After working as a journalist for over 30 years, I’ve spent a fair bit of time travelling. Many are the evenings I’ve spent driving to and from council meetings and other events. In Alberta, evening travel in the winter means driving in the dark.

I was blessed with above-average eyesight for most of my life, so I never had the misfortune of vision problems. However, as the years roll by, I’ve noticed my aging has not exactly been like fine wine (more like vinegar). One of the differences I’ve noticed over the past 30 years is how much nighttime driving, and oncoming vehicle headlights, bother me. One aid I’ve discovered is low-contrast amber motorcycle glasses, which reduce glare from oncoming vehicles. It’s not a perfect solution, but it helps.

Oncoming high beams can be dazzling and dangerous. A rule of thumb I went by for most of my life is that if you can see a space between the two headlights on the oncoming vehicle, they’re probably low beams, no matter how bright they may seem. Well, over the past few years I’ve been having trouble telling the low beams from the high ones, and even the rule of thumb has been failing me (some of those lights have a space between them but are so bright and painful I can’t see the road even after the vehicle has passed).

I just assumed I was becoming more sensitive with age, but as it turns out I’m not the only one who feels vehicle headlights are too bright and getting brighter; I recently covered a Town of Drumheller council meeting where the local detachment commander, S/Sgt. Christopher LaFleur, was giving a quarterly report. Coun. Tom Zariski also voiced concern about headlights at night, noting even low beams seem very, very bright; Zariski wondered if there was anything that could be done. S/Sgt. LaFleur answered thusly: “There’s nothing we can do. It’s quite blinding, but there’s nothing we can do with a normal vehicle.” LaFleur noted as long as headlights meet Transport Canada’s requirements, they’re legal. However, LaFleur did suggest aftermarket or custom headlights that don’t meet the federal government’s requirements could attract police attention.

I recently watched an interesting YouTube video titled “Modern car headlights are dangerously bright – here’s why nobody’s fixing it,” on a channel named Car Coach Reports. In a nutshell, Car Coach pointed out some interesting facts, such as traditional halogen headlamps being about 1,000 candle watts of brightness, whereas new LED headlights are much brighter, up to 3,000 candle watts, while some LED systems could be up to 10,000 candle watts. Another fact this American creator pointed out (that rings true in Canada too) is that federal safety laws have not evolved with technology; manufacturers keep making lights brighter as there’s no limit to keep them in check.

Car Coach suggested federal governments need to seriously look at the risks dangerously bright headlights create on dark highways. Driving past a vehicle equipped in this fashion can be blinding to other drivers, leaving them unable to see for a while afterwards. Not a good thing when you’re in care and control of a vehicle. Extremely bright headlights don’t really make the road safer for anyone; eventually every vehicle on the road will sport them and we’ll all be blind.

Again, I’m not the only person in Canada concerned by this problem, as cursory investigation revealed Transport Canada is currently conducting a survey of Canadians on this issue. I encourage everyone to fill out the survey as soon as possible and speak out about dangerously bright headlights. Even if you aren’t at risk, one of your loved ones may be.

The survey can be found online at the link below, with the deadline to complete it at the end of April 2026. Don’t wait—do it now.

Stu Salkeld is a night-driving journalist who dislikes people who don’t turn off their high beam vehicle headlights; you can contact him at stewartsalkeld7@gmail.com.

Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and not those of this newspaper