# Someone flashes their high-beams at you. Your high-beams aren't on. What do you do? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 9, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413 "2015-01-09T17:04:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/21 "2015-01-09T19:51:04Z")
I remember my father taking the car to the shop periodically so the headlights could be aligned to meet the law. The lights had to be positioned properly so they do not blind oncoming drivers. The bright lights had to be aligned as well. Also there was a requirement of the number and color of lights visible from the front. IIRC, two sets of headlights (regular and brights), turn signals and running lights (below or on the front bumper). Today all bets are off. Anyone can change headlights. No alignment required. Any bulb you want. Any number you want. It’s not uncommon to see a “typical” vehicle approach with eye-spearing blue halogens, and half a dozen running lights (or more!) all across the front. When they hit the brights I swear they are aircraft landing lights. And no one cares if any of this blinds oncoming drivers. Now with vehicles jacked up on struts it’s even worse. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/22 "2015-01-09T19:59:58Z")
> [@Gary\_T](#): > > I don’t get why you think flashing the high-beams will temporarily blind them. On most cars a quick high/low flick takes a small fraction of a second. Even on models where the mechanism has to be activated twice (foot switch, older GM turn signal lever) it can be done in about a second. Not to mention they’re already being blinded or they wouldn’t have flashed in the first place. > > Not much else he can do besides lower the suspension or buy a shorter vehicle. The angle of the headlights can be adjusted. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/23 "2015-01-09T20:05:06Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > The angle of the headlights can be adjusted. As noted in the OP. > [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > … The headlights are adjustable and I have them pointed down as far as they will go. … ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/24 "2015-01-09T20:15:36Z")
You’re not one of those people who drives around with your for lights on all the time, are you? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/25 "2015-01-09T20:22:30Z")
I picked “other” - I’d slow down and watch for hazards/speed traps. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/26 "2015-01-09T20:25:26Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > You’re not one of those people who drives around with your for lights on all the time, are you? Come to Canada. Everyone drives around all day with their headlights (running lights) on all the time. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/27 "2015-01-09T20:27:35Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Come to Canada. Everyone drives around all day with their headlights (running lights) on all the time. What’s that got to do with fog lights? Eta: oh, my phone doesn’t like the word fog. Actually autocorrects it to for. I see, my apologies. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/28 "2015-01-09T20:31:31Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > What’s that got to do with fog lights? > > Eta: oh, my phone doesn’t like the word fog. Actually autocorrects it to for. I see, my apologies. Ah. No we don’t drive around with fog lights on all the time. Not the whole country at least. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/29 "2015-01-09T20:33:46Z")
I vote for a very brief flick of the high beams to communicate that you’re **not** running with them on. If they paid attention in Driver’s Ed, then they’re already looking at the white limit line on the right and not directly at my lights anyway. I’ve had this happen a couple of times although my headlamps are regularly adjusted and they are not of the blue halogen variety. If the situation were reversed, it’s what I would want to happen. > [@steronz](#): > > You’re not one of those people who drives around with your for lights on all the time, are you? I’m one of those people. But so are most people who live in the gray of Oregon. You can think I’m a dweeb, by by god, you’ll see me coming before you pull out in front of me onto the roadway. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/30 "2015-01-09T20:43:09Z")
Properly adjusted, IAW the law, headlights on any vehicle can still put the main part of the beam in another drivers eyes. Roads aren’t perfectly flat or perfectly straight. Proper adjustment is based on angle for the high intensity part of the beam so higher vehicles are more likely to cause issues for others. Simply adjusting the beams to aim lower than the standard minimizes the risks of blinding someone else but increases other risks since the driver of the vehicle adjusted too low has less forward visibility. If my lights are properly adjusted, I largely ignore someone flashing their brights (aside from being aware of the possibility it’s a warning of some sort.) It’s an imperfect world. Screws fall out all the time and sometimes non-high beam lights shine in other drivers eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/31 "2015-01-09T20:52:03Z")
Sometimes a vehicle coming the other way can hit a bump in the road that appears to be a flash of the headlights. For some reason this seems to happen to me more often lately. “Did he just flash me? Is there a cop up there? A deer?” Bump Bump “Oh.” ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/32 "2015-01-09T21:42:29Z")
A very quick flash of your actual high-beams will let the other person know you didn’t stupidly forget to crank back to the regular setting, or (if they were trying to warn you of a speed trap, deer or rabid raccoons hitching rides), acknowledge their warning. Or you could just shoot them, whatever is allowable in your state/local jurisdiction. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/33 "2015-01-09T22:50:04Z")
I’d do nothing and assume that the oncoming driver is warning me of a police radar or RBT ahead of me. ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/34 "2015-01-09T23:30:19Z")
> [@TheFaerie](#): > > None of the above; I’d wonder if there was a cop up ahead. That’s me, too. I always understood that if you were flashed like that, it meant there was a trooper or a checkpoint ahead. Seems to happen pretty regularly… ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/35 "2015-01-09T23:41:27Z")
Down isn’t the only adjustment, they might be too far left. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/36 "2015-01-09T23:53:55Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > [Crocodile Dundee voice] “\*Those \*aren’t high beams. Now \*these \*are my high beams!” [/cdv] I had a friend who mounted a couple of 250,000 candlepower aircraft landing lights behind his grill to use as (highly illegal) fog lights. But they also worked well to alert people that their high beams were on. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/37 "2015-01-10T01:12:50Z")
Slow down. My experience is that if someone flashes their beams when mine aren’t on a) Something dangerous or something like a speed trap is ahead b) My headlight is really badly aimed In case its the first, I cover the brakes. If its the second I can always check tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/38 "2015-01-10T02:27:52Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Aren’t you supposed to shoot them? 😃 Only if you bein 'nitiated. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/39 "2015-01-10T19:24:31Z")
If you’ve got HID bulbs, the “quick flash of the high beams to demonstrate they’re not on” might backfire because the bulbs take a few seconds to warm up to full brightness. So for the brief instant you turn the high beams on, they may actually be dimmer than your (already warm) low beams, making it look like you’re just taunting them by showing that your high beams are indeed on and are going to remain so. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413/40 "2015-01-10T22:29:16Z")
Double blink for bears & traps. Single blink is for bad lights of any kind. Double off = thank you or double on = thank you in the daylight. Rapid brake flash = I see you coming fast or I think you are asleep at the wheel and there is some bad stuff just ahead so get your head out and pay attention. YLMV [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-flashes-their-high-beams-at-you-your-high-beams-arent-on-what-do-you-do/709413.md?page=3)