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speaking of having a hard time seeing at night

J

JRSutton

Well-known Member
this subject came up here maybe a few years ago, but figured I'd bring it up again.

I have a hard enough time with bright oncoming lights at night, especially in the rain, but what's even worse are the LED lights.

Does anybody else have a hard time with LED tail lights at night - the strobe like flickering? I find it so distracting and dizzying that it's hard for me to drive behind them.

It started with cadillac tail lights. Those continue to be the worst, but others aren't far behind.

More and more cars are using them - and NOW they're being used up front around headlights.

My wife and kids think I'm crazy because they can't even notice it. They say they can sometimes see it on the cadillacs, but that's about it.

I don't know why I'm so sensitive to it - but I just can't see how people CAN'T see it. I guess it's how your brain's wired, and I've got a few screws loose in other areas, so it's no surprise my anti-flicker circuit's loose too. :)

Last time we discussed this somebody brought up some helicopter pilots having this problem with sunlight coming through the rotors. I have to think it's the same condition.

Thing is, it's so bad - and with what seems EVERY new car using LEDs - I really don't think I'll be able to drive at night for much longer.

As if the car lights weren't bad enough - there also being used almost exclusively on road signs - and now even christmas lights!

I'm doomed.

Just wondering how alone I am in this regard.
 
Years ago, I had a pair of Blue Blocker sunglasses that really helped with lights from oncoming traffic at night. I didn't like to wear them driving, it seemed like it was harder to see in a non oncoming car situation. I think I will have to get another pair. Chris
 
Fortunately tail lights haven't bothered me yet. I didn't see the whole conversation where the helicopter was mentioned. The only night flying I have done was the required amount to get my pilot license. But I know you can turn off the flashing/rotating beacon if you're in cloudy conditions where the reflection/glare back at you is disorienting.
 
I've heard that on the glare problem - but the flickering I don't think there's anything that can be done.

When I move my eyes it leaves a trail of dashes.

one car with them is an annoyance, ten cars in front of you is downright crazy - my eyes just fill up with blinking lights.
 
I spent a good many years running at night for many reason . Back in i think like 78 they came out with the BLUE SPOT lite . It mounted up in a couner of the windsheild inside . You adjusted it so that it covered the whole windsheild on one side and you needed two for best affect . at first i thought that they were just CHICKEN lites . YOU had to to be up real close to even see them . Well i bought a pair and installed them in my 4300 . After i had them in i really did not notice much and kept thinking you dumb Arres ya waisted fifty bucks on CHICKEN LITE . Like i sid i really did not notice the difference TILL on really dark rainy night and every oncoming car - truck was blinding me . Started thinking yep dumb Arres that fifty bucks was sure waisted , then i looked up and the one on the drivers side was OUT . Next truck stop i pulled in and went in to get the special bulb for it and i got two . Replaced the bulb and back out on the road and OH WOW they really do work. At one time they USE to offer a pair of like sun glasses just for night driving they were just a light shade of gray from being clear , those also worked vary well. Now as to the NEW extra bright head lights Yea they are bright and those LED strobes will plum Blind you .Now i had heard that OHIO will give you a ticket for them EXTRA bright head lite that are not stock as per MFG . I know that the headlites on my Dodge 3500 are nowhere near what my 88 Ford had , and the STOCk headlites on our 03 Durango is two steps up from a Bic lighter . Those i changed the bulbs to the Bright Star and now you can see at night with out blinding the oncoming traffic. I also readjusted them so that they are to the right a shade more . At night the war Dept could spot them suicidal deer on high beams better.
 
I haven't noticed the flickering just way to bright and more so the headlights. The company that drove for took all the LED lights off rear of trailers. Boss followed several of use coming home at night in a snow storm and you could not see tail light and clearance lights and boss had them all replaced. The old style lights get warm enough that they keep most of snow off lights.
 
Like someone else said,, so far the tail lights haven't started to bother me yet but the new headlights sure do. They are especially bad at night when it's pouring down rain. If I didn't know the roads I'm traveling at times it would cause me to run off the road because they are blinding.
Another thing that gets under my skin is during daylight hours and dawn and dusk, people who drive without their headlights on when it's foggy or pouring down rain. Most newer cars have options on the switch where your headlights are on whenever the key is in the on position but people still choose to turn their headlights off. I think they figure, well I can see fine and don't think about cars ahead and behind and the oncomming traffic seeing them. Headlights are not just so you can see but also so others can see you..
I figure it this way: Give other drivers every opportunity I can to see me as I drive down the road. On my truck, I don't have the new type switch so I simply turn my lights on as soon as my engine starts and leave them on until I get to where I'm going,, always.. Wish everyone would do the same..

