U.S. Department 

of Transportation 

National Highway 

Traffic Safety 

Administration 

DOT HS 809 669 October 2003

 

Technical Report

DRIVERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF 

HEADLIGHT GLARE FROM 

ONCOMING AND FOLLOWING 

VEHICLES 

Published By: 

National Center for Statistics and Analysis 

Advanced Research and Analysis 

 This document is available to the public from the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Virginia, VA 22161 
This publication is distributed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic 

Safety Administration, in the interest of information exchange. The opinions, findings and conclusions 

expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the Department of 

Transportation or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The United States Government 

assumes no liability for its contents or use thereof. If trade or manufacturers' names are mentioned, it is 

only because they are considered essential to the object of the publication and should not be construed 

as an endorsement. The United States Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. 
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 i

Technical Report Documentation Page 

1. Report No. 

DOT HS 809 669 

2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient's Catalog No. 

5. Report Date 

 October 2003 

4. Title and Subtitle 

DRIVERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF HEADLIGHT GLARE FROM ONCOMING 

AND FOLLOWING VEHICLES 6. Performing Organization Code 

NPO-121 and NVS-322 

7. Author(s) 

Santokh Singh*Ph. D. and Mike Perel@

8. Performing Organization Report No. 

10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) 

9. Performing Organization Name and Address 

* Rainbow Technology Inc. @ Crash Avoidance Research Division 

 17106 Thatcher Court NHTSA, U.S. Department of Transportation 

 Olney, MD 20832 400 Seventh Street, S.W., 

 Washington, D.C. 20590

11. Contract or Grant No. 

13. Type of Report and Period Covered 

NHTSA Technical Report 

12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 

U.S. Department of Transportation 

400 Seventh Street, S.W. 

Washington, D.C. 20590 14. Sponsoring Agency Code 

15. Supplementary Notes 

Authors wish to thank reviewers from NHTSA for their useful comments and Mr. Tom Bragan and Ms. Ellin 

Ramsey for proofreading this report.

16. Abstract

Recently, U.S. drivers have been expressing concern over the discomfort and reduced visibility that they 

experience from headlight glare from other vehicles. Drivers have focused their concern on the relatively new 

high intensity discharge lights, high mounted lights, and various auxiliary lights. In order to better understand this 

glare problem, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration collected data on drivers’ perception of glare 

from a representative sample of U.S. drivers. The survey was conducted through Omnibus Survey of the Bureau 

of Transportation Statistics. The present study is based on the information (data) collected on two types of glare: 

glare from oncoming and following vehicles. 

The survey data were analyzed to find out how U.S. drivers perceive the two types of glare and if glare perception 

is associated with respondents’ age and gender. Contingency analysis was conducted to establish these 

associations. The statistics showed that a sizeable number of respondents feel that glare was ‘disturbing’. The 

percent frequency distributions were used to better understand the age and gender profiles of drivers who felt 

disturbed by the nighttime glare. It was found that the age group 35 to 44 had the highest percentage of night 

drivers as well as among those who felt glare ‘disturbing’. In addition, female respondents of this age group were 

more of the opinion that the glare from oncoming and following vehicles was ‘disturbing’ as compared with other 

age groups of their own gender or even of the opposite gender. 

17. Key Words 

age, association, following glare , gender, 

oncoming glare, respondents 

18. Distribution Statement 

Document is available to the public through the National 

Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161 

http//:www.ntis.gov

19. Security Classif. (of this report) 

Unclassified

20. Security Classif. (of this 

page) 

Unclassified

21. No. of 

Pages 

16 

22. Price 

Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed page authorized 
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

SECTION/SUBSECTION PAGE 

No. 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..................................................................................................... ii 

1. Introduction and background............................................................................... 1 

2. Overview of the Omnibus survey........................................................................... 1 

3. Objective of the study and methodology.................................................................. 2 

4. Selection of variables for statistical analysis.............................................................. 2 

5. Overall glare ratings of survey respondents............................................................... 2 

6. Association between glare perception and respondents’ age and gender............................. 3 

7. Age-wise distribution of respondents with the rating ‘disturbing’.................................... 4 

8. Gender-wise distribution of respondents with the rating ‘disturbing’................................. 6 

9. Male-female comparison in the subpopulations of night-driving and glare-disturbed 

respondents ................................................................................................... 7 

 9.1 Male and female night-driving respondents over age groups...................................... 7 

 9.2. Male and female glare-disturbed respondents over age groups.................................. 8 

10. Temporal profiles of glare ratings.......................................................................... 9 

11. Summary and conclusions................................................................................... 10 

12. References...................................................................................................... 11 

13. 

Appendix A. Tables: Bivariate frequency distributions: Age vs. Rating and Sex vs. Rating for 

oncoming and following glare.............................................................................. 12 
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 iii

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

Background and objectives 

In recent years, an increasing number of drivers have complained to the National Highway Traffic 

Safety Administration (NHTSA) about headlight glare. A number of comments concerned objections to 

glare from fog lamps and high-mounted headlights on trucks and SUVs. The comments from the public 

to the NHTSA Docket 01-8885 helped to identify many of the glare concerns of the U.S. driving 

population. The large number of glare complaints demonstrated the extent to which the public was 

concerned with the glare from other vehicles. The number of comments was larger than those that 

NHTSA received on other safety concerns. However, the docket comments may not provide a true 

assessment of the glare concern of the driving population. 

