Highway Hazard: Blinded by brighter headlights? It’s not your imagination

That  was  in  2019.  Since then, he said, his right eye “hurts so bad, sometimes I just want to pop it out.” He said he developed intermittent pain and a light sensitivity  that  has  affected  his  social  life  and  his  driving habits.

DeVries, 48, of Doon, Iowa, said he  does  not  have  diabetes  or  high  blood  pressure, which could affect his vision, nor does he engage  in  risky  behavior  that  could  harm  his  eyes. “I didn’t weld without a helmet,” he said. “I didn’t stare at the sun with binoculars.”Advances  in  lighting  technology  have  improved  nighttime  driving  for  many,  but  the  introduction  of  brighter  lights  that  also  sit  higher on S.U.V.s and pickups has given rise to widespread criticism that headlights have become  overpoweringly  intense.

“If  you’ve  not  been  affected  by  them,  you  will  be,”  DeVries  said,  referring  to  LED  headlights.  “You  wait.  You’re next. It’s only a matter of time.”DeVries is not imagining things. Matt Kossoff,   chief   product   officer   of   The   Retrofit   Source,  an  Atlanta-based  distributor  of  lights  for cars and trucks, said headlights had “abso-lutely gotten brighter.”“Sealed-beam”  headlights  were  used  from  the  1950s  through  the  1980s,  and  generally  offered  poor  light  output.

Halogens,  with  tungsten  filaments  and  better  output,  appeared  in  the  late  1980s  and  early  1990s.  High-intensity  discharge lights, which cast a bright glow that approximates  the  spectrum  of  daylight,  came  in  the  late  1990s  and  early  2000s.

In  the  2010s,  LEDs   became   popular   because   they   were   longer-lasting,  energy-efficient  and  perceived  by  automakers  as  sexy  and  modern.  But  they  also  prompted  complaints  that  they  were  too  much of a good thing. There is even a Facebook group and an online petition dedicated to ban-ning blinding headlights.

“The balance we are always  trying  to  strike  is  what  is  the  mitigation and what are the unintended consequences?” said Eric Kennedy, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.The  trend  toward  improved  headlight  illumination has been fuelled in part by manufacturers  seeking  higher  safety  ratings  from  the  Insurance  Institute  for  Highway  Safety,  Professor  Kennedy  said.

When  the  institute,  an  independent,  non-profit  research  group,  re-leased  its  first  headlight  ratings  in  2016,  only  one headlight system of more than 80 that were evaluated   received   a   “good”   rating.   As   of   March, more than a quarter of those tested received such a rating, the institute said.Complaints  about  headlight  glare  are  not  new, and date back at least 20 years.

After the National  Highway  Traffic  Safety  Administration sought comments from the public in 2001 about  glare,  it  issued  a  report  that  said  the  4,000  responses  it  received  “was  larger  than  those  that  NHTSA  received  on  other  safety  concerns.”  About  30  percent  of  respondents  said they had experienced “disturbing” night-time headlight glare from oncoming traffic or from cars whose lights appeared in their rear-view  mirrors.

The  report  described  that  percentage as a “sizable number” that “cannot be ignored.”  It  was  not  just  older  drivers  complaining,  either.  The  report  said  11  percent  of  those who rated oncoming glare as disturbing were  older  than  65,  and  45  percent  were  be-tween  35  and  54  years  old.  Drivers  18  to  24  years  old  complained  the  most  about  glare  from vehicles behind them.