There are two types of people in this world: people with LED headlights and the people that have to deal with them. I fall into the latter category and I’m quite passionate about it. There’s not much worse than driving home at night, minding your own business, looking out for any deer (because there are tons of those too), when suddenly you’re completely blind and practically driving off the road. It’s as if you’re arriving at the pearly gates of heaven for the first time, the pure white light burning your retinas before your eyes adjust (or in this case the car passes).
When I was learning to drive, I complained about these lights to my dad and he shared a tip from one of his friends with me. He explained that his friend was in the army, and when they would drive a Humvee (or something) at night the occasional helicopter or vehicle with a flood light would pass by. So, one way to avoid being blinded was to temporarily move their focus from the road in front of them to the yellow line on the edge of the road while the light passes and then move it back to the road. The other was to close one eye, get blinded in the other, and then open the closed eye once the light has passed and it’ll be “good enough.”
I’m in college, not the military, yet I have to use this military trick to see slightly better when a car with LEDs passes by. I’m sorry, but how can that be fine? How can cops give tickets for having too dim of a headlight, but blinding other drivers is a-okay? It just doesn’t make sense to me.
I understand the appeal of the lights, they REALLY allow you to see those deer out there, but when you’re not the only person on the road it simply cannot be safe. I think that these LED lights need to be either dimmed down a bit or just banned entirely. I’m sick of feeling like I’m going to crash every time someone in the other lane has them on. The same goes for those people that drive at the perfect distance behind me so that the light reflects right off my rear view mirror and into my eyes. I know that’s probably not your fault, but you suck anyway. And if you happen to be a driver using your high beam LED lights and don’t turn them off when passing another person, fuck you especially.
For now, I’ll keep using these military tactics in order to stay alive. I urge you all to do the same. Good luck out there friends!
