Congress to re-evaluate glare situation?

In 2008 the US Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) assessed the risks associated with glare, as directed by the US Congress.

Softlights.org, an organization “dedicated to safe, responsible, human compatible outdoor and vehicle lighting,” has noticed that the above report was the last time the issue of glare was assessed at this level. Now they are campaigning for a re-evaluation – which is reasonable, given that LEDs, lasers, and other technological developments are now widespread even though they were not yet prevalent in 2008.

They asked me to contribute and summarize the changes since the NHTSA report, which I was more than happy to do (see the result below). I think their activities are awesome and their tireless work for the light-sensitive minority (which is, by the way, quite sizeable) should receive more recognition. In my personal circle, I also hear many people complain about glare in traffic, despite them not being light-sensitive otherwise. While in most topics I am the last to ask for more regulation, in this case it might even make sense. What definitely makes sense is raising more awareness for the issue.

If you feel similarly, check out the change.org petition by Mark Baker from softlights.org. It already has over 18k signatures! This makes it probably the largest existing effort for this cause, and I hope it will only keep growing. Until it no longer has to 😉

And if you’re curious why I think glare has gotten worse and how to reduce it, see the fresh summary below, or an earlier post on the factors of glare.