High intensity of headlights may extend the visibility of objects ahead, but it may also increase the 

discomfort that glare of the headlights may cause to drivers of other vehicles. Glare can also reduce 

visibility distances by reducing object contrast or causing drivers to avert their eyes from the roadway to 

avoid discomfort. The challenge for headlight designers and regulators is to maintain an appropriate 

balance between glare and visibility. While empirical research is often necessary to quantify these 

tradeoffs, such research can only study a small number of drivers under a limited set of real world 

conditions. This limits the extent to which findings can be generalized to the entire population of 

drivers as well as to real world driving conditions. 

To help put the docket comments on glare into perspective, NHTSA asked the Bureau of Transportation 

Statistics (BTS) to include several questions pertinent to this issue in a series of nationwide telephone 

surveys titled ‘Omnibus Survey’. These surveys were conducted monthly (January to December, 2002) 

with a new sample of subjects each month. However, the questions concerning glare were asked only 

during the first six months: January to June 2002. The questions pertaining to drivers’ perceptions of 

glare from oncoming and following vehicles is the subject of this study. 

Based on the survey, the primary objective of this study was to obtain a nationally representative 

assessment of drivers’ perceptions of glare. Additionally, the objective was to confirm if drivers’ 

perceptions of glare are associated with their age and gender and bring out the differences that might 

exist due to gender and age of the respondent. 

Data and methodology 

The analyses conducted in this study are based on the ‘Omnibus Survey’ data that consists of drivers’ 

perceptions of glare expressed as: ‘not noticeable’, ‘barely noticeable’, ‘noticeable but acceptable’, 

‘disturbing’, or ‘crash or near miss’ due to two types of glare: glare from oncoming and following 

vehicles. 

Descriptive statistics were used to study variations with respect to glare perceptions that exist among 

drivers due to age and gender. Contingency analysis was used to test hypotheses related to the possible 

associations between glare ratings and age and gender. Bivariate distributions: Age x Glare perception 

and Gender x Glare perception were used to obtain a better idea about the glare perception. 

Results and conclusions 

The results show that for the majority of respondents (about 54%) glare was ‘noticeable but acceptable’. 

However, the sizeable number of drivers (about 30%) who experienced nighttime glare as ‘disturbing’ 

cannot be ignored. The response data of drivers falling into this category was further analyzed to bring 
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 iv

out the differences that might exist due to the type of glare and age and gender of the respondent. In 

fact, the frequency distributions of the glare-disturbed respondents over age and gender groups, for 

oncoming and following glare, did not indicate any difference due to the type of glare; the distributions 

were found in close proximity with each other. There were, however, percentage differences among age 

and gender groups. 

The age-wise comparison highlighted some differences and similarities among age groups. For instance, 

the distribution of the glare-disturbed respondents over age groups showed that most of the respondents 

who rated glare ‘disturbing’ were not old drivers. Also, the ratings of discomfort from glare for old 

drivers were not significantly different from that for the younger drivers. In general, the percentage of 

the glare-disturbed respondents was highest for the age groups 35 to 44 and 45 to 54. For oncoming 

glare, the 55 to 64 year old group had the highest percentage of the glare-disturbed respondents, while 

for following glare, it was the age group 18 to 24 that contributed most to the this category of drivers. 

Through gender-wise comparison of respondents, it was observed that although male and female 

representation in the population of all respondents was the same, the females, in general, were found 

more glare-disturbed. Distributions of male and female respondents over age groups showed that among 

all night-driving and glare-disturbed respondents, 35 to 44 year old had the highest representation, with 

a higher female representation. Male-female comparison within each age group showed that among the 

night-driving respondents, males had much higher representation in the age group 75 and above, while 

in other age groups the differences in male-female representations were small. The gender-wise 

comparison was also done for the glare-disturbed respondents in each age group. Significant differences 

in male-female representations were observed within each age group of this category of respondents 

with much larger differences for the age groups 35 to 44 and 75 and above. It was also found that 35 to 

44 year old females had much higher representation as compared with the males of this age group, even 

though the differences between the two genders of this age group among all respondents was not so 

large. 

The statistics also show that for both oncoming and following glare, as the number of dark hours 

decreases from January to June, the percentage of ‘concerned’ respondents decreases. The largest 

decrease in the percentage of glare-disturbed respondents was observed from March to April. Only a 

slight change in the percentages of both ‘concerned’ and ‘minimally concerned’ respondents was 

observed in May and June. 
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 1

1. Introduction and background 

In recent years, an increasing number of drivers have complained to the National Highway Traffic 

Safety Administration (NHTSA) about headlight glare. The complaints are documented in citizen 

submissions to Docket 01-8885, Notice 1. Since its publication in September 2001, the docket has 

received about 4,000 comments from all over the United States. A number of comments concerned 

objections to glare from fog lamps and high-mounted headlights on trucks and SUVs. However, the 

primary concern was glare from high intensity discharge (HID) lights. HID differ in several respects 

from more conventional halogen lamps. HIDs have a bluer spectral content, a wider beam pattern, and 

can have a smaller luminous area. While a few drivers with HID on their vehicles thought that their 

night visibility improved, the great majority of the comments expressed drivers’ complaints about glare 

from HID-equipped vehicles. 

