Does it seem to you, that a lot of on coming drivers don't bother to dim their high beam headlights anymore?

I chalk it up to the fact that driving these days is something you do while amusing yourself with other stuff. To remember to dim, you have to A) be aware that your high-beams are on, and B) be thinking about other drivers. That’s asking too much of someone who’s barely aware that they’re even driving. What gets me is that they never even seem to wonder why you’re flashing your lights at them.

I think that a lot of cars get lifted and the headlights don’t get adjusted so it feels like the high beams are on when they’re not. I know people flashed at my husband a lot when he first modified his FJ Cruiser even though the high beams were not on.
I don’t know how old you are but I’ve also noticed that the older I get the more sensitive I get to bright lights.

@thorninmud ,I know what ya mean,now think of the poor drivers who have to earn their living among these morons.

@SQUEEKY2 You have all my sympathy, believe me.

@Judi that may be true,but than reaim them,so they don’t blind on coming traffic, here is something to think about, is it really a good idea to blind the semi driver that is coming at you??

I live in a rural area and am an EXPERT on using my high beams. lol
I click them on and off deftly, and am very alert to oncoming drivers. Out here there are a gazillion deer leaping across the highways and it is super scary and dangerous. I use them to scan the road as best I can to look for lurking deer and switch them off quickly when I see the beams of another car coming ‘round the mountain. haha

My issue is people that don;t use their turn signals and slow down and turn right in front of you! Gah! %&*&%&)(!!!

I live in the ‘burbs. There are street lights. There is no good reason to have your high beams on ever.

And yet, I have to avoid driving at night because people seem bound and determined to kill me with their bright-ass LED high beams.

Jerks.

Drivers here are incredibly rude. It’s simply another symptom of the coarsening of our society.

I don’t think it’s quite as bad as all that. Here are some factors to consider:

1. There are more drivers now, so the same 5% of jerks just means “more jerks on the road”, not that the percentage of jerks has increased.

2. Headlights are brighter in general. Newer cars have much more effective low beam headlights than ever before, and a lot of people are also taking care of their lights by re-polishing the plastic coverings as they get scratched, worn and dull with age.

3. You’re getting older. We all are (if we’re lucky), and with age comes increasing sensitivity to bright light. I notice it, too.

4. You get or find what you put your attention on. You’ve decided to notice or “find” this, and there will be any number of examples to provide confirmation bias.

Try to look at the – I hate to say this, really I do; I hope you will forgive me. – bright side, instead. You’re still working. You’ve still got your eyesight. You’re still noticing things. Try to notice things that please you rather than things that displease. It doesn’t mean that the unpleasant things will go away – they won’t ever – but you’ll be compensated by noticing more pleasant things.

EDIT
PS: When I’m driving in rural areas in the wee small hours of the morning and there is very little traffic, I’m also attentive to when I’m following someone with my beams on. I click those things up and down like there’s no tomorrow; paying attention to everything on the road, coming at me, coming up behind me or leading the way, helps to keep me awake.

I’m not too sure a lot of people even know how to dim their headlights! It falls into the category of “oh, what’s this do?” and maybe they accidentally discover they’ve dimmed them then they decide they want them brighter and forget being courteous to oncoming drivers. The ones I love are the a-holes who get behind you and try to blind you with their high beams – they must think they’re being cute. “Heh heh, I’ll just blind this guy and then tailgate him for a while…..heh, heh, I’m an idiot.”

As has been mentioned, it’s a combination of the brighter LED lights and people who aim their lights too high. Even with LED lights, if they are blinding a truck driver with their sedan, their lights are aimed too damn high.

I probably shouldn’t say too much though, since my lights are so mounted so high I blind people all the time.

I just drove across my country and back through yours this summer, and in my experience, most people are dimming their lights. Sometimes people forget – hell, sometimes I forget.

And those damned LED lights (if that’s what they are) should be illegal. If they’re blinding all oncoming traffic, they’re unsafe. Period.

I do agree with the LED lights but a great deal of these idiots do dim their lights after you flash them a few times,so yes it is bad out there, on another note a lady thought her high beams wouldn’t bother truck drivers because we sit so much higher.

I hate driving at night, but on a recent trip, I had to take a highway (Calif 46) I was totally unfamiliar with across the mountains at night. I was grateful that most of the cars lowered their beams.

I followed a truck all the way across. I later found out that highway has the nickname “blood alley”.

You mean there are other people in the world?

Seriously, I think that’s the issue; almost nobody realizes that there are other people on the road. Sure, there may be traffic, but there aren’t any people in those other cars.

@glacial HID (High Intensity Discharge) lights are the ones I think you mean. They use metal-halide bulbs and look like an always-on camera flash. You will be happy to know that most HID lights that are not factory equipment are actually illegal; HID headlights have certain requirements that most retrofit kits do not meet. Of course, the US doesn’t use the same laws as the rest of the civilized world, so we allow dangerous things that other nations restrict/ban…

@jerv Thanks, LED did not sound right to me, but I was too lazy to look it up. ;)

I’ve noticed that. Maybe they don’t drive enough at night in areas where you would need to dim your lights. You don’t need brights on the freeways. And many cars have never had their lamps reaimed after leaving the factory. And then there are some people’s kids! They won’t dim their lights EVER! More general mindless rudeness.

And as well, there are all the idiots who use foglights when it’s not foggy…...........