‘It’s like blinding’: Nearly 380,000 Canadians respond to headlight survey

A recent survey by Transport Canada has gathered feedback on headlight glare. CTV’s Jeff Keele explains.

Canadians are making their feelings known about the LED headlights on most new vehicles.

Many say the glare from the lights is causing safety issues on the road.

“It’s like blinding. I feel like I’m going to go in the ditch because I’m trying to avoid going into someone else’s car because I can’t see,” said one driver that talked to CTV News on Thursday.

“It’s kind of interfering with your line of sight, especially in your rear-view,” said another driver.

Because of those concerns, Transport Canada launched a survey, which closed in April, to get feedback from drivers. The federal department says close to 380,000 people responded.

“The engagement will provide valuable input to inform Transport Canada’s ongoing work on vehicle headlight glare,” the department said. It says it will publish a report on what people had to say.

“At this time, there is no set publication date for the report. Given the significant volume of responses received, analysis and compilation of the survey data is expected to take several months,” Transport Canada said.

Teresa Di Felice of CAA says the organization does hear from drivers about the lights.

“It is something that I think is probably on a lot of people’s minds,” said Di Felice.

Di Felice says CAA supports the federal government studying the issue, as other jurisdictions have put regulations in place. She says in Europe, there are rules around how headlights are installed and positioned to control where they beam, as well as minimum and maximum brightness levels.

“They’re even looking at strengthening some of those regulations this year because of the complaints around the brightness of the lights,” Di Felice said.