Recently, a number of Wuhan citizens reported to the Yangtze River Cloud News that in the urban area of Xiongchu Avenue Elevated, Third Ring Road, Yangsigang Expressway, Tangxun Lake Bridge and other road sections, the fill light of the monitoring electronic eye is too dazzling, and the vision in front of the night driving is affected.
Twinkle and flash, "shocked"! The measured illuminance value has exceeded the standard
"It's always on again, and it's always flashing, and the car suddenly bursts on the road, sometimes there are five or six lights on a shelf, and you can't dodge, and you really have to practice a light avoidance technique when driving at night. A Wuhan online car-hailing driver complained to reporters.
The monitoring light of Nanhu Avenue in Hongshan District, Wuhan City is very dazzling.
At 22:00 on the evening of April 7, the Yangtze River Cloud News reporter randomly interviewed several taxi drivers who passed through the monitoring fill light gantry on Nanhu Avenue, Hongshan District, Wuhan City, and expressed their dissatisfaction with the brightness of the monitoring fill light.
"At night, when you get under this light, you can't see the road clearly for a few seconds, and the master who is familiar with the road still knows what is ahead, so what about the unfamiliar driver?" said a taxi driver who drove by.
"Sometimes we wear sunglasses at night, and when we're older, our eyes aren't so resistant to glare!"
The reporter consulted the "General Technical Conditions for Traffic Technology Monitoring Imaging Fill Light Devices" (GA/T1202-2022) promulgated and implemented by the Ministry of Public Security on January 1, 2023, which clearly stipulates the specifications for the setting of fill light equipment in various scenarios. Among them, the continuous lighting type lighting equipment should control the illuminance below 40lx (lx: lux is the unit of illumination, illuminance is a physical quantity that reflects the light intensity, and its physical meaning is the luminous flux irradiated to the unit area).
The reporter came to a certain place in Jian'an Street, Wuchang District, Wuhan City, under the electronic eye fill light, and held a lux meter for field testing. The results show that the dynamic average brightness values in the illumination area of the fill light are close to 70lx, which has exceeded the 40lx specified in the national standard, and the exceedance range is 75%.
The reporter measured the ground illumination on Jian'an Street to be close to 70lx.
Due to the fact that there are two sets of bayonet fill light devices here on Jian'an Street, and the area covered by the fill light is very large when it is lit at the same time, pedestrians and non-motorized vehicle owners who pass by have lowered their heads to avoid direct light.
Jian'an Street, Wuchang District, Wuhan City, has also set up a reverse monitoring fill light, and the light area formed by the forward fill light is like daylight.
The reporter noticed that in the opposite lane less than 50 meters apart, on another traffic monitoring gantry, the fill light is also flashing frequently, and the fill light on the T-shaped bridge south road is more dense, and there are four groups of electronic eye fill light equipment on the one-way road with a short distance of 500 meters.
Reporter self-drive 80 kilometers "Dingguang Night Walk"
In order to further measure the impact of monitoring the fill light on driving under various road conditions, at 20:00 on the evening of April 8, the reporter set off from Optics Valley 3rd Road, drove the vehicle through Gaoxin Avenue, Xiongchu Avenue Elevated, Minzu Avenue, Nanhu Avenue, Third Ring Road, Baishazhou Avenue, Fourth Ring Road (high-speed section), and finally arrived at Dongxihu District, Wuhan City, with a total journey of about 80 kilometers, and the driving distance involved the three towns of Wuhan, including urban road sections, elevated road sections, highways and other road conditions.
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During the whole driving process, the reporter noticed that almost every road is equipped with electronic eye fill light equipment, most of which are illuminated downward in the direction of the driver's face, and a few are driven in the direction of the rear of the body.
The number of monitoring and fill lights in the Dongxihu section of the Fourth Ring Road in Wuhan has reached 8 in a row.
The reporter used the illuminance meter to measure the brightness of the fill light in each road section, and the number table showed that the average illumination of the fill light equipment ranged from 20lx to 70lx, and some road section equipment has also exceeded the national standard. Due to the fast luminous frequency of strobe and pulse devices, the brightness information cannot be accurately captured.
