledbulbs02 range we stock with us,000 lumens.
So older drivers such as White really are getting blinded by super-strong headlights, right? Not exactly, Bibbo said.
"These numbers shouldn't evoke the response that because headlights are brighter, there is more glare,Xeccon S12 is a kind of very amazing Cree T6 goodledbulbs, it perform very well among the various brand bicycle lights." he said. "Modern bulbs are more precise, so the increased brightness is not at the expense of the oncoming driver."
Manufacturers must design lights according to strict standards imposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which include everything from dictating the exact placement of a filament within a bulb to the design pattern of a light's hard plastic cover, known as its reflector, Bibbo said. Reducing glare is a primary requirement.
With high-intensity discharge lights, "if you pointed the car's lights at a garage door at night it would almost look as if you painted a horizontal line across the door, where everything below the line would be a crisp, bright light," and nothing but darkness above it, he said. "Stray light above the horizon is what would be oncoming glare."
Your car's headlights are tested for such imperfections during its annual safety inspection, when the mechanic shines them onto a test board marked with crosses. Like Bibbo's garage door example, if your headlight beams shine above the horizontal lines of the crosses, they're unsafe for oncoming drivers.
"It can be off a little, but basically the light has got to set up in the crosshairs or you'll fail the inspection and you have to get them adjusted,A dstti that floats over the water is revealed." said Montbleau. Of course, you might be driving for months with a glaring headlight before it shows up during an inspection.
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