Action
Request for comments.
Summary
The agency is currently examining the issues related to glare produced by lamps mounted on the fronts of vehicles. Typically, these are lower and upper beam headlamps, fog lamps, driving lamps, auxiliary lower beam headlamps and daytime running lamps. All except the latter, are used almost exclusively at night. Glare associated with daytime running lamps is the subject of an ongoing rulemaking intended to reduce their intensity (see 63 FR 42348, Docket NHTSA-98-4124 Notice 1.) This notice does not address daytime running lamps; it does address headlamps and other front-of-vehicle roadway illumination lamps that are used primarily at night. We have received almost two hundred complaints from consumers on this subject in the last two years. The three most common complaints we have received recently were on the glare created by the higher-mounted headlamps, glare from high intensity discharge headlamps (HIDs), and glare from "extra" headlamps. While we have received complaints about upper beams, too, this paper addresses only those lamps mentioned above that drivers use in the presence of other drivers. Regardless, the subject of glare, whether from lower beams, upper beams, daytime running lamps or any other similar lamp, is important to NHTSA. The first of the complaints is about high mounted headlamps found on sport utility vehicles (SUVs), pickup trucks, and vans, collectively known as LTVs. Mounted high enough to place the more intense part of their low beam into passenger car inside and outside mirrors and to light up the interiors, high mounted headlamps are viewed by many drivers as dangerous and intimidating, in addition to being annoying and disabling. The second set is about HID headlamps initially found on higher priced passenger cars, and recently on LTVs and moderately priced passenger cars. Their robust illumination performance and whiter, almost blue, color make them easily identifiable as a new source of glare. The third set is about extra headlamps, that are those auxiliary lamps fitted to motor vehicles that are typically called fog, driving and auxiliary headlamps. Potential misuse by drivers and characteristics of these popular original equipment and aftermarket lamps may be creating a glare problem. All three of these form a common thread throughout the letters written to NHTSA about nighttime glare. Many of these letters may be found in Docket Number: NHTSA-1998-4820. This document discusses these and other issues, some potential solutions and asks some questions that we hope will help us find some practical and effective solutions for the American public.