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I am sick of having people flash their brights at me because they think my brights are on. Specifically on the Richmond east drive! It's a dark area and I never have my brights on as my regular lights are sufficient enough. I have been to the dealership and have asked twice now and have been advised that I have no issues and they are proper brightness and angle. It is a year old vehicle now and still every now and then get flashed. What made me write this post was that I was flashed by two cars in a row and it was at the very last minute when it seemed to be right in my face. My child is with me and people need to clean their windows or chill out when driving. Just because my larger vehicle has brighter lights than your lights. Please don't flash your brights whenever you assume others have brights on because when you flash your brights it's a hazard to my eye sight and driving - not to mentions those vehicles behind me or in front of you!  
Again, I understand that this road is very dark and other lights seem too bright to be regular. But just chill out a bit and deal with it, please.

Maybe it's not the brightness, but they are aimed too high, so go right into peoples'  
eyes.  
If it's the brightness, people will keep flashing their lights. Think of it like this: if you hate the bright lights when they flash, that same bright light is what you are shining in their eyes, only its your dims. Just because your dimmer light is as bright as a bright light, doesn't make it any less bright. It still blinds people, and as such, they'll still flash their lights. So theirs 2 solutions: either change them or put up with the flashes. It's that simple.

I have been driving the highways for years now and nobody flashes their lights at me unless I forgot to put my high beams down. I have an older vehicle as well and the headlights are aimed properly. If people are flashing their lights at you, then your lights are too bright, simple as that. Google " how to properly aim headlights", and do it. It's fairly simple. People don't just pick your vehicle out and flash high beams at you just because. If opposing drivers are flashing high beams at you on a regular basis, then you lights are too bright. Not their fault, it your fault.

I did mention in my post that I did ask about the angle and if they could be changed. I was advised no need. And if you have a small vehicle and mine is in your eyes then all other suv's this size are in your face. So it's okay that you flash all vehicles this size? To me, this makes u seem like an incompetent driver with slight road rage. Especially when there are cars in front of you and behind me!

Sorry, if so many people think your lights are too bright, the problem is you. It doesn't matter what the dealership says. I agree with the poster who said , if you think it is too bright and unsafe when people flash you, imagine how the other person feels with your too bright lights shining on them the whole time. It is unfair of you to expect everyone else to just deal with it.  
 
I have heard this a lot from people with newer vehicles, especially bigger ones, but I always just think it is really unfair to everyone else that they are driving around with too bright lights.

I have a new suv as well that people are constantly flashing the high beams. The new hid or led headlights are extremely bright. My particular vehicle has self leveling lights that adjust to vehicle height changes due to weight, trailer towing etc. People have to get used to the fact that the new vehicles have way brighter/whiter headlamps than ever before. If you happen to be driving a vehicle more than 4 years old the bulbs have already degraded and are yellowing. I also have a 6 year old truck that I just put new bulbs in and could not believe how bright it was.Bright white headlamps are the new normal from the factory.  
 
Edited by Daddy-0, 2016-10-22 11:49:31

I've been down that road numerous times with a few of my vehicles and have been flashed in all of them. I have an 8 yr old car with factory projector headlights that I've been flashed in, as well as my 28 yr old van that has properly(highways act specifications) adjusted sealed beams, flashed as well. So either it's the road or its upset drivers. Either way, if you think it's high beams, flash when you first see them, not last minute when you could potentially blind an unsuspecting driver and cause an accident.

I bought a newer SUV and had people flashing me all the time as well. I to, had them checked out and the dealership assured me that they were adjusted properly.  
 
All you can do is flash your brights back so they realize that you have your low beams on.

Related/unrelated question. Do people ever flash their headlights to warn oncoming traffic that deer are near the road? If so, how many times mean deer?

Hate to break it to you, but your going to keep getting flashed by other people brights unless you change your headlights. An Ebrandon post isn't going to change anything, just think about how many vehicles there are on the road, how many people their are in this world, how in the dark on the highway all you can see is a vehicles headlight and how few people see these Ebrandon post. No ones going to go to themselves..."oh that's the person from Ebrandon with the bright headlights, I better not flash them, I know their story".  
 
Reality is there are a lot of drivers on the road who do drive with their brights on and for no reason even in town. Seen a vehicle last night driving down 18th with their brights on. Didn't really think much of it, until he shut them off.  
 
But on a side note, what's the deal with every Dodge truck on the road driving with their fog lights on? Just curious.  
 
Edited by The_Young_Man, 2016-10-22 12:46:34

Ultimately I think you just have to take a deep breath and maybe find a different route to take. But I sincerely hope taking to eBrandon helped you release some frustrations.