Increasing intensity may extend the visibility of objects ahead but it may also increase the discomfort 

that glare of the headlights may cause to drivers of other vehicles. Glare can also reduce visibility 

distances by reducing object contrast or causing drivers to avert their eyes from the roadway to avoid 

discomfort. The challenge for headlight designers and regulators is to maintain an appropriate balance 

between glare and visibility. While empirical research is often necessary to quantify these tradeoffs, 

such research can only study a small number of drivers under a limited set of real world conditions. 

This limits the extent to which findings can be generalized to the entire population of drivers. 

The comments from the public to the NHTSA docket helped to put the glare concerns of the driving 

population at large into perspective. The large number of glare complaints demonstrated the extent to 

which the public was concerned with the glare from other vehicles while driving on the roadways. The 

number of comments was much larger than the number of public comments that NHTSA has received 

on other safety topics. The drivers’ descriptions of their glare problems helped to provide real-world 

insight into the safety-related problems being experienced on the roadways. For example, many drivers 

described being “blinded” for a few seconds after exposure to the glare and needed to slow down. The 

strong feelings of the public about being exposed to glare were also evident in their comments. 

Despite the useful information provided by docket comments, they do not necessarily provide a 

representative assessment of the glare concerns of the U.S. driving population. The comments may be 

biased because drivers with glare problems are more likely to write as compared with those who have 

no such issues. It is also likely that many viewpoints were not represented because many drivers did not 

know about the docket. 

To help put the docket comments on glare into perspective, NHTSA asked the Bureau of Transportation 

Statistics (BTS) to include several questions pertinent to this issue in a series of nationwide telephone 

surveys titled ‘Omnibus Survey’. These surveys were conducted monthly (January to December, 2002) 

with a new sample of subjects each month. However, the questions concerning glare were asked only 

during the first six months: January to June 2002. The questions pertaining to drivers’ perceptions of 

glare from oncoming vehicles and glare from the vehicles behind are the subject of this study. 

2. Overview of the Omnibus survey

The Omnibus Survey is a stratified random national probability sample conducted monthly by the BTS 

to monitor expectations of, and satisfaction with, the transportation system, as well as to gather 

information on specific events and issues, using a Random-Digit-Dialed telephone methodology. 

Various sampling issues, such as selection of sampling design, sampling weights, precision of estimates, 

etc., were resolved before the interviews started. The target population of the survey consisted of U. S. 

non-institutionalized adult population of drivers who were 18 years of age or older. The average (over 

 
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 2

six months) final completed sample size was 1,053 cases per month, of which on the average 870 were 

valid responses. Each respondent who drove at night during the previous twelve months was asked to 

express his/her perception of nighttime glare from: oncoming and following vehicles by selecting one of 

the five ratings: ‘not noticeable’, ‘barely noticeable’, ‘noticeable but acceptable’, ‘disturbing’, or 

‘caused a crash or near miss’. 

The background information of the survey, sampling procedures, data collection, data elements and 

survey variables, response rates, final weights and standard errors of estimates are provided in the 

survey documentation of the Omnibus Survey issued by Bureau of Transportation Statistics [1]. 

3. Objective of the study and methodology 

A descriptive analysis was conducted to get a comparative idea about different glare ratings. One of the 

objectives of this study was to confirm if the driver’s perception of glare on driving is in any way 

associated with age and gender of the respondents. Contingency analysis was used to test hypotheses 

related to the possible association between glare ratings and age and gender. Contingency analysis [2] is 

one of the useful techniques to study the relation between two variables that can be arranged in a 

contingency table, such as Table A.1 (Appendix). 

Bivariate percent frequency distributions were used to study the differences that exist among 

respondents of different age and gender groups in perceiving glare. These differences were depicted 

through percentage histograms and polygons. 

4. Selection of variables for statistical analysis

 

As mentioned earlier, the present study is focused on ‘glare from oncoming vehicles’ and ‘glare from 

following vehicles’. Accordingly, the analyses conducted in this study are based on responses of the 

interviewed persons to the following two questions: 

Q1. In the last 12 months, while driving at night, has the glare from the headlights of an oncoming 

vehicle been ‘not noticeable’, ‘barely noticeable’, ‘noticeable but acceptable’, ‘disturbing’, or did it 

cause a ‘crash or near miss’? 

Q2. In the last 12 months, while driving at night, has the glare from the headlights of a vehicle behind 

been ‘not noticeable’, ‘barely noticeable’, ‘noticeable but acceptable’, ‘disturbing’, or did it cause a 

‘crash or near miss’? 

The two glare types covered by questions Q1 and Q2 will be referred to, respectively, as oncoming and 

following glare. It is important to note that the above two questions do not cover the respondents of the 

survey who did not drive at night during the last twelve months. Such respondents are therefore not 

subject of this study. In addition, the respondents who ‘refused’ to answer the two glare questions or 

responded ‘don’t know’, do not provide any information about the glare issue. Hence, such respondents 

will also be excluded from the analysis. Thus, the term ‘respondent’ used henceforth should be 

understood to mean a survey respondent whose response was one of the five choices. The respondents 

considered in this study can accordingly be classified in five categories: ‘not noticeable’, ‘barely 

noticeable’, ‘noticeable but acceptable’, ‘disturbing’, ‘crash or near miss’. 

