Dear Supporters,
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released a video recently that is an interview with Matthew Brumbelow, the lead researcher. If you would like to understand how IIHS is thinking, then I recommend that you watch this video.
The video demonstrates the true failure of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to properly design regulations for headlight glare, and the defective rating system created by IIHS that pushes manufacturers towards brighter, blue-rich LED headlights.
If you were not living in the real world and only watched this video, you would think that IIHS is doing a good job and that headlight glare isn't really much of a problem. But if you live in the real world, this video makes no sense, because they don't discuss the 75,000+ signatures on our petition, or the work by this group, or about the impacts of blue wavelength light on our eyes, or about how miserable our lives are now due to LED headlights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOxntGta6rc&t=1896s
Some of my observations about the interview:
1. Mr. Brumbelow essentially states that we just need to sacrifice our comfort and accept the blinding glare because the more intense headlights reduce the number of single-vehicle crashes. It seems that, in his opinion, the tradeoff of pain and discomfort of intense headlights is worth it.
2. No mention of the impacts of blue wavelength light.
3. Older headlights may have required driving a speed of 35 miles per hour to stay within the safety zone of headlight output. There was no discussion of setting night time speed limits to 35 mph rather than increasing headlight intensity, as the solution for safety.
4. IIHS does not measure glare from high beams, and yet IIHS recommends that high beams be used almost at all times. This makes no sense.
5. The test track they use doesn't seem to have any hills or bumps. The test track also seems to lack glare from other sources such as streetlights and gas stations.
6. There was no mention of the drastic increase of pedestrian deaths at night which appears to me to be correlated with the release of LED lighting everywhere.
7. IIHS measures glare from the reference of a mid-sized sedan. They do not seem to measure the situation where there is a small car facing a tall truck.
8. There was confirmation that in the USA, aftermarket LED headlamps are illegal, and that there is no enforcement by the states.
9. Again, IIHS references Adaptive Driving Beam as a solution. IIHS believes that headlights should be using high beams almost all the time, which is why IIHS promotes ADB, which supposedly blocks the intensity towards an approaching vehicle. This ignores the issue of being blinded as a pedestrian by brutally bright LED high beams and the unacceptable delay by the computer of engaging the ADB.
In my opinion, any regulations on headlamps must look very carefully at the following issues:
1. Intensity (luminance).
2. Spectral Power Distribution (blue light).
3. Mounting height of the headlamp.
4. Relationship between light output and driving speed. Speed limits at night should likely be reduced.
5. Photobiological safety, comfort, psychological well being, and other human factors.
6. Inspections and enforcement.
This IIHS video is very important because it provides us with a baseline for discussion and we then are able to dissect their flawed theories which don't connect to the real world or human comfort.
Sincerely,
Mark Baker
President
Soft Lights Foundation
www.softlights.org
mbaker@softlights.org
X: @softlights_org
Bluesky: @softlights-org.bsky.social