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.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
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.
16 Comments
Good job, Bob. Sometimes I wonder if it’s our age.
Learn To deal with it. There are many ways the shield your eyes. As far as Ambulances there bright for a reason. quit your complaining!!
This is not an age issue. Bob enunciated the problem both clearly and accurately. Sadly, I am on both sides of the issue, I hate these lights when I am blinded by them, yet my own vehicles have them. Currently, there aren’t replacements for the old amber lights which worked just fine for decades.
The over outfitting of led light bars on a lot of vehicles is probably a method of compensating for something else missing. People did pretty well for most of a century without a billion candlepower, but these days you’re likely going to get blinded by oncoming drivers who seldom show consideration to others.
The biggest issue is even when they attempt to show consideration, it has essentially zero effect. They’re still blinding. They’re still dangerous to drive around. They’re still 100% unnecessary beyond making those poor poor car manufacturers even richer by making our cars unsafe.
That was my first thought too until I heard so many others complaining.
Bob Bird, you ornery old cuss. You may be one of those who constantly flash their lights at me, driving my almost new and unloaded 2024 F350 w/perfectly aimed LED reflector headlights. MAYBE they’re a little brighter, but they only flash when the auto-dimming feature is on, presumably because the Ford dims its lights early, before they even know it. What makes me think that? Because when I manually dim the lights in the normal way, they know I dimmed them, and almost never flash me. So just maybe there are lots of ornery drivers out there. Also, I noted the same irritable behavior with my old 2021 F350’s halogens, when the auto dimming feature was used. And those were definitely NOT too bright – I checked myself.
You sound pretty ornery, too. Is it because people keep flashing you? If you go to the website, cull through the many negative comments (Baker has over 70,000 of them) and you just might find the person who is flashing you. You sound like you know what is causing it — what passes as “dim” really isn’t, anymore. How can you blame someone for thinking you’ve still got your brights on? When people see you dim those lights manually, they bite the bullet and know you’ve done your best, and avert their eyes. But what do they do when there is a long line of them? But you will need to find a better description for people who are being blinded. “Ornery” seems awfully harsh. “Fed up” might work better. Remember, you’re a victim, too. You did not install those lights, the manufacturer did. You also must be getting drilled with concentrated light. What do you do when you see a blue-light car coming the other way? High-five them? All this because Congress signed on to eliminating regular lights — “To save the planet.” No question about it, thanks to LED lights, we’ll end global warming by next week.
Ding ding ding. These dingbats saying they technically dimmed their lights are willfully ignoring that it just goes from ultra blinding to just blinding. I guarantee every single one of those people has issues on the road too, they’re just too… stubborn? Pathetic? Selfish? To admit it. If they say they don’t, they’re lying just as many people do on the internet. That or they’re the dullest tool in the tool shed. It could really go either way I guess, and that’s the most credit I can give them.
Word of advice when driving in the dark. Stop staring at the headlights of oncoming traffic and instead look in the direction you are traveling. Staring at lights directly will cause mild blindness in the center of your pupils but a simple change in habit will eliminate this issue. Can’t believe people need to be taught how to use their basis senses in this day and age, but here we are.
There are other reasons why people will flash you as well. Some car manufacturers have decided to place the lowbeam in the inner position of the headlight where the highbeam normally resides, but this triggers drivers to think that the high beam is on when it really isn’t so they will flash you due to old habits based on old familiarity.
Good to know that our society is privileged with such a low volume of problems in theirs lives where the most we have to complain about is *checks notes* seeing in the dark.
“The most we have to complain about is *checks notes* seeing in the dark”
I appreciate how you accidentally stumbled into agreeing with everyone else’s point that, y’know, it’s kinda important to be able to see in the dark when you’re driving a vehicle LOL. Nicely done, glad to have you with us.
cataracts
It’s part and parcel of the “It’s all about me!!” crowd. I can see just fine and I don’t care that I’m blinding you. The guy who commented that there’s plenty of ways to shield your eyes isn’t the guy I want to meet when he swerves into my on-coming lane because his is blocked and he doesn’t want to be inconvenienced and stop to proceed when safe.
“It’s all about ME!!!”
100%. Absolute pride being shown in selfishness and I bet they think everyone will cheer for their main character role they’re trying to put on too.
I highly recommend everyone listen to the program on KSRM, which took an VERY unexpected twist on Dec. 9. An experienced trucker, who is completely on board with reducing the harmful effects of LED lights, was the guest. He was then joined by Mark Baker of Softlights.org and the conversation was — no pun intended — very enlightening. Listen to the Podcast at http://www.radiokenai.com, Hour 1 and 2, The Talk of the Kenai, Tue, Dec. 9. Use the slide bar halfway through Hour 1, when the discussion begins. It gets erased after a week, so don’t wait too long.
Finally a Bob Bird piece that I can agree with.