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I drive a lot by night, and multiple time per day I encounter car with high beam on or incorrectly set low beam.

This a least annoying and at worst dangerous, as I am not able to see the road or to assess their position correctly (When they are behind me).

How can I communicate to the other drivers that they need to check their lights ?

Here is what I already tried :

  • Flash my own light. This is sometime effective on drivers on the other side, especially if they forgot they had high beam on. This in generally unclear for overtaking drivers as this is used for a lot of things.
  • Flash my rear fog light. It's very bright so it should draw attention to a light problem. Generally no effect.
  • Honk at them while they overtake my, and flash light. No effect as for now.
  • Make hand sign for "light" (opening hand quickly) or toward eyes. Not really visible at night.
  • Redirect my inner mirror toward them so they can see their own reflexion. Not practical and certainly dangerous.

This is on the highway, so talking to the other driver directly is not feasible.

Things that I think to try :

  • Placing a catadrioptre or a mirror on my windows, so they see that their light are wrong.
  • Making a sign and showing them.
  • Carrying a torch and beaming at them.

Alternatively, I'm willing to take any advice on how to not be blinded by others headlight.

I already use the "night" position of my inner mirror, but side mirror cannot be setted and traffic in my area is so that car often stay for kilometers in a "wingman" position. My best solution now is to hide it with my hand but this is obviously dangerous too.

Kevin FONTAINE
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  • Keep yours on full and dip once they have dipped... – Solar Mike Dec 06 '18 at 16:32
  • @SolarMike This sometime work if they are on high beam, but is unclear on improper set low beam. Also, it annoy many other drivers around (It's a busy road). Thanks for your advice, though. – Kevin FONTAINE Dec 06 '18 at 16:36
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    If you get tailgated by an idiot with lights on full beam, Just brake hard down to about 15 mph, wait for him (it's always a him!) to overtake, then give him as good as he got. – alephzero Dec 06 '18 at 16:40
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    @alephzero I did that once, - he only just managed to miss the back of the Landrover... stayed a long way back after that... – Solar Mike Dec 06 '18 at 16:42
  • Guys, "brake checking" is not a good way to go (though it feels good). I simply slow way down by coasting. Seems to work as well. – mike65535 Dec 06 '18 at 17:10
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    @mike65535 I was young then, BUT he was only about 5 foot of the back of the Landrover... I could only just see his windscreen ... Ah well, I don't do it now. – Solar Mike Dec 06 '18 at 17:22

2 Answers2

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While I sympathise (I do a great deal of driving in the dark myself!) this is very difficult to solve. The problem for people with misaligned dipped beams is that only a relatively small misalignment can make a big difference in how dazzling they are for the car in front and for the average person it's very hard to tell that they are out of alignment in this way. So no pretty much no matter what you do they aren't going to understand what you mean.

Flash my rear fog light. It's very bright so it should draw attention to a light problem. Generally no effect.

I've seen this work occasionally for letting people know that they have their front fogs or high beam on. But it's very rarely successful.

Honk at them while they overtake my, and flash light. No effect as for now.

As you've discovered this is ineffective - they simply won't know what you mean. About all the thought process you may trigger is "why is that a## honking at me?", worse still in some jurisdictions (UK for example) this is illegal.

Placing a catadrioptre or a mirror on my windows, so they see that their light are wrong.

Nope.. you're just going to scatter glare back at them. They won't connect that with there being an issue with their lights and at worst your going to be affecting the vision of people behind you.

Making a sign and showing them.

Unless the sign is illuminated, they aren't going to be able to read it.

Carrying a torch and beaming at them.

Likely ineffective and dangerous. Also illegal in some jurisdictions (e.g. UK)

Alternatively, I'm willing to take any advice on how to not be blinded by others headlight.

Change Driving style

If they are in what you termed the "wingman" position on a highway, simply slow down slightly for a short period to either allow them past or at the very least to change the angle - it won't need much to remove the worst part of the dazzle for you.

Change the mirror

You can often get anti-glare replacement glass for your side mirrors. Either that or a light tint film (usually blue) aimed at reducing glare.

motosubatsu
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  • "Unless the sign is illuminated, they aren't going to be able to read it." -> I'm not worried about that : When I'm followed by a big SUV it clearer in my car than in daylight... I didn't knew about anti-glare side mirrors, I will definitly have a look. – Kevin FONTAINE Dec 06 '18 at 18:00
  • I do agree that communicating a technical problem to non-technical person might not be the best solution, but I wanted to check if there was a "commonly agreed sign" for those problem that I was not aware of. I take your other advices as it seems that the only way will be to live with it. – Kevin FONTAINE Dec 06 '18 at 18:09
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Other than making sure your windshield is clean, there is nothing you can do.

Many times High Intensity Discharge, LED, Xenon, or Halo lamps are just brighter than Incandescent lamps even when the lamps are properly aligned.

If you have clean glass, glare will be minimized and you will be able to see better.

One method to help maintian a safe path and keep some night vision is to look at the lane marker on the opposite side of oncomming traffic as far as you can see.

That and make sure you don't have cataracts.

B540Glenn
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  • I asked my ophtalmologist already, and indeed improving my eyes correction helped a little with glazing, but otherwise my night vision is really good, and even dot-light leave "color trace" in my field of view for several seconds. I try to look away when possible (or close one eye), but reflex to look at bright-moving-things often won. I guess I will have to live with it, then... – Kevin FONTAINE Dec 06 '18 at 18:05