Maybe you have too much weight in the back, which is pointing your headlights up higher.

it's because you have your fog/driving lights on as well? It's a real problem with a lot of vehicles. I have fog/driving lights but I don't turn them on unless it is foggy or snowing hard. I find a lot of vehicles (mostly trucks) drive with them on un-necessarily and it seems like high beams.

Other drivers just need to realise newer OEM headlights are brighter than older OEM headlights In the past 10 years headlights have become brighter due to different bulb technology and lens design. And that's just not due to bulb technology, but those lights do dim over time and the lens covering also tarnishes over time. Maybe those drivers who flash use the same bulbs and blind others. Most bulbs are halogen or Xenon in vehicles built in the last 10 years.  
 
She shouldn't have to replace her OEM headlights on her 1 year old SUV.

What do you have for an SUV?

Fog lights from the factory are only on when lights are on dim. Rule of thumb if on coming cars lights seem bright flash your lights well the on coming car is far enough away to dim their lights.

Black Star said "Fog lights from the factory are only on when lights are on dim. Rule of thumb if on coming cars lights seem bright flash your lights well the on coming car is far enough away to dim their lights. "

you might get the real high beams back at you.

How are other cars supposed to know if the reason why the lights are bright are because she has a newer car, or because she has her high beams on? I do a lot of night driving, and sometimes I will flash a car if the lights are blinding (far enough away to not blind them), sometime they will flash me back as a "hey, it's not my high beams" and then I can understand that it's not their fault, and we can all carry on with our lives. Sometimes people flash me when I only have my low beams on, and then I will (if far enough away) flash back, so they know I'm not being a jerk and intentionally blinding them.... everything in life is communication, it's difficult to communicate with an on coming car that's going 100 and shining light in your eyes.

The newer lights seem to be incredibly bright. I feel distracted by the blinding brightness, & unfortunately will continue to flash my brights to remind oncoming traffic to shut brights off, not realizing they're dims. So when the newer vehicles flash their brights to make a point , it's even more blinding.

It is kinda of a catch twenty-two.  
Your complaint is about being blinded by cars that are being blinded by your vehicle.  
 
The one question you need to ask is most new vehicles don't blind people, so why does yours.

It does seem to be more of an issue with newer vehicles and it does make me wonder if the manufactures are following the HTA rules about brightness, with new technology maybe the brightness is measured differently and they have gotten away with it, (id have to look up the spects but the law is in there) unfortunately i do think it doenst matter why you are blinded if lots of people are flashing you its because you are blinding them, right or wrong they flash at the last minute because they are pissed you never dimmed, if they flash far enough ahead you can give a quick flash back to show you cant do anything about it, and please dont use your fog lights if its not foggy and you are not alone on the road, they DO bling people too, with dim or not

prissy02 said "I did mention in my post that I did ask about the angle and if they could be changed. I was advised no need. And if you have a small vehicle and mine is in your eyes then all other suv's this size are in your face. So it's okay that you flash all vehicles this size? To me, this makes u seem like an incompetent driver with slight road rage. Especially when there are cars in front of you and behind me! "

The fact that you feel everyone is to  
1) know it's you to not flash???  
and  
2) know that you've only got dim on  
makes me think you are the incompetent and entitled feeling one. How would anyone know this information exactly? Maybe you should realize how many crap drivers are on the city streets ( just read other complaints on here ).Realizing that if you're being flashed then obviously your lights are bothering them, and not everyone cares who is in your car when it's affecting their vision ( they too could have a child in the car). Either way all it takes is for a split second flip up of yours to let them know their on dim. Not that difficult really and just as polite as what you expect from others.

TDCAU said "Related/unrelated question. Do people ever flash their headlights to warn oncoming traffic that deer are near the road? If so, how many times mean deer? "

This is what I was thinking!  
I literally flashed my lights at someone on that road because I saw wildlife in the ditch!  
This time of year/dusk, esp on certain roads I assume flashing is for deer  
I don't know the exact # for 'deer'

In the last little while people have been telling me that I have a problem with communication, it has to do with texting or messaging using phones. Reading through this I don''t think I''m the only one that has communication problems.  
Here''s something to think about, a person I''m meeting on the road seems to have very bright lights, so I flash the person, which is a way of asking "are your lights on high", you flash me back indicating your lights are on low, problem solved.  
 