Dick
 


I know that some people with certain types of vision problems can see a rainbow effect on some lcd tvs and projectors that have the spinning color wheel inside. Others have a halo problem with bright lights that blinds them. Some see flickering with plasma tvs. Then there is night blindness. And lots of folks dont have any of the problems. It is real and documented. You may one of those.. A type stigmatism is one of the problems. You eye doctor can make recommendations, if you tell him or her.
 
I suspect you are not alone. My answer (and I keep to this premise),don't drive at night. Late afternoon in the rain is just as bad for me. My eyesight (just tested by an opthowhatsis) is good. I just don't drive at night, or when it is afternoon and raining (not always easy for me due to location). Luck.
 
I can see the flickering, especially when I am turning my head or moving my eyes side to side. The flickering doesn't bother me, but I think some brake lights are excessively bright.

Hope this would not apply to you personally, but I have heard of certain light patterns, even something like driving on a tree shaded street, going through shade/sun/shade patterns, can trigger epileptic seizures! So certainly some people could be much more sensitive to the flicker than others.
 
I haven't noticed any flickering, but when there's oncoming traffic, the blinding brightness of today's headlights drives me nuts. The worst offenders are the gigantic newer pickups that are 2 feet taller than they need to be, coming at you with their headlights glaring down through your windshield. I have decent vision but have astigmatism and keratoconus which makes my eyes very sensitive to bright lights. It seems that back in the 60s through the 80s, headlights weren't very bright but they were all the same brightness and they were adequate for everyone. Then people had to have brighter and brighter lights, and 4 headlights going all the time, 2 of which are fog lights or whatever they're called. The problem is that if you have brighter headlights, your brightness is at the expense of everyone else on the road coming toward you. Everyone else has to suffer. Very aggravating and a cause of dangerous conditions for other drivers. I wish the auto industry or the gubmit would put limits on the amount of brightness that a vehicle can emit from the front. What really gets me is the younger kids who add lots of super bright lights onto the fronts of their vehicles to try to look cool.
 
My solution is that I have quit driving at night.
We like to be home when it gets dark anyway.
Richard in NW SC
 

I don't think that you are 'strange' even if nobody else can see what it is that's bothering you. As for myself, the blue, high-beam indicator dash-light pretty much hypnotizes me at night and I [b:7625f8b976]cannot[/b:7625f8b976] stay awake! I spent 25 years in an over-the-road big truck on a night run and started BEFORE the indicator lights were changed from red to blue; I noticed the effect of the blue light the first night and so I would cut a piece of black electrical tape and place it over the light (the piece of tape would allow a blue glow around the tape so I could see which beam was selected).

Whoever in government thought that Washington can improve on things like vehicle design is crazy! :roll:
 
Different people are affected differently, I notice some of the LED flicker, but it doesn't really bother me, it the very bright headlights at night that blinds me to the point of momentary loss of vision. The worst is the insanely bright go-go lights used during traffic stops, by law enforcement, and that compounded by their alternating bright headlights. I wonder how much brighter law enforcement lights will get before someone declares it incredibly dangerous. My sister-in-law is epileptic, florescent lights, some LEDs will cause seizures, and is a problem for many epileptics.
 
I do not notice a flicker on those LED lights. Just so bright they blind you but it is a light that does not let you see anything with. I hate the headlights having them around. The only led lights I have are small pocket flashlights, some can see with others not. As long as something else is avaible the LED will not be in my house. I was just in day befor yesterday and getting new glasses, old prescription was only 14 months old but entirely different than new one. And they say do not even consider the blue lenses, the yellow might be OK but tried to get a pair to go over regular till new glasses are in,not avaible. If you notice all the new headlights that are so bad the lens is smooth, the good lights of years ago the lens was devided into hundreds of small lenzes and that broke up the beam of light and spreaded it out to where it was needed. And I have found those factory lights they call fog lights are not a fog light by any means, they are a complete driving-spot light from the way they make the lenze.
 
My night sight improved considerably after I had cataract surgery on both eyes.

I also have a pair of Serengeti driving glasses that helped allot in the night, rain, fog, and what have you. I used them allot my last 5 years of trucking when I ran all night. They are well worth the hundred bucks.
 
