Originally Posted by
mconlonx
Not a dumb statement at all, just the fact of the situation -- OEM car headlights are designed not to blind other road users. Unlike many/most lights marketed for bike use in the USA, where there really are no regulations regarding headlights for bicycles beyond requiring one at night. It's not so much the intent of the drivers as the actual effect.
I likewise could not care less about your particular headlight type or use.
If it's aftermarket lighting, all bets are off. And just like there are doosh cyclists who don't mind that they are blinding other road users, there are equally inconsiderate motor vehicle operators...
One trick I use is to look to the edge of the road when approaching headlights are blinding, so when I glance back up after the offending vehicle has passed, the readjustment period is shorter.
The Marines teach other techniques for preserving washout, such as closing one eye completely and squinting with the other...I've got tricks in my bag but that's not the point. The point is to say that you're claiming that headlights are designed in such a manner that they do not blind pedestrians, and this itself was used to back up your claim that I should return then same courtesy to drivers with my own headlight choice. The thing is, today's HIDs are bright as ****, and even though my line of sight is a good 4 feet above a BMW 3's headlights, my vision nearly completely washes out when I am approached at night. What you're saying and what I experience in the real world do not mesh at all, so I err on the side of my own experience, which is that there is no courtesy to return.
Look, there is no fact to your post about driver courtesy. Please cite me any single individual who has ever purchased a vehicle
because it provided a marked measure of comfort to
someone else on the road. That doesn't happen, and it's tomfoolerific to think otherwise. I bought my car because it suited
my needs, not because it suited the needs of another. My family is included in the statement "me."
I agree about your OEM headlight statement - but in that case I would not be returning a courtesy to the driver because the driver didn't design the headlights and we've already established that no one buy's a car for the convenience of another. The headlight manufacturers will never see my cycling light on the road, so then who am I returning a courtesy to? And if I my vision is washed out by every other car out there on the road, then
what courtesy am I returning?