pennetta

I don't have problems seeing down the road with the low beams but street signs are sometime above the beam. The high beams on my car melts trees, there are great.

Rudy

I was thinking last night about steet signs based on an earlier post about them (I think from pennetta) but was reminded of it again just now.

Back in the old days, the sealed beam headlight was pretty darn poor at giving off any precise beam. It pretty much threw most of the light out based on little cuts in the glass and then were aimed to some standard. There was no definitive "line" between light and dark -- the edge of the beam just diffused from bright to dim to nothing.

Once manufacturers were given the go ahead in the US to integrate the headlights into the overall design of the car (non-US cars were able to do this for years), the higher tech lights that we see today began to be commonplace even on less expensive cars.

Now that most new cars, both high-end and low-end, have a better defined beam that is thrown ahead, oncoming traffic is blinded less and safety is improved dramatically. (Obviously our adaptive headlights raise the bar once again, but I digress.)

Here's where I'm going with this. The system of road signs in this country is still built upon the concept of the older style headlights "spraying" light high enough to illuminate the reflective surface of the sign. I agree that sometime even a properly aimed Xenon light might not illuminate such a sign at closer distances or if the terrain isn't entirely flat.

Over the last year or so, the township where I live has been installing something that I thought was nuts until last night. All new signs (stop signs, yield signs, etc.) are being installed as usual but with one extra twist. The entire sign post that the sign is mounted to is reflective and color matched to the sign. So a stop sign has a highly-reflective red vertical post rising up from the ground to the sign, a school crossing sign has a yellow reflective post, etc.


These posts glow with such an intensity as you approach them with the E60's lights that you can't help but notice the sign above.

I wonder if that's the trend for the future of signs??

zippers525

I didn't have any problems. (Atleast untill the accident) I like them shining on the road. Thats what your driving on. Would you rather them light up the trees and not the road? Seems kind of pointless. I love the adaptive headlights. They work great.

rollee

my xenons are perfect, the range and distinctive line is even and comfortable to my line of sight. the wide beam covers more than 3 lengths of the road evenly.
tonight i was flying from curve to corner and are happy to report the adaptive headlights work as advertised. really really cool. rollee

sj3

Hey Rollee: Does "flying from curve to corner" mean that you're violoating your break-in instructions? Oh my!

Sam