Are vehicle headlights glaringly bright these days in Canada?
Transport Canada wants to hear from you, and is running a national survey about vehicle headlight glare and how it affects drivers at night.
“While new headlight technology in vehicles can help drivers see better, they can also cause problems for other road users. Transport Canada wants to learn how headlight glare affects road users and what vehicle or lighting features may influence how people experience it at night,” the release states.
“We want to hear about your experiences, opinions, and behaviours with vehicle headlight glare.”
The survey opened on March 6 and will close on April 20.
Last month, the City of Victoria’s municipal council unanimously passed a motion asking provincial and federal governments to “review and update safety regulations for vehicle designs.”
Coun. Dave Thompson, who put forward the motion, said brighter headlines can be a distraction to other drivers.
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“While improved illumination may benefit drivers using them, increased brightness and headlight height can cause painful glare for other drivers, particularly older drivers, and difficulty seeing people walking and using bikes and other mobility devices when backlit at night.”
The City of Vancouver also passed a motion asking Transport Canada to review headlight brightness.
“These LED headlights and HID headlights, especially on oversized vehicles, are very common in Vancouver. They’ve been linked to reduce nighttime visibility, delayed reaction times, and a higher risk of collisions,” Coun. Sean Orr said at Vancouver City Hall on Jan. 21.
“These impacts are felt, not just by drivers, but by cyclists, pedestrians, seniors and people with vision impairments who are especially vulnerable to glare.”
As of September 2021, the Canadian Vehicle Lighting Regulation requires that all new vehicles sold in Canada have one of the following:
- Tail-lights that come on automatically with daytime running lights.
- Headlights, tail-lights and side marker lights that turn on automatically in the dark.
- A dashboard that stays dark to alert the driver to turn on the lights.
However, glare is not mentioned in Transport Canada’s Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (CMVSS), which closely mirror U.S. regulations.
A 2024 study conducted in the U.K. surveyed 2,000 drivers and found that nine in 10 (89 per cent) of people think at least some headlights on cars on the road today are too bright, of which three in 10 (28 per cent) – a higher proportion than ever – think most are.
The study stated the effect may be due to more cars having LED headlights, which have a much more intense and focused beam than “yellower” halogen bulbs.
In addition, five per cent of surveyed drivers stated they have “nearly been involved in a collision themselves” due to vehicle brightness.
Nearly one in 10 (seven per cent) said they find headlight glare “so bad that they avoid driving at night altogether,” a figure that rises to 14 per cent for drivers aged 65 and over.
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