Edited by don brown, 2016-10-22 18:06:57

don brown said "In the last little while people have been telling me that I have a problem with communication, it has to do with texting or messaging using phones. Reading through this I don''t think I''m the only one that has communication problems.   Here''s something to think about, a person I''m meeting on the road seems to have very bright lights, so I flash the person, which is a way of asking "are your lights on high", you flash me back indicating your lights are on low, problem solved.     Edited by don brown, 2016-10-22 18:06:57"

I think you need to come up with a driving code for lights! You seem to get it and maybe if you went provincial this wouldn't keep coming up.  
Flash your high beams once at on-coming traffic (from a distance) and they either dim or you flash back (at a distance) to notify them your regular lights are on. Deer in ditch - turn your hazards on and off as to stop the confusion of the high beam drama and notifying there is a HAZARD coming up (hence hazard lights).  
Couple hits of the break lights - shut your stupid high beams off cause you are only a couple car lengths away and are blinding me in every mirror and the entire cab is bright enough for my wife to pluck her eyebrows (cause if I did it we would have a thread about men plucking their eyebrows while driving).  
If you start to make money off of your "flashing of lights" course Don, I would ask for maybe a 10% royalty and maybe be signed up as an instructor!

Funny how some people just don't get road talk, if I'm hauling grain and think in holding up traffic I signal and take to the shoulder, most truckers realize what you are doing and flash their brake lights, or sometimes their backup light on their cab as a way of saying thanks for not slowing them down or making for a dangerous passing. Heard the dumbest comment this summer, someone was wondering why a truck would be going up grand valley hill with their hazard lights on, thought if they were having problems they should have pulled over.

after truck driving for years and now with my current job travelling between Manitoba and western alberta nothing surprises me anymore. Back when #1 was still single lane between Virden - Grenfell area, I had someone going slower then posted speed in front of me (I was in my semi) and I went to pass them. Flicked my turn signal on to pass them, checked oncoming traffic and swerved out to pass and they swerved into the west bound lane I went in to pass them. I thought a few "nice" thoughts and went back into the proper lane, thinking they were trying to block me. Nope they started waving me to pass them on the right hand side!!! It was the first I had ever seen that and one of the scariest thing I had ever done. I dropped a gear and poured the fuel to the old girl and passed them on the east bound shoulder not knowing what they were going to do. The amount of chatter on the cb about that clown was unbelievable as they did that for every truck coming up for as long as my cb would pick up.  
I think we are missing something in our current drivers ed programs. Everyone thinks this flashing the headlights is because of new vehicle headlights, I remember sitting on the armrest between grandpa and grandma in the front seat of the old Buick station wagon and grandpa would get flashed and he would scramble forgetting where the switch to the high beams was (this was his first car with the switch on the signal instead of the floor) and he would give a quick flick to tell them his low beams were on. Not that big of a deal. I washed my work truck the other day at a really good car wash and everything was brighter on my truck. The next morning heading to my jobsite in Regina, I was flashed 3 times and all I did was either ignore them or flash them back quickly.  
Honestly, when we are leaving town on a call, we are shocked when people hit the shoulder and stop when they are meeting us with lights and sirens coming.I guess the old days of just common curtesy/sense are gone. But now that we hijacked this thread, I will let them complain about high beams again! Thanks for pulling over, you may have been one of the few slow moving trucks that I blew the mirrors off when I was hauling grain, and we always appreciated that.

Prissy said  
Just need to rant..lol  
 
Is anyone else getting frustrated with the amount of inconsiderate drivers out there that insist on driving with their high beams on or worse, their high beams AND fog lights when there is no fog?  
 
I know it''s dark in the morning people, but do you not realize how hard it is on the driver you are passing to see when you ''blind'' them with your inconsiderate action?! Especially when there are animals on the road, foggy conditions, rain..etc. Come on people have some manners please!  
 
And I am not mentioning this because it was one or two motorists, no word of a lie, it was more like 8 - 10. Ridiculous!  
 
Thanks  
 
Funny things is, it might be your lights that are the problem now.  
 
https://ebrandon.ca/messagethread.aspx?message_id=:961564&cat_id=:3  
 
Edited by loeog, 2016-10-23 08:08:08

Most vehicles don't allow the high beams and fog lights to be on at the same time, it's probably just poorly aimed low beams that you're seeing.

That is not my post!? Please re look at that post! I did reply to this. I did not start it! So if u look at my post u will see this same issue that I created this post about!  
 
Now for the other person who said I was entitled feeling! My long winded posts were not so people know who I was and not flash but rather be considerate and not flash your brights at me at the last second. I hope you feel better for getting that out and seeming to get defensive about my posts. I was just reminding people that views are different if you have a dirty or older windshield. When my husband and I drove in his truck before he would always say people had their brights on when they didn't and since he got his new car and a cleaner windshield and no chips or dirt etc - the view is so different and he realizes now that he was wrong for thinking that before. Flash me ahead  
Of time and I won't usually flash you back unless you flash your brights numerous times, but again: don't wait to until the very last moment to flash your brights at me.