Dazzled by Headlights? This May Help

Many people find driving at night difficult, not only because it’s dark but because the headlights from other vehicles can be dazzling. In this video I explain and demonstrate what you can do to minimise how much you are dazzled by headlights when driving at night.

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In Britain it gets dark early during the autumn and winter months throughout December the sun sets by around about 4: p.m. for most of the country and from the beginning of November to the end of January if you work a 99 to 5 you’re going home in the dark and with Darkness

Brings Bright Lights which Dazzle many motorists so if you struggle to drive at night because of Bright Lights this video may help where you look makes a huge difference to how much you are dazzled more on that one later but firstly I want to talk about how you can

Prepare the car to reduce glare and make it easier firstly make sure your wind screen is Crystal Clear I use this product Auto glim Fast Glass I’m not sponsored by autog glim this is just a product I’ve been using for years and I keep a bottle in my car all the time it

Says you can use it on the Plastics as well as the glass and I pretty much much use it everywhere including the lever on the steering wheel doesn’t say you can do that but I don’t have a problem with it it’s just a quick and easy way to

Keep the interior fresh and keep the windows clean however in the winter I feel I have to go a step further because the sun is low and headlights mean any streaks in the glass distort my view so I use this auto glim glass polish I don’t actually know if this is a good

Product because I’ve not compared it to other products to know if it’s good compared to the competition or not but it does work well I put it on the window leave it a few minutes and then buff it off and then oh yes I can see even with

The sun even with headlights you don’t get so much glare it’s easy to see around the headlights and see the road where you want to place the car and there are other tools this is one of my favorites that make this job a little bit easier I’ll leave links in the

Description to the products I’ve mentioned um I don’t put chemicals on this I just use it to buff off any of the chemicals that I’ve used to make sure the window is crystal clear and then I can peel that off and put it in the wash once you have a clear windscreen

Try and keep it that way so avoid touching it and leaving fingerprints but also avoid using a cloth to wipe off fog and condensation cuz all you’re doing is taking water from the window putting it on the cloth you put your cloth somewhere the water evaporates and goes

Back on the window and you’re back to square one and every time you’re wiping it you’re smearing the window meaning it’s harder to see when bright lights are on the window cuz you get that glare and you see those smear marks use your air conditioning to keep your windows

Free of moisture you may be surprised to hear that modern day air conditioning systems climate control systems and when I say modern day my 2003 say IA which was my first learner car had this system you leave the air conditioning on permanently the AC light is on but the air conditioning compressor isn’t

Necessarily doing anything it just works when it needs to it switches itself on and off so having the air conditioning on is giving the car permission to use the air conditioning but it will only use it if it needs to and in the winter it can come on to dehumidify the cabin

To keep the windows clear of moisture it keeps the evaporator dry so you don’t get mold and when you turn the air conditioning on you get that horrible smell if you haven’t used it for a while that doesn’t happen and it Cycles the compressor so that it doesn’t fail from

Leaving it off throughout the winter and then it seizes up and doesn’t work when it comes to the summer leading you to a very expensive repair pool when you’ve been trying to save a tiny bit in fuel the air conditioning compressor does not use much fuel when it’s only trying to

Dehumidify the car if you have an old dumb system or even a a new dumb system where you don’t have climate control you just have higher fan lower fan and hot and cold then yes you want to cycle it yourself because when you press the air conditioning button the AC compressor is

On Full Pelt and you don’t want it on full Pelt all the time because it does use more fuel so turn it on and off as you wish but I wouldn’t leave it off throughout the winter and I wouldn’t use cloths to wipe your moisture off because

Well you may lead yourself to an expensive repair pill with your AC compressor but also it’s not as nice driving around windows that keep fogging up all the time it’s not as safe either and make sure you have good wiper blades your wiper blades should be wiping with

A clear streak it shouldn’t be smearing if they’re smearing replace them I use Bosch blades I’m not sponsored by them I’ve tried many different blades and I find Bosch give me the clearest wipe and they last a long time they’re only a little bit more expensive than most

Other brands but the fact they last longer than the other brands I’ve tried means have actually being cheaper and when it comes to your glasses if you wear glasses the anti-glare coating the blue type of anti-glare coating is for computer screens and can actually be worse for driving than having no

Anti-glare coating the green type of anti-glare coating is for driving that should make it easier when you’re on the road at night ask your optician for more details make sure you’re using your anti-dazzle rearview mirror some are automatic and automatically get darker when there’s light shining into the mirror

This one’s manual and I have to make it darker Myself by pulling this tab I can still see behind but everything’s dark I’ll show you an illustration of that now from a video I made earlier you can see the difference I’ll leave a link to that video that video is more about

