Recent news (Optician 12.4.24) that the Department for Transport intends to carry out an investigation into the impact of glare from car headlights will be welcomed by most drivers and their passengers, but it will be some time before there are any meaningful changes from the automotive world.
Headlight design is already governed by international legislation, yet problems persist, and new regulations that will make automatic headlight levelling mandatory on new cars sold in the UK don’t come into force until September 2027. It also doesn’t address the issues drivers have with the vehicles of today.
LED lights also remain popular with vehicle manufacturers because ordinary drivers feel safer on the roads with greater volumes of illumination, and by and large, think their safety trumps the safety of other road users. Just look at the reasons for the increase in popularity of SUVs – which also cause more glare thanks to bright light and elevation.
It isn’t just the vehicle manufacturers causing the problem, though. Drivers themselves could be inadvertently causing more glare through poor alignment of lights or dirty lights that scatter beams in different directions.
Then there’s the availability of upgraded bulbs that increase brightness, and although MoT rules prohibit retro-fitting LED upgrade bulbs to cars that were specified with LED lights from the factory, this relies on MoT testers being able to see the construction of the new bulbs in situ, which isn’t possible on many headlamp designs.
In addition, current legislation means cars equipped with LED lights don’t need an MoT for three years, which is a really long time for headlights to suffer misalignment. It would be good to see headlights testing on a more regular basis as part of future legislation.
In the meantime, high street optical practices are ideally placed to become the experts in dealing with headlight glare and most articles in the motoring press recommend visiting an optometrist to try driving lenses that can take the edge off headlight glare.