Do any of you avoid nighttime driving or have a harder time seeing after dark? You’re not alone – in a recent study by Sylvania, one in five drivers sometimes avoid driving at night because it’s too difficult to see. Interestingly, even though women have been shown to have better night vision than men, women were twice as likely as men (24% and 12%, respectively) to be the ones who avoid nighttime driving.
Personally, I love driving at night as long as it’s not raining. So peaceful and calm, very few cars on the road, just me and the car. Then again, I love driving – most people (present company excluded, I’m sure) only drive to get from A to B. Heck, I’ve gone on multi-hour drives just to drive. If it’s raining at night, though, I try to avoid driving altogether. Can’t see shit.
In the Sylvania study, 57% of women and 45% of men said they wish they could see better at night. Wait…why wouldn’t you want to see better at night? Or in the daytime? How could you answer “no” to that question?
So, what can you do (aside from not drive,) to see better on the road?
Naturally, this being a study sponsored by the lighting company Sylvania, their solution is to buy more headlights. Well, aside from making sure your windshield glass is sparkling clean and paying attention, that’s the best thing you can do, as it turns out.
Those ugly, yellow-tinted, and dimmed headlights in your car now? Toss ’em. Head over to Sylvania’s bulb replacement guide to find out what size bulbs you need.
If you’re on a limited budget, you can stick with halogen bulbs, and you’ll be just fine. Spend a little bit more than you’re used to, and you’ll find yourself with a good set of headlights. I recommend Sylvania Silverstar or GE Nighthawk Platinum bulbs:
Both will give you a brighter, whiter light. Stay away from the blue-tinted headlights; they don’t look good from the outside and don’t provide any extra value. They’re just blue. The idea behind having a whiter light is that it more closely resembles natural sunlight, which has obvious positive effects.
If you have a little more cash to spend, go for a nice set of HID headlights. Without getting too far into it, these lights burn Xenon gas, creating the best of bright and white. They’re more expensive, but definitely worth it if you don’t mind installing the kit (a bit more involved than popping in new lights. Generally, you only need to worry about converting the low beams to HID.
You can check out HIDs on Amazon, or just look around online – there are tons of brands and tons of kits. Just be sure to check reviews – some of the HID kits are terrible.
Do you avoid driving at night? Would you feel safer if you had better headlights? Let me know in the comments below…