Night driving in general some cars even get anti-dazzle side mirrors which makes such a difference when driving at night it’s a shame that that technology hasn’t filtered down to the cheaper cars it’s been around for decades but it still seems to be reserved for the more premium expensive models if you struggle

Driving at night I highly recommend looking at a car with that technology if it’s something you can afford I recommend keeping your headlights clean not only so that you get better visibility but also to help oncoming traffic because when your headlights are dirty that can distort your beam causing

More glare for oncoming traffic the trouble with modern headlights is that they’re a slightly whitish bluish color whereas before we had hallogen headlights which was slightly yellow and if you get two lights of the same brightness one slightly blue one slightly yellow and you shine them both

At a human the human is more likely to find the bluish colored light uncomfortable because blue light is harder on the eyes so why have cars got whitish bluish lights over the last 20 years I’m not sure I have a suspicion though I think it’s because Zenon lights

Which were fancy and modern were slightly blue and then when we went over to LEDs well car manufacturers wanted their cars to look modern so they kept them that color even though LEDs can be whatever color you like it’s a hunch I don’t know if that’s the actual truth

But it doesn’t make you see further you could have a light that’s slightly yellow and still see just as far but the oncoming traffic won’t be as uncomfortable because of your light they’ll be less they’ll be more comfortable because it’s yellow that’s what I’m saying instead of blue and

Lighting technology is brilliant now it’s such a shame that we have this color because we get adaptive full beams on some cars which dim the oncoming car whilst allowing you to see far with full beams and the system does work I use two cars with this system and I don’t get

Complaints from oncoming traffic that I’m blinding them so it’s a shame we have that color some people use yellow glasses to try and filter out the blue light and increase contrast and that does work and that can make driving more comfortable but I can’t recommend it because it does filter out light

Therefore in some situations you’re going to see less and in the highway code it does State rule 94 do not use tinted glasses at night or in poor visibility what you may be surprised to hear I know I certainly was was that the RAC found that younger

Drivers reported more of a problem than older ones when it comes to driving at night with bright lights 30% of drivers aged 17 to 34 thought headlights were too bright compared with around 19% of those aged 65 and over I’m surprised by that I would have thought bright lights

Would be affecting older people more than younger people with young eyesight but according to what the RAC found that’s not actually the case as I said earlier where you look makes a big difference to how you are affected by glare my advice is to not look directly

At the lights look at the road next to the lights where you need to drive if you look directly into the lights that’s going to affect your vision and it’s going to give you these spots in your vision where the light remains even though you’re no longer looking at it so

Focus on the road be aware of the lights in your proof of vision be aware of where vehicles and Hazards are but try to focus on where you’re going many people are going to disagree with where I’m telling you to look in this video they’re going to say you should look as

Far as you can when you’re driving now that’s true when you’re on the racer circuit cuz on a race circuit you’re trying to find the straightest line through the corner and looking as far as you can through the corner can help you find that straight line but on the road

You’re trying to stay within your space and when you want to stay within your space you need to look in your space looking far actually makes you cut the corner however don’t just look where I’m telling you to look in this video I’m telling you where you need to look to

Reduce the chances of you being dazzled or to minimize how much you’re dazzled you should still look far every so often to get an early warning of signs and Hazards up ahead your eyes can only focus on a very small area at a time most of what you see is peripheral

Vision and when you want to look more closely at things that’s when you focus on that individual spot for example if you’re reading a word or want to see something in more detail but that spot you’re focusing on is incredibly small at traffic lights I don’t look directly

At the lights I’m looking about here right now and in my peripheral vision I can see that they’re red and I will see when they change however when they do change the green I will have a brief glance towards them to make sure the green light is for me and no one else

When the road up ahead is bending to the left it can be difficult not to look into the lights because the cars are directly in front of you but what I do is I look short of the lights on the road surface where I want to go I’m not

Looking directly at the orange flashing light because that is going to be distracting I’m looking down at the road I know there’s a vehicle there I know it has orange flashing lights if I was to look directly at that right now that would be uncomfortable I’m looking at

This space and trying to judge if it’s wide enough for a car it’s tight but as the traffic is stationary I’m going to squeeze through slowly now I’m going to look at where I want to stop at the line the stop line on the Road I know the lights are red I

Can see that in my peripheral vision but when they go green I will check to make sure it’s a green light for me and not someone else as I explained earlier when I’m waiting in traffic I’m not looking at the brake lights I’m looking at the

Road before the car that I am following or I’m looking at the bottom of the bumper or I’m looking either side of the car but I don’t look directly into the brake lights to do so would be uncomfortable I recently made a video where I said I don’t find brake lights

Bother me even at night in fact people I’ve taught don’t seem to be bothered by them either and I got some comments saying that I have young eyesight and that when I get older it’s going to affect me but actually my eyes are quite sensitive to light so I thought what am

