Driving at night is already dangerous. So, the obvious and most selfish way to “make roads safer” is to use blinding-white LED bulbs in your headlights and streetlamps to make sure you can see, and anyone driving within a 10 mile radius of you cannot. While you’re at it, it’s best to also implement them in every building you step foot in, because it will hypothetically make you more productive. It’s allegedly the better, more energy-efficient way.
White light scatters easier than orange or red lights that have a higher wavelength, so it imitates daylight to help us see and work better. Or does it? Personally, white LEDs have made me see less, and just looking away or at the lines on the road instead of oncoming traffic doesn’t help, since the light is reflected on the road and surroundings from streetlights as well.
“It’s really scary to drive at night,” comments Jackson Boyd. “The bright white LED lights definitely make it worse.”
Studies show that pure white LED bulbs “create worse nighttime glare than conventional lighting” according to the American Medical Association, and this discomfort from trying to see through bright lights significantly reduces visibility and safety.
This isn’t even to mention people with astigmatisms, since the harm from brighter lights is multiplied for them, and they usually can’t avoid driving at night. “The white LED lights 100 percent make my astigmatism worse. They’re the same brightness as high beams on normal cars–it’s crazy,” says Boyd. If we are taught at North to almost never use high beams, I don’t see how it is acceptable to make normal lights super bright, especially when the reason to use brights sparingly is because it’s so dangerous to other drivers that could be momentarily blinded.
“LED lights should be banned. You can’t see anything,” argues Boyd. However, it’s not LEDs themselves that are the issue, it’s the color and brightness. According to a light bulb company, white LEDs increase work efficiency since they imitate daylight, and they have been added to roads as well simply because it is cheaper to make and buy white bulbs over warmer colors. So, while the temperature of the lighting can be altered, corporations unfairly support dangerous driving conditions and tiring working environments. Boyd mentions that “even in workplaces, they feel very artificial, like you’re in a hospital.”
White industrial lighting is only used because it’s cheap and supposedly makes people work better, which sounds to me like exploiting human nature at the expense of their vision. According to scientists, lighting that mimics the sun can easily lead to eye strain and a disrupted circadian rhythm, which everyone needs to sleep and therefore properly function.
If white LED lights are such a poor choice, then why not tone down the color? Why not help ourselves?