5. Overall glare ratings of survey respondents 

As a first step, a descriptive analysis was conducted to get an overall picture of how the U.S. drivers, in 

general, perceive glare from oncoming and following vehicles. Figure 1 presents percent frequencies of 
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 3

respondents for responses (ratings): not noticeable, barely noticeable, noticeable but acceptable, 

‘disturbing’, crash or near miss, aggregated for the six months (January to June). It can be seen in 

Figure 1 (box with broken line border) that according to majority of respondents, both oncoming and 

following glare is ‘noticeable but acceptable’; the percent frequencies of respondents with this rating 

being the highest 57% and 54%, respectively, for the two types of glare. 

Figure 1. Percent frequency distributions of respondents over five glare ratings for 

oncoming and following glare (Data source: Omnibus Survey 2002, BTS).

Figure 1 also shows that for small percentages (6% and 7%) of respondents, oncoming and following 

glare types were ‘not noticeable’ and so was the case with respondents who rated glare as ‘barely 

noticeable’; the latter formed only 5% and 9%, respectively, for the two types of glare. The respondents 

who were seriously concerned about glare and had significant representation among respondents were 

the ones for whom glare was ‘disturbing’. About 31% of respondents perceived oncoming glare 

‘disturbing’ and about 30%, following glare. Since temperament plays an important role in perception, 

the class of respondents who felt disturbed from glare was considered as a special class for further 

analysis. The following analysis is focused on detecting the differences that might exist in terms of the 

contribution of different age- and gender-based groups to the class ‘disturbing’. These respondents will 

be referred to as ‘glare-disturbed’ respondents. 

 

6. Association between glare perception and respondent’s age and gender

Perception is a process whereby sensory stimulation in humans is translated into organized experience 

and so is the glare perception. Therefore, in order to get a deeper insight into the glare issue, it is 

important to investigate if the human attributes: age and gender of the respondents can have influence 

on his/her perception of the glare. To confirm this, contingency analysis was conducted to test the 

hypothesis of independence between glare perception and respondent’s age as well as between glare 

perception and respondent’s gender for both oncoming and following glare. As the Omnibus survey was 

based on stratified simple random design, the statistical software SUDAAN was used for contingency 

analysis of the survey data, which takes into account the underlying sampling design. The analysis will 

be supplemented by what is called Ph-coefficient, which measures the strength of association between 

two categorical variables. 

The analysis for testing independence between glare perception and age yielded the value 64.08 of Chisquare with 24 degrees of freedom and p-value 0.000001. These statistics confirm that respondent’s age 

 

1 %

31%

6% 5%

57%

0.2%

30%

54%

7% 9%

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Glare perception

Percent frequency

Oncoming

Following

Not noticeable Noticeable but Disturbing

acceptable

Barely 

noticeable

Crash or 

near miss
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 4

possibly influences how he/she perceives oncoming glare. The value 0.3 of Phi-coefficient with its 

lower and upper attainable bounds 0 and 0.9, respectively, shows a strong association between 

respondent’s age and his/her perception of oncoming glare. Similarly, the test statistics: 25.56 of Chisquare with 4 degrees of freedom and p-value 0.00001 show that gender of the respondent, too, has 

bearing on oncoming glare perception. The value 0.2 of Phi-coefficient with its lower and upper 

attainable bounds 0 and 0.7, respectively, shows a strong association between respondent’s sex and the 

rating of oncoming glare. 

The hypothesis of independence between glare perception and age as well as between glare perception 

and gender was also tested for following glare. The value 60.38 of Chi-square with 24 degrees of 

freedom and p-value 0.0000001 shows that respondent’s age has influence on how he/she perceives 

following glare. The value 0.3 of Phi-coefficient with its lower and upper attainable bounds 0 and 0.9, 

respectively, shows a strong association between respondent’s age and the rating of following glare. 

Similarly, the test statistics: 37.97 of Chi-square with 4 degrees of freedom and p-value 0.000001 show 

that gender of the respondent, too, has bearing on oncoming glare perception. The value 0.2 of Phicoefficient with its lower and upper attainable bounds 0 and 0.7, respectively, shows a strong 

association between respondent’s sex and the rating of following glare. 

It was found in Section 5 that the glare-disturbed respondents formed the second largest category among 

all respondents in case of both oncoming (31%) and following (30%) glare. These rather large 

percentages of the glare disturbed respondents and the influence that age and gender can have on glare 

perception, lead to further investigation as to how these dependencies reflect on the glare perception 

‘disturbing’. In the subsequent analysis, we bring out differences among different age groups as well as 

between male and female glare-disturbed respondents for oncoming and following glare. 

7. Age-wise distribution of respondents with the rating ‘disturbing’ 

The survey data were first analyzed to obtain the distribution of the rating ‘disturbing’ for each of the 

two glare types over seven age groups: 18 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to 44, 45 to 54, 55 to 64, 65 to 74 and 

above 74. The results for glare from oncoming and following vehicles are plotted as percentages and 

cumulative (in reverse order) percentages, respectively, in Figure 2(a) and Figure 2(b). While 

interpreting results presented in these figures, it should be noted that the statistics shown at the end of 

hanging bars are to be read in reference to the x-axis secondary labels, such as the label >=18, >=25 etc. 

