Is This Legal? Why are Arizona Headlights Suddenly So Bright?

Is it me, or have vehicle headlights gotten brighter? Much brighter, like, blindingly so?

I have all the common eye problems: myopia, hyperopia, presbyopia, and astigmatism. Basically, I need corrective lenses to see near, far, and in between. And everything I actually can see is distorted and blurry.

I'm eternally grateful for modern optometry. My progressive eyeglasses help me see and drive. However, driving in the dark is challenging, and it's getting worse, but not because of my eyesight. I wear those night-driving yellow glasses over my eyeglasses, so I can see in high contrast, but those HEADLIGHTS!! Why are they so BRIGHT???

Is it legal to drive down the road while blinding oncoming traffic now? Did I somehow not see that memo?

Related: Remove Dangerous Decorations from Your Steering Wheel

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Arizona’s Basic Headlight Rules

As I drive around in the dark, especially as I drive to work before the sun comes up, I've started to wonder if these intensely bright headlights are even legal here.

Unfortunately, Arizona isn’t very strict when it comes to headlight regulations, but there are a few rules we’re all supposed to follow once the sky goes dark. Most of them fall under the “common courtesy” category, like flipping off your high beams when you’re within 500 feet of an oncoming vehicle or 200 feet behind someone.

Side note: I was reminded of the exact distance where you have to flip to lowbeams one day when I forgot to do that, and the nice deputy from the Cochise County Sheriff's office stopped to remind me. But that's a story for a different day.

READ: Why Are Gas Pumps Blocked By Unattended Vehicles Now?

What ADOT Actually Requires

The Arizona Department of Transportation explains some basic rules to keep our roads safe. Your lights need to be the right colors: amber up front, red in the back, but doing an impression of a police cruiser with flashing red-and-blue lights is absolutely not allowed.

You have to have at least two headlights and one taillight, but you can add extras, including up to two fog lights. What Arizona doesn’t regulate, though, is headlight brightness.

There's no official cap on how bright those lights can be, so until that changes, we’ll all keep squinting through the glow of every lifted F-150 that thinks it’s lighting the runway at Sky Harbor. I'll just continue to look at the right side of the road until all 47 lights pass me by.