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If you feel like vehicle headlights are too bright these days and are blinding your eyes on the road, Transport Canada wants to hear from you.
The federal agency is conducting a survey on headlights that have gotten a lot brighter over the years, with some experts saying they’re a safety concern.
Bright LED lights on the road is becoming a more common trend that semi-truck drivers are noticing first-hand.
Bill Fries has been a trucker for 30 years and said the stronger headlights can be useful, but harsh on the eyes.
“LED lights are extremely bright, they don’t really have distance. They’re intense, and if the drivers don’t adjust them, quite often I wear those yellow glasses, nighttime driving glasses that kill the glare and take a lot of the blue light out,” said Fries.
Vehicle lighting expert Daniel Stern says headlights getting stronger isn’t a myth.
“Headlights are brighter in the sense that they’re putting out more light at wider beam patterns, they’re also growing smaller and smaller and bluer and bluer,” said Stern.
“All three of those things make them more glaring.”
He added the colour temperature — warm vs cool lighting — makes a difference.
“For any given intensity, blue, white light like we get from LED headlights, spurs a lot more glare. Fifty to 60 per cent more discomfort glare than that same amount of light in a warmer, white light colour with less blue in it.”
That increased glare is a key part of Transport Canada’s national survey. It’s asking Canadians how headlight glare affects them and their experience on the roads at night with bright lights, at times creating dangerous situations.
“You put LED bulbs into a halogen headlamp, you turn it into a glare monster. It feels like they’re much brighter, but you’re not getting the right amount of light to the right places to see safely, so that’s a lose-lose deal,” said Stern.
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Edmonton auto repair shops say a very common concern they hear from customers is that their lights aren’t bright enough, but brand-new LEDS aren’t always the trick.
“A lot of the times it’s really difficult to see in front of you. I mean, if you could imagine yourself on a narrow highway and there are vehicles all around you and you have oncoming traffic that’s nearly blinding you, one miscalculation can cause an accident,” said Moe Araji with Fat Dog Automotive.
“There’s a misconception about bright headlights, though; just because the headlight’s bright doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to give you better visibility.”
As Transport Canada seeks potential solutions to headlight glare, local mechanics and Stern say they hope light inspections are part of the conversation.
“We really need to bring back vehicle inspections, at least lighting inspections. Not only are the lights badly aimed, but also you walk through any parkade, you see a lot of cars with cloudy, hazed headlight lenses. It happens with age, and that diffuses the beam so light that should be going down towards the road instead is going up towards other drivers’ eyes,” said Stern.
“Glare control measures that were adequate in the past, they no longer do the job. So what we have is headlamps much more glaring than they used to be, that are still legal according to the regulations, which haven’t changed.”
The survey is available on Transport Canada’s website and is open until April 20.
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