Not only annoying, but also dangerous: many drivers feel blind most of the time

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Every driver has encountered situations like this: the headlights of the oncoming car are so bright that for a moment you are driving blindly down a country road. Things can get dangerous quickly, especially around bends. Automobile clubs in Germany (ADAC), Belgium (TCB) and Austria (ÖAMTC) and Touring Club Switzerland (TCS) commissioned a study on the situation in their countries regarding the “mixture problem in road traffic”.

In Switzerland, 36 percent of respondents said they were regularly blinded by oncoming vehicles. For 49 percent, this is the case, at least many times. 71 percent of those surveyed find it annoying to be dazzled by other vehicles in traffic. Many say glare stresses them out while driving. Street lighting is also occasionally perceived as an annoying glare, but in this case only nine percent of respondents perceived it as such.

Is there a need for legal regulation?

High beam is the light source that often dazzles other road users. But the dipped beam and rear fog lamp are also perceived as too dazzling and annoying (also interesting: Which light do you need to turn on in the car and when?). When drivers are blinded, it is difficult to see anything around the light source. They react angrily. A third of survey respondents think large light sources are particularly blinding. 46 percent say the size of the light source has no impact on how blind they feel.

Glare from oncoming vehicles causes dangerous situations. Drivers react to glare by closing their eyes, looking away, or blinking. In order to avoid such sensitive situations, participants believe that the legislation should be changed or measures should be taken to improve the situation. 35 percent think that the glare from vehicle headlights should be regulated as a high priority, and if necessary, by adapting to legal grounds.

Source: Blick