High Beam Problem
What is going wrong?
Lets face it, we have a mixed profile of people driving today at Bengaluru.
To simplify lets classify the people into
A. People who have forgotten to switch from high beam to low beam, either they came from a dark stretch of road or from the highway or are not aware they are on high beam. They would be most receptive to turn off the high beams.
B. People who are more of seniors, juniors and people who are still figuring out how to drive. They are still trying to figure out driving, lights and beams are still far from the immediate requirements. Lets face it, most people in Bengaluru learn to drive after obtaining license. Lets be patient towards the “L” Learners. They will be covered in this solution because a small awareness can help them focus on the high beam aspect too.
C. People who want to for some reason have the high beam on purpose. The solution will still touch upon these people to some extent by letting them know that we are facing a trouble in seeing.
What is the solution ?
1. Use of reflective tapes on the right side mirror facing the right lane approaching traffic – For vehicles with high beam and opposite to your vehicle.
2. Use of reflective tapes on the front of the helmet. Although a bit high it is seen in the experiment that this tape still highlights during high beam. Note that the high beam is a problem because it blinds us(light reaching the face is still intense enough).
3. Use of reflective tape on car tail side. Tape can be placed This is for vehicles which are behind us but the high beam is so high that the reflection is seen on the rear view mirror and is still troubling.
The reflective tape solution addresses and brings the focus of the opposite vehicle towards the excess light or high beam.
1. This is indicative of a problem. And a problem highlighted will have various reactions from people based on their own nature.
2. By placing the sticker I as a driver am indicating that I care about high beam and it affects my driving. So the message is clear from my end.
3. At the end of this even if 50% of the people take a cue and switch off the high beam.
4. If more people have this indicator, the message is clear. Imagine facing a bunch of people whose faces, cars are illuminated by my high beam and people are actually communicating using these tapes that its totally not cool.
Thanks to Bengaluru Traffic Police to agree to consider this proposal and consider distributing such stickers if the idea is going to solve the high beam problem.
Here is a short video describing how it appears. Enjoy!
