I live in Nikiski, which has a large, exclusively rural population, but there are almost 6,000 people who live here, depending on how you measure the arbitrary designations of unincorporated communities by the Census Bureau. We have no city sewer or water, no city cops. Most of us like it that way.

Things get dicey in the darker months, and I vow to do something about it, then forget or dismiss it when the sun returns in early February.

Why aren’t there streetlights from Island Lake Road to Nikishka Beach Rd, or even a little beyond, to Aurora Heights? Trying to turn into the Nikiski Mall and finding the correct entrance is often a problem. There is busy traffic from high school and junior high, too. And no, there is not sufficient ambient light from the many industrial yard lights in the area.

“SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY!” is the mantra we get from the cops, the DOT, the bureaucracies. 

I don’t know about you, but are you also annoyed with the rumble strips that are right up against the white line along the shoulder, during winter? The flow of traffic in winter can never follow the actual highway stripes. The snowpack buries the lines. So, what we get are long stretches of loud, annoying vibration. It is sporadic and unpredictable. A drive into the Interior will also give you this problem for hundreds of miles, but most Alaskans won’t drive outside the urban cocoons in winter.

All hail LED lights! They save the planet. What could possibly be wrong with that?

I have suggested that DOT ought to move the strips into the middle of the shoulders, like they once were, and still remain in the older stretches of highway.

Ah, but SAFETY FIRST, right? Much better to have the strips right on the white line. 

Then there are LED lights, sometimes called “blue” lights. They are marvelous, but only when you are alone on the road and worried about moose or the many pedestrians, dressed in black hoodies. 

Manufacturers are to blame for the recently experienced blinding glare of on-coming cars. We are not talking about light bars, which are of great benefit. We are talking about “dim” headlights that are not dim anymore. Some of these “dimmed” LED lights are not bad, but most of them are. 

If you have been “flashed” by oncoming cars, and the dashboard said your lights were on “dim”, you are a victim, too. You are probably frustrated and annoyed by constant on-coming cars, telling you to dim your headlights. But it’s worse for them, for it is not momentary, but relentless. And consider what it is like when a long line of cars (caused by a timid driver who leads the pack) is facing on-coming traffic.

Because Anchorage, Fairbanks and the Mat Valley are usually driving on multi-lane or divided highways during the dark morning-and-evening commutes, these blinding lights are not as noticeable as they are on the Central Kenai Peninsula, with our 40,000 people, two-lane roads and “drive-home time.” We have not yet graduated into calling it “Rush Hour,” except during dip netting season, when headlights are not a problem. Thus, there are few complaints from the vast majority of Alaskans.

Then there are emergency vehicles, who are off to the side of the road. I have had municipal police admit that yes, they do have dimmer options, so that their strobe and LED lights don’t blind us as we cautiously try to get around the vehicles. However, they often forget to flip the switch.

But we don’t know if it is a mere traffic stop or a smash-up. Why? Because the lights are blinding us, by the very officials who are always ticketing us for – SAFETY! Couple that with the on-coming LED traffic, and we have the potential for a chain reaction.

On a recent radio show, I learned something about LED lights. Blame the Green Lobby for them. It’s why incandescent bulbs have disappeared. They give brighter light with less energy.

All hail LED lights! They save the planet. What could possibly be wrong with that?

Plenty. LED lights are “directional” lights, just not as concentrated as a laser beam. They are halfway along the light spectrum, from natural light to laser light. Of course, we would never stare into a laser beam, but we are still getting damaged by LED lights!

And almost all of our streetlights are now LED.

So, when we do finally get streetlights in Nikiski – we will get LEDs. 

Mark Baker is the founder of Softlights.org, which is trying to make the public aware of this problem. His website will tell you that the supposed guardians of public safety, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been giving automotive manufacturers a free pass on light intensity headlights, likely because … it saves the planet, just not humanity.

The views expressed here are those of the author.

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