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- [00:00]
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- [01:28]
Lauren Eagan
Available@pockethose.com Terms hey everyone, it's Lauren Eagan here at the Bulwark. If you've ever been driving on the highway at night and you felt like other cars on the road had oppressively bright headlights, it turns out that you are not alone. In fact, there was a congresswoman from Washington who recently brought up the issue with the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. And that woman is here with us today. Marie Glusenkamp Perez. Thanks for joining us.
- [01:58]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
Thanks for having me.
- [02:00]
Lauren Eagan
Yeah, thanks for doing it. Okay, so car headlights. How did this come across your attention and why are you talking about it.
- [02:08]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
Before being launched to Congress? My husband an independent auto repair and machine shop. And so it's in my wheelhouse. But also I live in a rural Community. And the brightness, the lumens on these headlights are unhinged. And it's one of those things where you're like, am I getting old? You know, or like, is that what, what is happening here? And you know, it's a safety risk. Like a lot of these headlights, they also like strobe when they start to go out and it's like, you know, you can't see properly afterwards. Like a lot of people don't properly aim their headlights. But like, that wasn't as much of a problem before headlights got this bright. And so I was like, I, I'd been like talking to my team about it for a while and. But you know, a lot of people in D.C. don't drive or folks from cities that might not drive. You know, they just not aware of it. And so I was like, I kept, I kept like sharing some of the stuff that I was seeing just to be like, look, I'm not crazy. Like other people think this is a problem too.
- [03:17]
Lauren Eagan
No, I feel reassured because I've noticed this and yeah, you truly do feel crazy. Is it like a, more of a problem in r areas too? Do you feel like, because some of the city, you know, just like light pollution dims it down a bit?
- [03:30]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
Yeah, it, I think it is, it is more, more dangerous. It, you know, the contrast between a super dark night and, and these like, you know, blaring headlights is, is more, it's more difficult for your eyes to readjust, you know. And then I think too in, in, in more urban areas, like a real risk to pedestrians because it, the, the, the contrast between the light and the dark, it makes it, you know, I think there's, there's evidence that it's led to more pedestrian fatalities.
- [04:04]
Lauren Eagan
Did you hear about this from constituents, like when you were campaigning and stuff, when people bring this up to you?
- [04:09]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
I did and actually like a few town halls that came up and you know, I, I remember people sort of like being like, why is she talking about headlights? Like, I think the world's on fire. And, and I think, you know, that's true. And also these are real problems that people are facing every day. And it feels like, you know, if we can't pay attention to the mundane, like, and solve the mundane, how are we going to solve the bigger issues?
- [04:40]
Lauren Eagan
Yeah. Do you know why car headlights have gotten brighter? Because I feel like when I was learning how to drive and like when I was a kid, I don't feel like it was this bad or am I also getting old and going crazy?
- [04:53]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
No, the LEDs truly are, I believe that like headlight brightness, the average lumens is like, I think we went from like 3K to like 6 and 12K. And like, it is profoundly brighter in the lumens. Excuse me.
- [05:08]
Lauren Eagan
So, like, what can actually be done about that?
- [05:12]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
Well, I mean, there could be national standards on how bright the lumens. So the lumens, like the regs haven't changed in 40 years on, on lumens. And you know, some folks have proposed in Europe they use these like adaptive directional beams that move with your steering wheel. But, you know, I live in an area where there's a lot of ice and I've seen, you know, failure, like, they're quite complex and more difficult to, to fix. There's also, I mean, it's also an issue of how the tone of the light, because the older ones were more yellow, that, that scale is called Kelvin. The new ones are the much higher Kelvin. They're much bluer. And your, your eye perceives that as brighter also. So there's a couple of issues at hand and how LEDs have been implemented in a failure to regulate that has made them, made the situation more dangerous than it otherwise would be.
- [06:06]
Lauren Eagan
Since you brought this up with the committee, have you heard from folks like, what's your, your feedback, Ben, especially from other members of Congress?
- [06:15]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
Oh, well, I mean, we did a survey with my constituents. It was like three out of four. We had like 7,000 respondents to this email survey. And it was like, overwhelmingly, headlights are too bright. But yeah, you know, it was funny. I was in a, I was in a committee hearing today and you know, somebody in more seniority was like, watching that, watching that clip from the hearing, like in the, in another hearing, and they're like, someone's finally doing something about this. I hate this so much. You know, and it's like there's things that you, you think it's just you. And, and, but I think the, the, the, the other point here is that like, you need to listen to your constituents when they tell you there's something wrong. You can't, you can't pretend that people's lived experience is silly, because it is. It's not like, and you know, I think trying to be useful in all of the ways that you can in as an elected, that that matters.
- [07:14]
Lauren Eagan
Have you spent any time digging into some of the Reddit threads? There is a truly excellent subreddit that's called fuck your headlights, which I recommend everyone go check out.
- [07:27]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
Yeah, there. I've seen some really good memes come out of there. I've also seen, like, you know, I saw somebody's tweet that was, like, if I'm ever gruesomely murdered, like. Like, please, like, in my memory, pass a head. Like, a head. A bill to, like, legislate headlights. Whether or not it has anything to do with my death, like, that's like, the spirit of my life. Like, this is. And, yeah, it's. It. It's one of those things that, like, every time you see it, it. It. It's painful.
- [07:53]
Lauren Eagan
Yeah. Do you think that there actually could be some legislation pass? I mean, to your point, like, this just seems like it should be a bipartisan conversation at the moment.
