HIDs... do the police actually care? (if so, how to report serious offenders?)
 

This is a question regarding Aftermarket HIDs shoved into STOCK reflector style headlight housings.

I was driving down Blundell tonight. Wet and rainy.

I was stopped at a redlight, and a pickup truck (current gen F-350) stops in front of me (opposing traffic). It's lights were super bright HIDs (had the blue hue, pretty badly aimed and in stock housing). It was so bright I thought the driver might have accidentally turned his/her high beams on. So I give the usual flash of mine to give a heads up.

Low and behold, the driver reacts in the following manner:
Turns on the rest of the lights ensemble - bumper fogs (matching HIDs... also very poorly aimed... seemed to be aimed up for the most part), as well as the actual high beams (which were probably stock from the yellowish tint).

As the road surface was already pretty glossy from the rain, it reflected light up at my little sedan (compared to a F350) like no tomorrow.

Hell I still have the light burn in my left eye (ie: my eye is kind of screwed up right now... i'm seeing a huge white spot on the side of everything)

Can I actually report these people given that I have their license plate? Little civics are bad enough with poorly aimed stock housed HIDs, but pickup trucks with the full schebang is just taking it to a whole new level.

TIA

stupid trucks with hids, no respect for other people.

I think that everyone has really bright headlights now a days. I literally get blinded by every single oncoming car. All the new cars now have extremely high output lights so I'd say its normal.

its really dangerous, if people can get hid's on their car it should be mandatory for them to get them properly aimed and get projectors.

Maybe your just lower then most of the cars out there? Either way it sucks driving on nights like tonight.

When I'm on my bike in the dark on a rainy night. If the oncoming traffic has high HID or if they are on a pickup, the reflection off the beads of light means that I might not be able to see for about 1.5 seconds or so.

It's not cool.

I don't really have a problem or with the housing. My biggest concern is when they are pointed super high (or mounted on a raised pickup).

My eye position is almost 2 feet higher than most drivers on the road, yet I'm still getting hit in the eyes bad. I just wish an officer would sit on lougheed and just hand out tickets non stop.

I figured, 2 officers, 1 week. And that should put a huge dent in the problem.

Can this be done?

sometimes when they're behind me and their super bright lights reflect off my right driver's mirror and blinds me :bluemad:

If you had his plate, you can call it in to the non-emergency number and see if they cops will do anything.

wing woo just gave you the correct answer. :) I would certainly report it as that truck is a major hazzard and is blinding every other road user. Go for it.

um buses have HIDs in projector housings.... so bad on highway

^Yeah I've noticed this more and more lately... buses with reflector housings that have hids. Hmm how is that allowed?

Easy...factory designed systems....not something off a shelf made?????? for a what??????
Properly designed systems are not a problem. Illegal and unsafe lash-ups are, as you have described. If I stopped it the truck would get a #1 VI and be towed from the scene. It would be irresponsible and dangerous to not do so.

I do believe that those buses had their headlights upgraded! I've noticed the hid's and the projectors in day time but damn at night they were nice. The beam was right and there was a cut off.

Buses use high-quality projectors and the cut off is really nice. I've never been blinded by a bus. It's the rednecks and ricers with there 10000K kits.

Actually a 10000k kit would be quite purple and not as bad as say a 5000k one which is fairly white.
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5-6000k cops dont bother but anything over than that like 8,10,12,14000k they are illegal and u can get pulled over. my friend is vancouver police and i had to ask him first before doing something with my car.

:ahwow::suspicious:

reallly now...
i think the aiming/cutoff is more dangerous than the colour temperature but ok...

anyways, thanks for all the feedback, especially the confirmation that I can report by zulutango

I'll probably have a car DVR up and running in the next little while.

GC200 has a point. 5-6000k is the usual OEM light brightness for most high-end vehicles.

at 10+K, altho NOT brighter, the colour starts getting DARKER, which is illegal when it's too blue. (higher K = bluer/purple-er colours)

I run 7000k HID's in my reflector housing in my car, but had it carefully tuned for height, and had it tested while I was in another vehicle facing it in opposite ends of traffic. It was good. No blinding, no killing eyes.

But when ppl in trucks/SUV's have their HID's pointed SUPER high, it pisses me off to no end (ESPECIALLY the asian drivers)

FUCKING TRUCKs with HIDs... and its the trucks that are JACKED the fuck up...

yup i will not argue with the aiming/cutoff but the thing though, whatever/however aiming you do on trucks with hids it will still blind you one way or the other. theyre always gonna be higher than cars.

busses now started to use LED headlights!!

HID's should have never been made legal in the first place. Too many people trying to emulate the look on their cars not originally designed for it.

Trust me, I'm not fooled into thinking your 1998 Civic is a "premium luxury car" simply because you have blinding blue headlights.

if u get enough signature in a petition and hand it in to police hq, can it prompt the police to do anything about it??

And still illegal. A "tamer" color may not attract attention, but aftermarket retrofit HIDs are still 100% illegal in BC, regardless of color.

gc200's VPD friend should know better.