Thoughtless drivers, not modern headlights, are the real road hazard
SIR – I quite agree with the RAC about the danger posed by modern headlights (report, March 24).
However, the fault does not lie with the headlights themselves, but with the drivers misusing them. They are too often left undipped and are seldom correctly adjusted for height. John Huth
Broxbourne, Hertfordshire
SIR – It isn’t necessarily the brightness of LED bulbs that is responsible for a rise in accidents.
I’ve lost count of the number of “cyclops” vehicles on the roads, with only one functioning bulb. Too often nothing gets done to fix a faulty headlight until the inevitable MOT failure.
Rather than focusing on modern headlights that are too bright, perhaps it would be better to sort out the problem of too many motorists with ineffective lights. That requires good policing. Charles Foster
Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire SIR – The blinding effect of modern LED bulbs is only one factor in the visual distress caused by traffic today.
Modern cars are wider than ever, and the vogue for SUVS means that headlights are higher. This creates a wall of light from oncoming vehicles which, along an unlit, wet, twisting road, tests the coping ability of the sharpest human eyes.
Even for those with the best sight, the eye’s pure clarity diminishes in the sixth decade. The human crystalline lens ages like a glass that has had too many trips through a dishwasher.
While the changes might be subtle under normal circumstances, LED headlights can be exceedingly debilitating for many drivers. Vivian Bush
Hessle, East Yorkshire
SIR – Am I alone among motorists in suffering dazzle from the LED lights of cyclists?
These poorly focused lights seem to be trained more on motorists than on the road ahead. Surely it’s time to lay down some standards for these devices and their use. Tim Lovett
Claygate, Surrey
SIR – The news that cyclists outpace car drivers on many urban roads (report, March 24) should come as no surprise, as cyclists tend to ignore traffic lights, ride on the pavements and show little regard for any other rules in the Highway Code. Richard Coulson
Chatham, Kent
SIR – Your headline “Driving will be slower than riding a bicycle” reminded me of a story that The Times ran more than 100 years ago. Given the scale of horse traffic, the newspaper predicted that Fleet Street would be nine feet deep in manure within 50 years.
Then came cars. Similarly, within 10 years we will be travelling in new forms of transport that will render the car obsolete – just like the horse.
Dr Alistair A Donald
Watlington, Oxfordshire