Bright Headlights Blinding Drivers

Even if there are lights it still makes it harder to see, which is more dangerous.

It's not only oncoming drivers that can be blinded.

It's not the obscuration of pedestrians from the driver with the bright lights, it's the obscuration of the pedestrian from the other driver being blinded by the super bright headlights. In the brightness the pupil closes and the driver looses any night vision. If you were approaching this situation from the other direction it could be extremely difficult to see the reverse-spot lighted pedestrians.

Those lights are blinding as hell at night. The only reason a person wouldn't have hit the car is because it's the only thing you can see when trying to pass one.

I love it when people wear lights on themselves at night (pedestrians too!) It makes my job much easier whenever I am operating a car or a bicycle. However, if I realize that I have not noticed someone in the street until I am passing them that is an indicator that my speed is unreasonable for the conditions and I would immediately slow down.

Don't want to run the lights in the day.

Make sure no one is behind you though, I have heard of people being pulled over for doing that due to inducing temporary blindness at night.

I even have this problem with bikes. Not motor bikes, just bikes. Some of them have a front light that just blinds me. I can't determine their speed anymore, not the direction they're moving in, nor if there is something else between them and me. Once I even confused someone on their bike with a random street light, and almost crashed into them, because the angle and speed at which we were moving made it appear immobile. I often feel like a powerful light is far more dangerous than no

My guess is it's someone else's lights vs. my (future) car, that makes the difference.

Blinking lights makes the bicycle driver more visible. When sharing the dark road with cars, this compensates slightly against not being inside a steel cocoon with airbags.If cities actually invested in safe infrastructure the need for such lights would go away.