LED lighting has been all the rage in recent years for good reason: They are environmentally friendly, durable, long-lasting, and they are cooler than their incandescent counterparts (which makes them less likely to burst or burn you).
Citing all of the above, many cities around the country have slowly transitioned their outdoor lighting, spending millions of dollars swapping out their old-school incandescent bulbs for new LED ones—Pittsburgh among them.
But for every yin, there is a yang, and while LED lighting boasts many advantages, it also has its share of downsides, and driving glare is among them.
According to a recent study, the 'Burgh isn't immune.
The Glaring Problem With LEDs
The American Medical Association (AMA) sounded the alarm back in June: Some LED lighting can have harmful unintended consequences to drivers. Namely, they cause glare.
According to the AMA, high-intensity LEDs that emit blue light (which appears to be bright white to the naked eye) creates worse night-time driving glare. Safety experts say LED-related driving glare can cause:
Discomfort
Disability
Decreased acuity (which is defined as sharpness of thought, vision or hearing)
Decreased safety
That's not all. In addition to the driving hazards associated with high-intensity LED lights, they are also known to:
Significantly disrupt the circadian sleep cycle
Disorient some species of animals, birds and insects
The AMA felt strongly enough about these hazards to adopt community guidelines related to appropriate LED lighting.
Since the organization adopted those guidelines, many cities across the nation are doing their part to help follow them. In fact, 25 cities—including Phoenix and Lake Worth, Florida—are changing the types of LEDs they use for exterior illumination.
Instead of using 4,000 or 5,000 Kelvin LED lights, many are swapping them for more moderate 3,000 Kelvin models.
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