Thus, this figure not only gives an idea about the percentage of respondents of different age 

 

 Figure 2(a). Oncoming glare Figure 2(b). Following glare 

Figure 2. Percent frequency and cumulative percent frequency (reverse order) distributions of glare-disturbed 

respondents over seven age groups (Data source: Omnibus Survey 2002, BTS). 12% 17%23% 23% 14% 8%3%

0

18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 - 74 >74

Age group (years)

100%

88%

71%

48%

25%

11% 3%

Respondent's with age

>=18 >=55 >=25 >=65 >=75 >=35 >=45

16%

18%

22%

23%

13%7%2%

0

18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 - 74 >74

Age group (years)

100%

84%

66%

44%

22% 9%

>=18 >=55 >=25 >=65 >=75 >=35 >=45

2%

Respondent's with age
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 5

groups in the ‘disturbing’ category, but also shows the percentage of respondents in that category whose 

age is greater than or equal to 18, 25, 35, 45, 55, 65, or 75. It can be seen in these figures that the 

frequency distributions of respondents with the perception ‘disturbing’ for oncoming and following 

glare are in close proximity with each other. Figure 2(a) shows that most of the people who rated 

oncoming glare ‘disturbing’ were not older drivers. In fact, only 11% of respondents who rated 

oncoming glare ‘disturbing’ were above 65 as compared with 45% (22 + 23) between 35 and 54. The 

distribution for glare from following vehicles (Figure 2(b)) shows almost the same statistics: 9% of the 

respondents with the rating ‘disturbing’ were above 65 and 46% (23 + 23) between 35 and 54. 

Although older drivers eyes are particularly susceptible to the adverse affects of glare on judging 

distance, it is possible that the effects of glare on driver’s discomfort are not age dependent. The results 

of the current analysis of the survey data supports the findings of several research studies in which it has 

been noted that the ratings of discomfort from oncoming glare for older drivers (65 and above) are not 

significantly different from younger drivers (18 to 24); being 11% and 12%, respectively. 

In addition to looking at the age profile of glare-disturbed respondents, it is informative to compare 

different age groups with respect to their rating ‘disturbing’. This was done by taking into account the 

age group sizes and computing percent frequencies relative to these sizes. The results for oncoming and 

following glare are presented, respectively, in Figure 3(a) and Figure 3(b). These results show that for 

oncoming glare, 55 to 64 year old respondents had the highest percentage (37%), while for following 

glare, it was the age group 18 to 24 that contributed most (34%) to the this category of drivers. In 

general, the percentage of glare-disturbed respondents was highest for age groups: 45 to 54 and 55 to 64 

for both types of glare. 

 

RESPO AGE GROUP 

DENT 

CATEG. 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 >=75 

Glaredisturbed 26 28 30 36 37 31 28 

Others 74 72 70 74 63 69 72 

Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 

RESPO AGE GROUP 

DENT 

CATEG. 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 >=75 

Glaredisturbed 34 27 28 33 32 24 21 

Others 66 73 72 67 68 76 79 

Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 

 Figure 3(a). Oncoming glare. Figure 3(b). Following glare. 

Figure 3. Percent frequencies of glare-disturbed respondents and the rest in each of the seven age groups. 

(Data source: Omnibus Survey 2002, BTS).

A comparison of Figure 3(a) and Figure 3(b) shows that except for 18 to 24 year old drivers, the 

percentages of drivers with rating ‘disturbing’ was higher for oncoming glare as compared with 

34% 27% 28% 33% 32% 24% 21%

66% 73% 72% 67% 68% 76% 79%

18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 - 74 >74

Age group (years)

Percent frequency

Glare-disturbed Others

26% 28% 30% 36% 37% 31% 28%

74% 72% 70% 64% 63% 69% 72%

18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 - 74 >74

Age group (years)

Percent frequency

Glare-disturbed Others
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 6

following glare. The younger drivers were more concerned with glare from following vehicles; 34% of 

them rated this type of glare as ‘disturbing’, while 26% rated oncoming glare as ‘disturbing’. 

Figure 4 gives a comparative picture of the representations of different age groups in the entire 

population of respondents and in the ‘disturbing’ category. In case of oncoming glare (Figure 4(a)), all 

age groups had lower representation in the ‘disturbing’ category, except for the age groups 45 to 54 and 

55 to 64, whose representations in this category were 23% and 14%, respectively, as compared with 

their respective percentages 20% and 12% in the population. For following glare, the picture was 

slightly different. In addition to higher representations (23% and 13%, respectively) of these two age 

groups in the ‘disturbing’ category, the age group 18 to 24, too, had a higher percentage (16%) in the 

glare-disturbed category as compared with their representation (14%) in the population of respondents. 

Figure 4(a) and Figure 4(b) show that except for age group 18 to 24, the distributions respondents over 

age groups were the same for both oncoming and following glare. 

Figure 4(a). Oncoming glare. Figure 4(b). Following glare. 

Figure 4. Percent frequency distributions of glare-disturbed and all respondents over seven age groups. 

(Data source: Omnibus Survey 2002, BTS). 

8. Gender-wise distribution of respondents with the rating ‘disturbing’ 

It has been established in Section 6 that the glare perception has dependence on the respondent’s gender. 

It is, therefore, important to see the way in which male and female respondents differ from each other 

with respect to their glare perception. Figure 5 shows male and female representations in the population 

of all respondents as well as in the subpopulation of glare-disturbed respondents. The statistics in Figure 

5(a) show that for oncoming glare, although the two gender groups had almost the same (50.3% and 

49.7%, respectively) representation in the population, the female respondents had a higher 

representation (55.5%) among the glare-disturbed as compared with 44.5% male respondents. Similarly, 

in case of following glare, with the same representation of the two gender groups in the population, the 

female representation in the ‘disturbing’ category was higher (53.4%) as compared with the male 

representation (46.6%). 

