Roger wrote:

On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 01:47:07 -0500, "Morgans"
wrote:


"W P Dixon" wrote

I hate those car lights!,
Oh they'd be great on my car while driving, but being in a car heading
into them I hate it! Blinds the crap out of me in my wife's low sitting
car.
Doesn't bother me as bad in my truck.

I know what you mean. IMHO, they ought to be banned, except for use on high
beam, with a regular light for low beam.

I hate 'em with a passion. When I meet a car with those on at night I
darn near have to pull over and they claim they are easier on the eyes
of oncoming drivers. Maybe young ones, but the majority of drivers
are now in the middle age and older class.


Don't be too quick to blame HID lights themselves. Usually HID lights are in high
end cars with above average (for N America) lenses that have proper focus and
(assuming proper aim) do not cause excessive glare to oncoming drivers.

Unfortunately there are a lot of (crap) "HID conversion kits" which are a
disaster. There are also even wanna-be HID lights sold under names like "cool
blue" and other crap. At best they just slightly reduce light output. At worst
they cause glare and blinding of oncoming drivers.

Good headlights provide lots of light and keep it in the road in front of you and
NOT in the eyes of oncoming drivers. Take a drive in Europe (a continent with
generally excellent headlight standards) at night and you will notice how nice it
is to drive without glare in your face everytime a car passes, and HID lamps
won't bother you a bit. Unfortunately our leaders in North America standards
don't take glare seriously.

(Potentially ambiguous rear red turn signals are not legal in Europe either,
although N America has led with the center high mount stop lamp, which I think is
a good feature.)