I live in the SF Bay Area and about 20% of cars are driven with their high beams on all the time. The drivers just click that stalk and leave it there no matter what. It’s an epidemic.
They think the blue indicator means their headlights are on.
Seeing this all the time in Chicago too. It’s really frustrating. Coupled with the same vehicle height and regular light brightness inflation that’s been occurring it’s really bad.
Seems to be happening all over past few years. I have my psychological theories as to why, but I’ll save those for later.
I thought this was just a Portland thing… “surely everyone can’t be that stupid”
My latest pair of glasses have a yellow tint for this very reason
I see this more in cities. I feel like people who drive in constantly lit streets, don’t understand when to use highbeams, because they never have to.
How do you know they’re not really bright stock/aftermarket lights?
Far fewer than 1/5 vehicles in SF/SJ have their high beams on IMO.
I mean, 1 in 5 is a lot, just to be perfectly clear, so anything even approaching that is a pretty bad. When I was growing up, the number of cars inappropriately using high beams in city traffic was basically zero, so this is a massive regression.
You can tell that a car is using high beams because their light fixture appears fully and evenly lit from eye level. Low-beam headlights look “half full” from an opposing driver’s view. You can also tell because many lower-end cars have a separate housing just for the high beam that only light up when the high beam is on.
