American drivers have a blinding headlight problem
I recently moved back to Colorado, where for many decades it&#x27;s commonplace for people to drive everywhere with their high beams always on, a point of significant frustration.  With modern headlights and the new proliferation of lifted trucks (I was hoping I&#x27;d leave that behind in Texas, unfortunately not) with improper leveling, it has become nearly impossible to drive at night.  I have several thoughts as to how to handle this, but the biggest issue is all of them are meaningless if it doesn&#x27;t force retrofit or repair of all the vehicles currently on the road.<p>What we need is real safety inspections in this country that actually look at safety critical items, rather than either phoning it in or obsessively trying to gum up people who modify their cars safely (looking at you California).  The types of shit I see these days on American roadways is appalling, and significantly different than how things were 20ish years ago.  I now see cars regularly that are on unsafe tires, either for the conditions or the tires themselves being bald or aged out, I see cars driving on 4 spares, I see cars with hanging partially detached body pieces, I see cars with improperly aimed or installed head lights, I see cars with massively incorrect alignment, I see cars with &#x2F;obvious&#x2F; failed wheel bearings or ball joints just waiting for their wheel to fly off.<p>All of this is a massively worse situation than it was just 20 years ago.  I don&#x27;t know if it is primarily economic, or if it&#x27;s that people these days don&#x27;t know fuck all about how cars work or even have any clue as to what types of things they should be aware of on their own vehicle for basic maintenance, or a combination of things.  I just know the situation is massively massively worse, and it&#x27;s terribly unsafe.  The American roadway has become a death wish, and it wasn&#x27;t this way in the past.