Even though male and female respondents had almost the same representation in the population of 

respondents (Figure 5), for oncoming glare a higher percentage (33.9%) of female respondents were 

found glare-disturbed as compared with male respondents, among whom 28.8% were found in the 

‘disturbing’ category. Similarly, for following glare, 33.1% of female respondents were in the 

‘disturbing’ category as compared with 26.2% of male respondents who fell into this category. This 

leads to the conclusion that females, in general, feel more disturbed from both types of glare. A 

 

14%

19%

24%

20%

12%

8%

3%

12%

17%

23%

23%

14%

8%

3%

18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 - 74 >74

Age group (in years)

Percent frequency

Representation in population

Representation in category 'disturbing'

14%

19%

24%

20%

12%

8%

3%

16%

18%

22%

23%

13%

7%2%

18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 - 74 >74

Age group (in years)

Percent frequency

Representation in population

Representation in category 'disturbing'
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 7

comparison of similar statistics related to oncoming (in Figure (a)) and following (in Figure 5(b)) glare 

perception shows that there is virtually no difference between these two types of glare. Following this 

observation, in the subsequent sections we will present and discuss the results only for oncoming glare. 

Figure 5(a). Oncoming glare. Figure 5(b). Following glare. 

Figure 5. Venn diagram showing percentages of male and female respondents among oncoming and 

 following glare-disturbed and all respondents. (Data source: Omnibus Survey 2002, BTS). 

9. Male-female comparison in subpopulations of night-driving and glare-disturbed 

respondents 

To gain better insight into the glare issue, the differences that have been observed among respondents’ 

glare perception due to age and gender differences must be viewed in comparison with such differences 

that exist among the night-driving respondents. The following statistical analysis yields statistics that 

can be used for this purpose. 

9.1 Male and female night-driving respondents over age groups

Figure 6 (a) presents statistics that show a comparison of male and female subpopulations of nightdriving respondents. The same profile can be seen for the two gender groups, over seven age groups 

(Figure 6(a)). In both cases, the percentages of the night-driving respondents keep increasing until the 

age group 35 to 44 and starts decreasing thereafter with minimum for the age group 75 and above. 

However, there are differences between two genders for some age groups. One difference is that a 

slightly higher percentage (24.9%) of 35 to 44 year old females drive at night as compared with their 

male counterparts (23.0%). The difference between the two genders, in terms of night driving, can be 

seen also for the age group 75 and above, though in this case a higher percentage (3.9%) of males 

reported driving at night as compared with females (2.7%). 

Figure 6(b) shows male-female comparisons within each age group of respondents who drove at night. 

A slightly higher male percentage was observed for age groups 18 to 24 and 25 to 34. A visible 

difference (48.9% males and 51.1% females) was observed for the age group 35 to 44. For the rest of 

the age groups, increasingly higher percentage of male night-driving respondents can be seen with a 

markedly large difference (60.4% males and 39.6% females) for 75 and above respondents. 

 46.6%

28.8% of M 33.9% of F 26.2% of M 33.1% of F

 50.3% 49.7% 

 44.5% 55.5% 

 50.3% 49.7% 

 53.4% 
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 8

AGE GROUP 

GENDER 

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 >=75 Total 

Male 13.3 19.4 23.0 20.3 12.2 7.8 3.9 100 

Female 13.4 18.9 24.9 20.3 11.8 8.2 2.7 100 

AGE GROUP 

GENDER

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 >=75

Male 50.7 51.6 48.9 50.8 51.9 49.5 60.4 

Female 49.3 48.4 51.1 49.2 48.1 50.5 39.6 

Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 

 

Figure 6(a). Percentage frequency distributions for male Figure 6(b). Male and female percentages of night- and 

female night-driving respondents, over age groups. driving respondents in each of the seven age groups. 

Figure 6. Percentage frequency distributions of night-driving respondents 

(Data source: Omnibus Survey 2002, BTS). 

9.2 Male and female glare-disturbed respondents over age groups

Unlike the night-driving respondents, the age profiles of male and female glare-disturbed respondents 

are different. A comparison of male and female subpopulations of glare-disturbed respondents over age 

groups in Figure 7(a) shows that a higher percentage of males of age groups 18 to 24, 65 to 74, and 75 

 

AGE GROUP 

GENDER 

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 >=75 Total 

Male 12.4 17.1 20.2 23.0 14.3 9.2 3.9 100 

Female 11.5 17.3 24.4 23.2 13.6 7.7 2.3 100 

AGE GROUP 

GENDER

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 >=75 

Male 48.3 46.3 41.8 46.2 47.8 50.8 59.9 

Female 51.7 53.7 58.2 53.8 52.2 49.2 40.1 

Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 

 Figure 7(a). Gender-wise comparison. Figure 7(b). Age-wise comparison. 

Figure 7. Percent distributions of glare-disturbed respondents (Data source: Omnibus Survey 2002, BTS). 

