Regarding Xenons:
They are white, not blue. They have a sharp cutoff (for the benefit of oncoming drivers, better than old pre-halogen headlights. Because of refraction effects, there is a slight blue tinge at the cutoff, which is what you perceive.
In my estimation, and the negative perceptions by oncoming drivers can be explained largely by social resentment, because these lights are associated with expensive cars, plus general ignorance perception. They are more noticeable because they are in the minority, and notice leads to annoyance, especially when combined with the wealth resentment psychology.
Is there anyone who owns a vehicle with Xenon headlights who finds Xenons in oncoming traffic annoying or impairing? I thought not, case closed. (I wish everyone had them.)
And as to the ass who thinks he needs to shine his brights because he doesn’t like my $2000 headlights, I ask: “Have you really thought through the consequences of blinding vehicles that are closing on yours at over 100 mph combined speed?”
I think those who complain about the headlights are related to those who will cut off or delay a used Mercedes worth $4000 with their $30,000 pickup truck, because they have wealth resentment issues.
Utter horse puckey. You've certainly shown your biases though.
“And as to the ass who thinks he needs to shine his brights because he doesn’t like my $2000 headlights, I ask: “Have you really thought through the consequences of blinding vehicles that are closing on yours at over 100 mph combined speed?””
I guess it doesn’t matter! They’re pissed! And they’re going to get high-beam blues that will blind them but good!
well, never too late to not let something slip by on FR, so here's your problem ~ a fair percentage of the drivers in the ONCOMING TRAFFIC are in the earliest stages of developing lense cataracts. They don't notice it now because the problem is small BUT if there's an extraordinarily brighter light in the background of the lights ahead (their "oncoming traffic" which includes you), they will observe a phenomenon we all call GLARE.
Once that happens ~ and its instantaneous ~ the iris contracts, reducing the amount of light entering the eye ~ and that results in reduced visibility.
In slightly more advanced stages this can prevent them from clearly distinguishing center lines from just junk on the road.
So, it's not so much the kind of light you broadcast, or its brightness ~ it's more the fact that your light controls what the oncoming traffic's drivers eyes see ~ and reduced visibility makes accidents.
Sure, you're not getting smacked around but there are probably others in your vicinity who found themselves hit head-on and killed by someone who was momentarily blinded by your fashion sense.
Since these accidents happened behind you it's like you never saw them.
The best bet for night time driving is for all oncoming traffic to use lights of essentially the same frequency and perceived brightness at a specified distance. That way you're not going to have folks' iris jumping around from wide open to narrow, and so on, and people getting killed in night time accidents on rainy roads where the drivers are blinded by glare.
Now, about how to deal with the problem ~ the gub'mnt doesn't seem to have any interest in controlling the problem they've created. However, if you take 5 green pointer lasers and tape them together with ordinary duct-tape, and I'm sure you know the rest........... frankly, I think a guy carved the letter "L" in my retina!
It's dangerous out there. Don't be a fool and unnecessarily draw attention to yourself at night.
They are white, not blue. They have a sharp cutoff (for the benefit of oncoming drivers, better than old pre-halogen headlights. Because of refraction effects, there is a slight blue tinge at the cutoff, which is what you perceive.
In my estimation, and the negative perceptions by oncoming drivers can be explained largely by social resentment, because these lights are associated with expensive cars, plus general ignorance perception. They are more noticeable because they are in the minority, and notice leads to annoyance, especially when combined with the wealth resentment psychology.
Is there anyone who owns a vehicle with Xenon headlights who finds Xenons in oncoming traffic annoying or impairing? I thought not, case closed. (I wish everyone had them.)
And as to the ass who thinks he needs to shine his brights because he doesn’t like my $2000 headlights, I ask: “Have you really thought through the consequences of blinding vehicles that are closing on yours at over 100 mph combined speed?”
I think those who complain about the headlights are related to those who will cut off or delay a used Mercedes worth $4000 with their $30,000 pickup truck, because they have wealth resentment issues.
Going waaaaaaay off topic here -- US DOT headlights, with their ca. 1928 beam pattern are awful to begin with, and that's brand-new, right out of the box. After a few years, when the plastic covers get clouded and pitted and the reflectors oxidize, they're about as illuminating as candlelight. The E-code (halogen) headlights used in Europe and the rest-of-the-world have a cutoff beam pattern designed not to blind oncoming drivers and throw light to the right of the car. They're many times better than DOT lights.
HID xenon headlights have been sold in the US for 18 years and people have been complaining about them for 18 years. As the price falls, they're becoming standard or optional equipment on more and more cars, and not just on luxury brands. For 2011, the "Touring Elite" model of the Honda Odyssey minivan is equipped with HID headlights as standard equipment.
If you're old enough to have cataracts and have an older car with clouded, stone-pitted headlights, it's probably not a great idea to stare at the brighter lights of an oncoming car, whether it's HID or halogen headlight equipped.
To get back to the OT, I don't think the People's Republic of Washington DC has provided a plausible explanation of why that woman died in her BMW in her garage.