Many Americans have noticed that headlights have gotten brighter over the years. But members of Congress aren’t overly concerned.
Few lawmakers have weighed in on the issue, even as an online organizing effort has generated complaints from constituents. Though their efforts to break through to elected officials have been successful in raising some awareness in Washington, these efforts haven’t translated into getting legislation proposed to address bright headlights.
Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson, the rare lawmaker who wants Congress to do something about bright headlights, said in a statement sent to NOTUS that he’s worried about the lack of legislation around them.
“I share concerns that headlights on many vehicles are excessively bright and endanger others navigating the roads at night, including cyclists, pedestrians, and other drivers. Road safety is critical and I continue to call for regulations to standardize headlight brightness on vehicles,” Thompson said in the statement.
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But he also said he’s waiting on activists to drum up attention from Republicans to take it much further.
“There’s a group out in the country that’s got a pretty active organization of drawing people’s attention to it. We’re hoping that their work will generate some Republican interest in dealing with it,” Thompson told NOTUS.
Thompson is referring to Soft Lights Foundation, a volunteer-run organization that’s dedicated to advocating for LED regulations founded by Mark Baker, a former math teacher who is represented in Congress by Thompson.
“They’re waiting on me to do something,” Baker said, adding that he asked Soft Lights’ supporters to reach out to Republican lawmakers to try to move things along. Baker said he didn’t really care which party took on the issue, as long as they followed through and investigated.
Headlight brightness has nearly doubled in the last decade, a trend that has drawn the ire of passionate online communities like r/fuckyourheadlights, which has 42,000 members, and which many lawmakers’ constituents have seen with their own eyes. Increasingly, newer vehicles use brighter, narrower and bluer LED headlights instead of warmer, dimmer incandescent headlights used in older car models.
Stronger headlights help drivers see better in low-visibility conditions. But the brightness can also tire out other drivers’ eyes. Increased vehicle heights, light misalignment and harsher hues of LEDs are frequently cited as contributing to the brightness problem, but there’s not much data available about safety ramifications beyond anecdotes from drivers about being blinded.
“We’ve been doing so much to try and get their attention, and it’s been slow going,” Baker said. “The amount of effort that we have put in to notify Congress about this disaster is astonishing to me.”
There’s no legislation or momentum around it on Capitol Hill, but Reps. Mark Pocan and Thompson sent letters to the Food and Drug Administration asking the agency to look into it.
Pocan said he hadn’t personally noticed headlights being too bright and that his office was just responding to a constituent’s concern.
“We had one person in particular that was reaching out to us pretty aggressively on it, and we were kind of doing our due diligence,” Pocan said.
One Republican’s office told NOTUS their office had heard about it from constituents but wasn’t actively pursuing it. A Democratic lawmaker’s office said that it was beginning to look into it thanks to constituent outreach.
Largely, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle told NOTUS they don’t really think brighter headlights deserved Congress’ attention.
“Headlights are getting brighter? I thought I was just getting old,” Republican Rep. Celeste Maloy said. “I’m not sure I have a stance on it. I spend a lot of time driving on two-lane highways that have no lighting. I like having good, bright headlights.”
Some newer cars will have software-assisted adaptive beams, a technology that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law recently permitted for use in the U.S. But Baker said cars automatically switching from high to low beams is still an imperfect solution: “The low beams are too bright.”
Another Republican lawmaker, Rep. Doug LaMalfa, told NOTUS that “they’re definitely brighter” but that he thought it was just a matter of drivers not turning their high beams off.
“I don’t think it’s a widespread issue,” LaMalfa said.
And for most members of Congress, it isn’t. When NOTUS asked lawmakers about bright headlights and whether they’ve heard concerns about them from constituents, most responded with a look of confusion.
“What? I don’t know every issue that comes into my office,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said.
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Emily Kennard is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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