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 >=75

Age group

Percentage night-driving

Male

Female

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 >=75

Age group

Percentage night-driving

Male

Female

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 >=75

Age group

Percent glare-disturbed

Male

Female

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 >=75

Age group

Percent glare-disturbed

Male

Female
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 9

and above perceive glare as ‘disturbing’ as compared with females belonging to these age groups. A 

shift was observed for the age group 35 to 44 in that a higher percentage (24.4%) of female glaredisturbed respondents was observed as compared with 20.2% of male glare-disturbed respondents. It 

can also be seen in this figure that the highest percentage (23.0%) of glare-disturbed males was 

observed for the age group 45 to 54, while that of the glare-disturbed females (24.4%) was for the age 

group 35 to 44. 

 

Figure 7(b) shows male-female comparison of glare-disturbed respondents within each age group. 

Higher percentages of female glare-disturbed respondents were observed for age groups 25 to 34, 35 to 

44 and 45 to 54 with a maximum difference (41.8% males and 58.2% females) for 35 to 44 year old 

glare-disturbed respondents. Although, a large difference was also observed for the age group 75 and 

above, more males (59.9%) were found glare-disturbed as compared with 40.1%. females. 

10. Temporal profile of glare ratings 

Glare ratings may be influenced by the length of time that drivers are exposed to vehicle lights. For 

example, the fewer the number of daylight hours, the greater is the number of hours during which 

drivers will be exposed to headlight glare at night, i.e., oncoming and following glare. In view of this 

fact, the temporal variations with respect to glare ratings were studied over six months: January, 

February, March, April, May, and June. 

For that purpose broader categories of glare ratings were considered that were representative of the level 

of concern of the respondents, defined as: 

Level of concern:















or .

.

Concerned, if response is 'disturbing ' 'crash or near miss'

'barely noticeable', or 'noticeable but acceptable'

Minimally concerned, if response is 'not noticeable ',

Figure 9 shows temporal profiles of ‘minimally concerned’ (dark dotted line) and ‘concerned’ (light 

dotted line) respondents over six months (January to June). In order to obtain an idea about the trend 

over six months, moving averages were computed. In this figure, these are plotted as a dark solid line 

for ‘minimally concerned’ and as a light solid line for ‘concerned’ respondents. 

 Figure 9(a). Oncoming glare. Figure 9(b). Following glare. 

Figure 9. Temporal profiles of glare ratings of respondents for oncoming and following glare over six months 

(January to June) (Data source: Omnibus Survey 2002, BTS). 

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Percent:Min-Concerned/Concerned

Min-Concerned

Concerned

Mv.avg-Min-Concerned

Mv.avg-Concerned

Jan Feb Mar

Apr May Jun

Jan Feb Mar

Apr May Jun

Month

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Percent:Min.Concerned/Concerned

Min-Concerned

Concerned

M-avrg,Min-concerned

M-avrg,Concerned

Jan Feb Mar

May Jun

Apr

Jan Feb Mar

Apr May Jun

Month
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 10

The two profiles are complementary to each other. The moving average plots in these figures show that 

for both oncoming and following glare, as the number of daylight hours increases (January to June), the 

percentage of ‘Concerned’ respondents decreases (increases for minimally concerned) slightly from 

January to February, but generally decreases from the darker winter months to the brighter spring and 

early summer months. The largest decrease (the largest increase for minimally concerned) in the 

percentage of glare-disturbed respondents was observed from March to April. 

11. Summary and conclusions 

The results show that for the majority of respondents (about 54%) glare was ‘noticeable but acceptable’. 

However, the sizeable number of drivers (about 30%) who experienced nighttime glare as ‘disturbing’ 

cannot be ignored. The response data of drivers falling into this category was further analyzed to bring 

out the differences that might exist due to the type of glare and age and gender of the respondent. In 

fact, the frequency distributions of the glare-disturbed respondents over age and gender groups, for 

oncoming and following glare, did not indicate any difference due to the type of glare; the distributions 

were found in close proximity with each other. There were, however, percentage differences among age 

and gender groups. 

The age-wise comparison highlighted some differences and similarities among age groups. For instance, 

the distribution of the glare-disturbed respondents over age groups showed that most of the respondents 

who rated glare ‘disturbing’ were not old drivers. Also, the ratings of discomfort from glare for old 

drivers were not significantly different from that for the younger drivers. In general, the percentage of 

the glare-disturbed respondents was highest for the age groups 35 to 44 and 45 to 54. For oncoming 

glare, 55 to 64 year old had the highest percentage of the glare-disturbed respondents, while for 

following glare, it was the age group 18 to 24 that contributed most to the this category of drivers. 

Through gender-wise comparison of respondents, it was observed that although male and female 

representation in the population of all respondents was the same, the females, in general, were found 

more glare-disturbed. Distributions of male and female respondents over age groups showed that among 

all night-driving and glare-disturbed respondents, 35 to 44 year old had the highest representation, with 

a higher female representation. Male-female comparison within each age group showed that among the 

night-driving respondents, males had much higher representation in the age group 75 and above, while 

in other age groups the differences in male-female representations were small. The gender-wise 

comparison was also done for the glare-disturbed respondents in each age group. Significant differences 

in male-female representations were observed within each age group of this category of respondents 

with much larger differences for the age groups 35 to 44 and 75 and above. It was also found that 35 to 

44 year old females had much higher representation as compared with the males of this age group, even 

though the differences between the two genders of this age group among all respondents was not so 

large. 

The statistics also show that for both oncoming and following glare, as the number of dark hours 

decreases from January to June, the percentage of ‘concerned’ respondents decreases. The largest 

decrease in the percentage of glare-disturbed respondents was observed from March to April. Only a 

slight change in the percentages of both ‘concerned’ and ‘minimally concerned’ respondents was 

observed in May and June. 
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 11

12. References

[1] Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Survey Documentation for the Bureau of Transportation 

Statistics Omnibus Survey Program, January to May 2002. 