- [08:03]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
Yeah, I think there's opportunity here. I think we're looking at ways that we could do it either through standalone legislation or through some of the appropriations mechanisms. I mean, I'm hopeful. I think it is. You know, being blinded at night is not a partisan issue. Like, this is, like, all of us are impacted, whether, you know, whether you're senior or whether in urban or rural community. Like, this is something everybody hates.
- [08:28]
Lauren Eagan
Yeah. Have you talked to some Republican colleagues about it?
- [08:31]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
I have, yeah. No, I was showing Darrell ISO. The. The. That tweet I was referencing about passing a bill in my. My memory.
- [08:41]
Lauren Eagan
Is he into it?
- [08:42]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
Yeah, he. He thought it was pretty funny.
- [08:44]
Lauren Eagan
Okay, there you go. I also feel like people just do, like, wild shit on the road to, like, high beams being. And I'm curious, do you think that's, like, dashboards are also just getting, like, way too complicated and, like, people just don't realize what they're doing, or are people just assholes who leave their high beams on anyways?
- [09:04]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
Yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of part of the attention economy and like, treating driving as, like, a. A skill worth having and pursuing and something that will save your life, and it merits attention and development. I think it goes into, like, driver's ed. I think it goes into. You know, it's crazy because cars have gotten so much safer and fatalities have not gone down. Like, that's crazy.
- [09:29]
Lauren Eagan
Like, that's an insane. Just piece of data right there.
- [09:33]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
Yeah. I mean, I think when you rely on a machine, you know, it's fragile. It introduces, I think, more confidence than is responsible to give to a piece of technology as opposed to, like, the actual human capital of, like, operating and paying attention and, like, being present with the task at hand of, like, driving.
- [09:58]
Lauren Eagan
Would you ever drive with blue light blocking glasses?
- [10:04]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
I'm not that crazy. I don't think.
- [10:08]
Lauren Eagan
Okay. Yeah, that's fair. That's, that's the correct answer. Just so you know. But I want to go back to something else you said about like listening to your constituents and about like stuff that's actually sort of impacting them day to day. Do you feel like that's something that the Democratic Party as a whole needs to do a better job at and like Democrats have been relying too much on the groups and activists to sort of explain the world to them. I'm curious how you think about that and whether you think this all kind of plays together. Like Democrats just need to like talk to the people they represent, not let it all get filtered through like, you know, think tanks or non profits.
- [10:52]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
Yeah, I mean, I, you know, so when I used to pull cars into the shop, I would say 8 out of 10 times the radio would be on a news station and now it's like one out of ten times. And I think, I think that, you know, and the data supports this, that like the people who view themselves as politically engaged and view politics as like a necessary part of their life, it's become a smaller pool. People have tuned it out because it's so toxic and polarizing and isolating often. And I think part of what makes democracy strong is when more people view politics as relevant and reflective of their life and their agenda and what matters to them. And I think like, while, yes, this is not curing cancer, it is the work of making a political agenda that is more relevant to more people. And, and I think that is what drives people's decisions like vote or not. Like when they see it as something that their vote influences their life and not an abstract concept, but in like the tangible and the real. And I think the other part of that is that when you have a body of electeds that is driven places and doesn't themselves drive or that isn't, you know, isn't in the, the vehicles. Like, I think you have less of a like political capital or shared reality with constituents and like, you know, normal people and you need to live in the same world. Like you can't, you can't legislate a world or an economy that you're not impacted by.
- [12:29]
Lauren Eagan
Yeah, yeah. How much does right to repair, which I know is something you've been big on. Does that play into this at all with car headlights? Yeah, a little bit.
- [12:39]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
Like, you know, it's kind of the bigger argument of like insidification where like, you know, you like I used to be able to replace a light bulb and a headlight for like $3. That was my cost for that light bulb. And now you have to do the whole. These newer vehicles, you, you have to do like the whole headlight assembly for $700. And it was something that was like assembled, you know, maybe by slave labor somewhere else. And it's nickel and diming the middle class out of existence. And I think people don't always realize, you know, because on the west coast, we don't salt. We don't salt the road, so our cars last longer. The average age of cars I work on is like 20 years old. And I think a lot of folks don't realize how rapidly things are getting worse and less affordable, especially in comparison to what things were like, you know, in the earlier 2000s and the 90s. So, yeah, like, right. To repair and, and, and acknowledging and prioritizing the power of, of fixing and like people who have made a life out of making things last longer. That's, that's like, that is, you know, a big. That's why I'm here. Like, that's why, like, I want to be in Congress is like build economic agency and self determination in, in, in the middle class, like in, in. In. In my community. And when we move away from parts that are discreetly repairable and get turned into part swappers, not only does it like, rob the middle class of a really, you know, the value of one of their biggest assets, but it also, it disrespects and disincentivizes, like the power of a technician to be a good skilled diagnostician that has agency and can command a higher market rate as compared to a part swapper where we're now competing with bad actors or exploitive manufacturing facilities across the ocean.
- [14:48]
Lauren Eagan
Yeah. Well, congresswoman, thank you for coming on the Bulwark today to talk about this. Good luck getting some sort of legislation passed. Come back anytime and talk to us about it.
- [14:59]
Marie Glusenkamp Perez
Thank you. This was really fun. Appreciate your attention to it. It does matter.
- [15:03]
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