Yep, I only got my license back in 2022 at 35, and only bought my first car last summer.

I don’t get why people drive like dicks, but eh, I let them past since they seem to be in a hurry to get to their accident.

If there is no way to let the guy past and he is driving way to close behind me, I have to follow the law and reduce my speed to fit the traffic conditions, if the other guy won’t give me margins, I have to reduce the need for them.

The only read dicks I have seen are people who has incorrectly aimed headlight, blinding me with their normal lights, and when I flash my beams quickly at them, they flash their high beams and extra lights at me to make some kind of point or punnish me, if they have turned off their highbeams and get flashed, then go to a mechanic and have them readjust their normal lights, or ignore the flash from me, flashing back only makes the traffic situation worse.

Hey there. So its probably not headlight alignment most of the time.

Brightness is regulated by wattage still not lumens. Regulations have not been updated with the switch to newer technologies that are vastly more efficient per watt

But thats not the whole story either. Even when the brightness of the bulb is not too different, how the light is shaped matters to how we percieve the brightness. Newer technologes (LED and HID) are less reflected and are more direct than older halogen technology and also the colour is whiter and even getting almost into blue, which is much harsher to you when you get hit with it. Red light has long been known to preserve night vision better than other colours.

The last part is that its more important that the headlights make it safe to drive the vehicle so the light is aligned to the drivers needs primarily at the cost of making it worse for the person driving behind you, but thats why they invented the rear view mirror flipper so you get a much less amount of reflected light off your rear view mirror.

But that means with the prevalence of SUVs headlights now sit higher because vehicles are taller which only makes everything else that much for this issue.

And its because there is pretty solid evidence that brighter headlights makes the driver a safer driver and it seems the trade off of this is still safer roads