[2] Kendall, M.G. and Stuart A., The Advanced Theory of Statistics, Vol. 2, Hafner Publishing 

Company, New York, 1967. 

 
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 12

13. Appendix A. Bivariate frequency distributions: Age vs. Glare rating and Gender vs. 

Glare rating for oncoming and following glare 

This section provides statistics that were produced by SUDAAN cross tabulation procedure for 

oncoming and following glare types. 

Table A.1 and Table A.2 present bivariate frequency distribution of age- and sex-based groups of 

respondents, based on their responses to question Q1, related to perception of glare from oncoming 

vehicles. 

Table A.1. Bivariate frequency distribution: Age vs. Oncoming glare rating 

Oncoming glare rating 

Age group Statistic Not 

noticeable 

Barely 

noticeable 

Noticeable but 

acceptable Disturbing Crash or near miss 

 

Total 

Weighted Size 1567461 1391752 12936571 5948684 123298 21967765 18 to 24 

 Sample Size 5 5 43 23 0 76 

Weighted Size 2423762 1413269 18612288 8602074 481899 31533292 25 to 34 

 Sample Size 12 8 97 45 2 163 

Weighted Size 2446880 1889094 22761159 11232660 225161 38554954 35 to 44 

 Sample Size 12 11 121 61 1 206 

Weighted Size 1579715 1673743 17943060 11546292 250794 32993604 45 to 54 

 Sample Size 9 10 102 67 1 189 

Weighted Size 1419958 1002579 9994766 6959966 25247 19402515 55 to 64 

 Sample Size 8 6 65 42 0 122 

Weighted Size 833226 831486 7980846 4200666 0 13846223 65 to 74 

 Sample Size 5 5 42 24 0 76 

Weighted Size 729448 302509 3009410 1501529 29075 5571970 75 and above 

 Sample Size 5 2 17 9 0 33 

Weighted Size 11000448 8504433 93238099 49991871 1135472 163870322 Total 

 Sample Size 56 46 487 270 5 864 

(Data source: Omnibus Survey 2002, BTS)

Table A.1. Bivariate frequency distribution: Sex vs. Oncoming glare rating 

Oncoming glare rating 

Sex 

Statistic Not 

noticeable 

Barely 

noticeable 

Noticeable but 

acceptable Disturbing Crash or near miss 

Total 

Male Weighted Size 6919885 4458832 48022133 23427247 654746 83482844 

 Sample Size 33 22 236 117 3 410 

Female Weighted Size 4107626 4045601 46311448 27130845 480726 82076246 

 Sample Size 23 24 255 156 3 460 

Weighted Size 11027512 8504433 94333582 50558092 1135472 165559090 Total 

 Sample Size 56 46 491 272 5 870 

 (Data source: Omnibus Survey 2002, BTS)
 National Center for Statistics and Analysis ♦ 400 Seventh St., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590 13

Table A.3 and Table A.4 present bivariate frequency distribution of age- and sex-based groups of 

respondents, based on their responses to question Q2, related to perception of glare from oncoming 

vehicles. 

Table A.3. Bivariate frequency distribution: Age vs. Following glare rating 

Following glare rating 

Age group Statistic Not 

noticeable 

Barely 

noticeable 

Noticeable but 

acceptable Disturbing Crash or near miss 

Total 

Weighted Size 1842399 2143349 10343279 7638739 0 21967765 

18 to 24 

Sample Size 7 7 37 25 0 76 

Weighted Size 1803748 2850946 18068017 8601540 270002 31594253 

25 to 34 

Sample Size 10 16 94 43 1 164 

Weighted Size 2554046 3077828 22510358 10354634 87490 38584356 

35 to 44 

Sample Size 14 17 117 58 1 206 

Weighted Size 1999600 2687472 18000123 10406958 18130 33112283 

45 to 54 

Sample Size 11 15 101 64 0 190 

Weighted Size 1596738 1689228 10307519 5993286 0 19586770 

55 to 64 

Sample Size 10 11 64 38 0 123 

Weighted Size 1564391 1335354 7443577 3513997 0 13857320 

65 to 74 

Sample Size 9 7 40 20 0 76 

Weighted Size 948667 677948 2721257 1196800 0 5544672 

75 and above 

Sample Size 6 4 16 7 0 32 

Total Weighted Size 12309590 14462125 89394129 47705953 375622 164247418 

Sample Size 66 76 468 255 2 866 

(Data source: Omnibus Survey 2002, BTS)

Table A.4. Bivariate frequency distribution: Sex vs. Following glare rating 

Following glare rating 

Sex 

Statistic Not 

noticeable 

Barely 

noticeable 

Noticeable but 

acceptable Disturbing Crash or near miss 

Total 

Weighted Size 7101625 8321053 46970149 21286678 80835 83760340 

Male 

Sample Size 35 41 229 106 1 411 

Weighted Size 5286631 6290957 43203578 27155553 294787 82231505 

Female 

Sample Size 31 35 242 152 2 461 

Total Weighted Size 12388255 14612010 90173727 48442231 375622 165991845 

Sample Size 66 76 471 258 2 873 

(Data source: Omnibus Survey 2002, BTS)