I doing differently and when I was driving I was paying more attention to where I was looking and I realized I’m never looking at the brake lights that’s why they’re not hurting me when I look at them it does cause me some discomfort but I’m always looking anywhere but the

Bright light during the day I look directly at the brake lights because they’re harder to see but at night time there’s no need it’s obvious when they’re on because they do stand out there’s no point moaning about everyone using their brakes in traffic because that’s not going to change anything if

You look ahead people generally stay with their foot on the foot brake with their brake lights on so the best thing to do is to try and find a way around it so that it doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable because complaining about it isn’t going to change anything you’re

Not going to stop everyone or change the way everyone drives or should I say many people drive not everyone because some people do use the handbrake when they’re waiting in traffic it’s just the minority in traffic like I am now I stay far enough back that if the car in front

Stop suddenly I can stop less suddenly and I’m not looking at the lights of the oncoming cars and I’m not looking into the lights of the car that I’m following I’m looking here that’s the easiest place for me to look and it’s putting the least strain on my eyes and I’m very

Aware of the oncoming cars on the right I’m very aware of the cars approaching from the left at the junction and I’m also aware of the car in front that it’s breaking although I’m not looking at that brake lights I know it’s happening the warning is there but all that time

I’ve been looking here and occasionally up at the signs however when you’re driving in an a area that you know very well you’re less likely going to be looking at signs because you know where the speed limits are you know where the hazards and the Junctions are signs are more useful when

You don’t know the area because it tells you what’s about to happen and what you need to do at roundabouts it’s more challenging because I need to look at the lights of the car to know which way they’re going but I can also use their

Position and when I look at the lights I keep it brief to avoid discomfort Cat’s eyes are wonderful things you can see where your lane is clearly at night they’re not dazzling they’re just the right brightness red on the left Amber signifies the central reservation green is areas where you can cross and

White divides the lanes there L’s coming in quite early into my lane there ideally they should wait until the solid line has finished the car behind me has very bright lights so I’m going to put the mirror into night mode I can still see the cars behind me but it’s

Comfortable the lights are much more dim at the moment there’s road work so I’ve only got one lane but usually there’s three lanes down here and if I was looking to change lane I would be primarily looking in this mirror because the lights are dim it’s not uncomfortable and when I’ve decided to

Change lane that’s when I would also use the wing mirror but I’d only use the wing mirror briefly to avoid discomfort I’m on a country road at the moment and I’m looking here I’m not looking at the lights of the oncoming car full beams on car coming full beams

Off looking here again next to the space where the oncoming car is I slow down because it’s narrow and then I’m carrying on I’m not putting my full beams on because I’m on this Bend at the moment so there’s not much point it’s not going to help me see

Around the bend and now I can turn them on I’m taking this left here basically a straight but it is a left but I’m not not going to look at the GL I just look at the road that’s a big puddle very wet there went around that look at the road

Look at the space I can use because at the end of the day looking at the oncoming car doesn’t show you how much room you have to use it shows you where the oncoming car is but it doesn’t show you how much space is left next to it for you to use

Always focus on the space don’t focus on the hazards that’s what I’m always trying to get my pupils to do the hazard perception tests get some Focus ing on hazards which is actually the opposite of what I’m trying to get them to do when they’re driving I’m getting them to

Look where they can go and where they can wait whilst being aware of the hazards using their peripheral vision so full beams off because of the oncoming car looking here at the space next to it very narrow so so very slow but focusing on that Gap I’ve got and now moving away

From the mud and carrying on full beams on just for a bit so I can see up to that bend and it’s a sharp Bend so I turn my full beams off now so that as I go around this Bend I’m not going to Blind anyone

But also it helps me see the lights of the oncoming car earlier so I know what’s coming looking at the space into the space which is slightly off-road here this is a waiting area which isn’t very well made as you can see the cars bouncing around and now I’m waiting go

Further forward so cars can fit behind me I’m not going to look at the lights Quick Check of the mirror just to make sure no idiot is trying to pass me and now focusing on the road up to where the car is up ahead of me but I’m not looking at their tail

Lights I’m looking at the road just behind them I know the camera can see less though but I I can see quite clearly or I could now I can again I can see quite clearly up to that car in front of me so that’s my advice to avoid being dazzled

By headlights at night firstly make sure your wind screen is crystal clear so that you don’t have all the refraction from the smudges in the window distorting your view also don’t look directly at the lights the only reason why you can see me right now it is very

Dark outside is because there is an incredibly bright light there that I’m not going to look directly at the moment I look directly at that is going to hurt my eyes I’m going to have that the the light imprinted in my vision for a minute or two afterwards in fact I can

Show you that light I just looked at the light trying to point the camera at it that was a bad idea yeah I can still see that light now but if I don’t look at that light I’m fine if you found the video helpful please give it a thumbs up and if you’re

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