This may or may not help. When I have reflection problems while driving, I get some relief from cleaning the windshield really well. Residue from plastics out-gassing and A/C leaks can be tough to clean off. Sometimes it takes two or three cleanings to get everything clean again. Sometimes an extra cleaning of my glasses helps too. The odds of getting the blue halogen and the LED light removed from the roads are pretty slim, so I try to deal with them the best I can.
 
Those are not fog lights. They are also not driving lights. They are yuppie lights. Did you happen to notice all of the yuppies driving around with them on all of the time? Just another fad like the teenagers with the low hanging pants, tattoos, piercings, and a host of other ways to assert your individuality - NOT!!!.
 
LED sources are in effect non directional solid state lasers. The light emitted is highly structured and has granular interference patterns that are visible. They don't cause me issues, but they were radically difficult for my wife before lens replacement. I agree with the use of very clean windows with no wiper scratches, and new driving glasses. Best of luck, Jim
 
I have been an OTR Trucker for 48 years and a few years ago started noticing a lot more problems at night, especially rainy nights on blacktop roads. 3 or 4 years ago I had cataracts removed from both eyes and that took care of most of the problem. I have minor issues occasionally, but I attribute that to the fact that I am nearly 69 years old. The cataract surgery made the huge difference for me. I can now pass my DOT physical without glasses.
 
Oh yea, I have a lot of trouble seeing with led lights, especially cop led lights. I came home one evening on a divided interstate highway and on the opposite side of the road a cop had someone pulled over and they had three rows of the lights across the bumper, hood and roof of the car. It lit the area brighter than daylight. When I got closer I couldn't see at all. I think I drove about 150 yards I couldn't even see where the road was.
 
yeah I've heard that about epilepsy. I've never had any history of that, and by my age I'd think I would have if I had it.

But yes Steve, that's exactly what I'm talking about - if I stare right at a light, it's not really noticeable - it's when I turn my head, or move my eyes - which, when you're driving you tend to do a lot of. It just leaves a trail. It's very momentary - it doesn't last long - but it's the slight dizzy feeling it causes that makes it so tough to deal with.

They're also using LEDs IN new cars for dash lighting. My wife's car has it.

I have to dim the dash lights as far as they'll go to drive it at night - and I have to place my hands on the wheel to block it.

Oh well - one guy's b*()#ing and moaning isn't going to change the world. They're even making house lighting with LEDs now. In the next few years if I disappear from this site, you'll know I left the modern world and moved into a cave.
 
(quoted from post at 17:03:16 01/21/16) Fortunately tail lights haven't bothered me yet. I didn't see the whole conversation where the helicopter was mentioned. The only night flying I have done was the required amount to get my pilot license. But I know you can turn off the flashing/rotating beacon if you're in cloudy conditions where the reflection/glare back at you is disorienting.
Click to expand...

The strobe effect can cause vertigo and probably will.Doesn't make any difference weather you're on the ground or in the air.
 
do you by chance use any artificial sweeteners that contain aspartame? i have read articles that one of the side effects is poor night vision. dunno how true, just a thought. google it , there are a lot of articles.
 
I do not. I Like my sugar pure and well processed. :)

Actually I don't eat a lot of sugar at all. So no need to substitute it with anything else.
 
I've been googling - I think somebody mentioned this in the last post a few years ago - it has a more technical name: the bucha effect.

I found a great picture of what LED tail lights look like to me. Not like an optical abberation that just sits there statoiary - it moves with your eyes, then disappears. Hard to explain,but the picture helps. Again, one car isn't TOO bad - it's a little dizzy-ing, but you get a bunch of cars in front of you - AND LED headlights coming the other way - and it's enough to make me sorry I'm on the road.

I just noticed this - if you move your mouse around quickly on your screen - that is the exact thing I'm talking about - you can see multiple copies of the cursor momentarily - leaving a trail of where it's been. that's exactly what LED tail lights do. ... assuming others can see the cursor trails...
a212262.jpg
 
Have you had your eyes check for an astigmatism? I had the same problems with driving at night. Always hated it. Wouldn't even do it if it was raining out. Missed driving to school a couple nights cause of it. I went and got glasses at 20 and it helped me more then I can ever imagine. Just another thing to think about. Its a miss shaped cornea or something but it causes the starriness in lights and almost double vision at night.
 
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