202 Between New Milford + Litchfield Is Bright Headlight Hell

I am so sick of being blinded by HID/LED headlights from oncoming cars. I can handle them on urban streets, but on a back road? They're hell.

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I've been having a particularly tough time with bright headlights on Rt. 202 lately. With my recent move from Waterbury to Torrington, I'm using 202 to get to work instead of I-84, and let me tell you, there's a lot less traffic. Maybe that's why these intense headlights are even more brutal now.

I've noticed that it's not factory-installed headlights that are getting me, it's those aftermarket rigs that center a couple of intense beams in the middle of the bumper. These LED and HID headlights (High Intensity Discharge) are more commonly known as Xenon lights, which contain Zenon gas and metal salts to produce way more light than traditional halogen bulbs. Here's a shot from a YouTube video posted by RS Ganesha, that shows you the difference in intensity between three varieties of headlights

YouTube via RS Ganesha

It's that bright, blue light that gets me. I'm sure it's wonderful if you're behind the vehicle that has it, you could probably see that family of deer on the side of the road in New Preston from New Milford, but man, it's blinding for oncoming motorists.

There's good news though, in a way, the US Government has just killed the law that requires US autos to have both a high beam and a low beam headlight, and will now allow automakers to install adaptive headlights. What is an adaptive headlight? You may have seen them in action out there already. Basically, automakers install a forward-facing camera which detects objects in your path, and the headlights adapt the beam to illuminate the areas around the object, not directly onto them.

Until this technology is rolled out here, I guess I'll keep wearing my sunglasses at night along 202.

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