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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2369 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 25, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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The thing that drives me up the wall these days is headlights that shine directly into opposing traffic. I don't know what the fuck is going on recently but probably about every tenth car is blinding me at night.

I don't know what the fuck is going on recently

Well, 3 things:

  • Ride heights are much higher than they were 10-15 years ago. "Hatchback with a lift kit", which is what all CUVs fundamentally are, weren't quite as dominant in 2010 as they are now (where you can't buy a non-lifted hatchback). They make sense if you can only own one vehicle though. As a result, the headlights are going to be physically higher up on the vehicle than they otherwise would be. [Aside: people also like these things because being higher up is the only way to regain the visibility that those increasingly-absurd impact ratings costs you; I feel that if you drive sufficiently incompetently as to roll your car at high speed you probably deserve to die relative to the number of pedestrians that lack of visibility kills, and have already put my money where my mouth is on that point.]

  • If you're sitting higher up relative to the road, your headlights will be adjusted up (relative to a lower vehicle) so that you can see further out. Thus, if you're in an CUV, your lights are going to be aimed from the factory such that you'll blind anyone in lower vehicles.

  • Average color temperature of the lights has gone from 2700K to 6500K. This might even be a net negative on how far you can actually see, but it's far brighter up close and fucks up your night vision, which is what actually matters.

At this point I'm a lot more aggressive about not turning my brights off when I see an oncoming car (unless I see the telltale flicker of them turning theirs off, naturally), because if they don't turn them off I'm blind when they pass.

now (where you can't buy a non-lifted hatchback).

Sure you can, it's called a Prius. Or a civic hatchback.

If you're sitting higher up relative to the road, your headlights will be adjusted up (relative to a lower vehicle) so that you can see further out. Thus, if you're in an CUV, your lights are going to be aimed from the factory such that you'll blind anyone in lower vehicles.

This i don't find totally convincing. Why do they need to be adjusted so you can see further out? Obviously you can always aim the headlights higher to see further (and that's what high beams do, partially), but that can't be legal.

At this point I'm a lot more aggressive about not turning my brights off when I see an oncoming car (unless I see the telltale flicker of them turning theirs off, naturally), because if they don't turn them off I'm blind when they pass.

Why are you driving with your brights on?

Why are you driving with your brights on?

Because that is what they are for? You use them at night, when there aren't any other cars traveling the same way, and when there isn't any oncoming traffic. [I don't live in NYC, where there are so many streetlights that night driving would be possible without any headlights at all.]

Why do they need to be adjusted

It's not so much that they're "adjusted" as it is that the lights are higher up to begin with. Thus, unless they're angled much further down than they would be on a normal car (which is impossible if you want to illuminate the same distance simply due to how high off the ground they are), they're going to project a brighter light into any car lower than those headlights.

it's called a Prius. Or a civic hatchback.

So you have a grand total of... six to choose from (the other two being the Mazda3, VW Golf, Corolla hatch and the Mirage, at least, until they get cancelled for the Corolla Cross and nothing, respectively). I'm ignoring the meme cars like Minis and Fiats because... come on.

It's not so much that they're "adjusted" as it is that the lights are higher up to begin with. Thus, unless they're angled much further down than they would be on a normal car (which is impossible if you want to illuminate the same distance simply due to how high off the ground they are), they're going to project a brighter light into any car lower than those headlights.

This is still not adding up.

If the light is higher off the ground and you want it to illuminate as far down the road as a light lower to the ground, it must be angled lower. If you raise the light and keep the angle constant, you will illuminate further down the road.

If the light is adjusted to keep the distance illuminated constant, I suspect that it would only be shining into vehicles at very short distances, and since you are not usually approaching vehicles head on and the lights have limited side spread, this shouldn't even be an issue. There's something else going on here.

So you have a grand total of... six to choose from

How many hatchbacks does a man need?

Why are you driving with your brights on?

It is mentioned in the IIHS article linked above that high beams are supposed to be used on roads with hardly any traffic.

Researchers from IIHS and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute found that drivers in and around Ann Arbor, Mich., didn’t use their high beams enough. Only 18% of drivers who were isolated enough to make use of their high beams did so.

Yes, that's true. I'm assuming that he doesn't live out in the sticks, but perhaps I'm wrong.

you can't buy a non-lifted hatchback

*laughs in Mitsubishi Mirage*

But, seriously, there are tons of non-lifted hatchbacks on the market.

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