Just a thought:
Are headlights getting brighter because the population is aging?
A SUV is really nothing more or less than a late 40’s Ford sedan. Big, hefty, and feels safe. We got away from it in the 60s, when cars got kicked bigger, and we got away from it in the 70s, when cars became flimsy and unsafe-feeling. It’s just the generic american center of car.
I used to use a six “D” cell Maglite for this purpose when I was younger. These days you can get 1.5 million candlepower spotlights that plug into the cigarette lighter at Target. Hold it out the window and aim up. 
Umm. The lights aren’t misaligned; it’s just that they are mounted higher in the grill. Yeah, I drive an SUV, and I’m aware of this. I try to follow further away.
And good response Wombat. An SUV is the most practical, useful vehicle for me. My only other option would be a 4x4 truck. The SUV edges that choice out, but not by much.
I try to adjust my side mirror so it reflects back at the driver behind me. Sort of a pool shot, angle of incidence/angle of reflection type of thing. I never know if I hit the driver or not, but I figure it’s always worth a try.
The 1948 Willys-Overland Jeep Station Wagon was the first station wagon to have 4-wheel drive. Unlike most station wagons of the time, it was also all steel - no wooden or wood-trimmed doors.
I heard just this morning that the Maryland legislature plans to start taxing all those three-ton SUVs.
I’m pretty sure that would get me arrested, but thanks .
Featherlou , A: I don’t have that skill! B: My car is so low to the ground and theirs is so high that I think it would be virtually impossible for me to angle it back at them.
How many people use the four wheel drive, Jeep’s Phoenix? I do, sure, but we’ve been a Jeep family all my life, and most of my dad’s. I’m saying that it’s an added feature, but the real selling point of the SUV is the fact that it feels like a ‘real car’. Not that it’s safer, that it feels safer. And when I say ‘real car’, I mean the kind my dad’s mom used to have. (Admittedly, it had a police interceptor engine in it, but… that’s my family.)
Saturn? Puh-leeze.
I just got to drive one of those (IMHO) super bright headlights cars tonight for about 2 hrs on open roads and city traffic at night. This is the type with the distinct line between light and dark, but not HID.
Here are my observations:
The daytime running lights are as bright as standard halogen headlights - and actually I made most of my trip w/ the DRL + parking lights instead of lowbeams.
The low beams follow the same pattern as the DRL, throw a bit more light far down the road but it is harder to see because everything close by gets so bright.
The high beams should be clasified as weapons, I call them the Be-Dazzelers.
The highbeams basically turn night into day, I would hate to be on the receiving end however.
Going back to the low beams, it also puts out so much light that it is not night driving anymore, and one does not get that normal calming effect associated with it.
Also “Blue Light Special” cars (HID’s) what I’ve noticed on this trip, in city areas the blue light, though annoying, does not cause much more then a distraction, but on the open road, when you don’t see many cars, it does cause loss of night vision.
For all those who still beleive that their HID’s allow them to see further, I would like you to try this experiment. Switch between your daytime running lights and low beams. Give your eyes a chance to adjust a bit to the lower light however. See which mode you will see furthest. Also see which mode is it more noticable to see something in the distance as opposed to something up close.
And post your results, either way.
It’s illegal to drive with only your DRLs and/or parking lights at night. Don’t do that.
I drive a Saturn and I have problems being blinded by light shining through my rear view mirror at night. It’s true that pickup trucks and SUVs are typically the worse offenders but I also have trouble with cars depending on how far behind me they are. Whatever action can I take to avoid such blindness? I flip my rearview mirror up into the night time position so I can still see the headlights without being blinded. Truth is that all my mirrors are useless at night unless I’m surrounded my ambiant light from street lamps.
Marc
Very ironic that the OP was asking for cops to ticket superbright headlights, though it is illegal to use the built-in features, which work perfectly fine, to actually dim them.
Anyway if you read the way I posted the experiment you will note that you can do this legally. Just do it while parked, or if you have a SUV, you must have at least a 1000 ft driveway so then you can drive on your own property to try this out as well.
Definitely not very many. One of my favorite activities on a snow day is watching news coverage of people stuck in the snow. The majority of the trucks and SUVs are shown spinning only two tires; either they don’t have 4-wheel drive, or the vehicle owner has no idea how to engage it. I’ve also encountered a surprising number of truck/SUV drivers who have no idea how to disengage overdrive.
Interestingly, my parents have been driving Suburbans since the late eighties, but they didn’t get one with 4-wheel drive until 1999. Until then, the only four-wheel drive vehicles in the family were a Geo Tracker (!) and the Jeep, which I’m driving now.
One underrated part of 4WD is being able to park after these snowstorms where drifts/piles are in parking lots and along the curbs. Pull in with a 4WD where cars fear they will stick! Get some good parking spots that way, and needn’t worry about sticking out into traffic and getting hit!
FTR, my 2wd/4wd mode selector is the front shifter, and Overdrive is disengaged with the little button on the left of the regular transmission shifter.
DRLs and parking lights are not “built-in features” of headlights. The “D” stands for “daytime”. If they were designed to be used at night, they wouldn’t be called DRLs. And if parking lights were designed for driving, they wouldn’t be called PARKING lights.
I DID read the way you posted it. You said:
“Making a trip” generally means you were going somewhere, not parked.
This is correct, but the experiment I requested did not require someone to break the law, this is what I was pointing out.