In the process of driving, whenever approaching the fill light, the reporter feels a strong sense of stimulation in the eyes, especially in the high-speed section of the Fourth Ring Road, because there is no street lighting, and the bright light source is suddenly encountered under dark light conditions, which will make the driver's eyelids passively closed to avoid direct sunlight. Under the illumination of the high-brightness fill light, there will be three seconds, and the information of the lane ahead cannot be clearly distinguished, resulting in a sudden increase in the driver's nervousness and threatening the safety of the vehicle.
The traffic management department responded: If it can't be closed, the opinion will be rejected
In response to this problem, the reporter contacted the Wuhan Municipal Traffic Management Department. The staff of the traffic brigade of a district in Wuhan City said that these devices are used to shoot violations, and they need to record the situation of the driver and the vehicle.
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"Generally, this kind of lighting equipment that shoots illegal lighting equipment can't be turned off, if it is turned off, it can't be filmed, these electronic eyes also have to collect big data, and the relevant opinions will be directly rejected. Now there are also infrared probes that do not emit light, but this requires a higher fee. The staff member said.
On the message board of the city of Greater Wuhan, the reporter saw that many netizens reported the problem of the probe fill light being too bright, including major highways such as East Lake High-tech Zone, Jiangxia District, Hanyang District, and Hancai Expressway.
The reporter searched for keywords such as "electronic eye fill light" and "monitoring probe" on the Internet, and in addition to Wuhan, netizens in other parts of the country also expressed the same feelings.
Three years ago, the Ministry of Public Security actively organized various localities to investigate and rectify
In January 2021, "Tide", a netizen from Wuhan, Hubei Province, reported through "I have a word to the premier" that many places have installed very harsh and strong flashes in front of cameras on highways or main roads to facilitate the purpose of taking pictures. However, this will greatly affect the vision of the car owner, and even cause temporary blindness, which will greatly affect driving safety, so it is recommended to optimize the brightness of the light.
In this regard, the Ministry of Public Security replied that in response to the problem that the public security traffic management department has set up unreasonable and excessive brightness of traffic monitoring equipment on the road, the Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security is organizing various localities to carry out the investigation and rectification of urban roads and highway traffic monitoring equipment fill lights, and gradually eliminate potential safety hazards by dimming the brightness of the fill lights, improving the brightness of the ambient light, and alternating lanes to fill the light. In the next step, the public security department will strengthen the guidance of the public security traffic management departments in various places from the selection of "starlight-level" cameras, infrared cameras and other new equipment with low requirements for supplementary light, and improve the specifications for the setting of supplementary lights, and strive to create a good road traffic environment for the masses to travel safely.
On June 16, 2022, the Ministry of Transport replied to the Fifth Session of the 13th National People's Congress No. 3255 "Suggestions on the Scientific Use of Highway Monitoring Lights and Flashing Lights at Night". Measures such as installing a lens hood and applying anti-glare lenses to alleviate the impact of light intensity on night driving comfort within a certain distance, and further improve the night driving comfort of the ETC gantry system by using a complementary light device in the insensitive band of the human eye (such as the infrared band of 730nm) and cooperating with the multispectral license plate recognition equipment to ensure the success rate of license plate recognition under ultra-low light illumination conditions.
Doctor: The damage to the human eye caused by bright light is irreversible
At present, the visible light of the monitoring fill light device is mainly divided into strobe type, pulse type, continuous lighting type, and the peak brightness of some models of fill light equipment at night will reach 4000lx, which is equivalent to 20 40 watt lamps illuminated at the same time, and the illumination of the general office desktop is 300lx.
Will the human eye be damaged by long-term exposure to ultra-bright light sources?
An ophthalmologist from a tertiary hospital in Hubei Province said that in a place of dark light at night, the pupil of the human eye is relatively large, and it is easy to adversely affect the optic cells when suddenly encountering strong light, and the excessively bright strong light within 100 meters will damage the macular area of the human eye, which is irreversible. At the same time, being directly illuminated by a brighter light source under dark light conditions for a long time is easy to cause visual fatigue, which brings potential safety hazards to drivers driving at night and affects the driver's prediction.
In view of the adverse effects of ultra-bright fill lights, netizens suggested whether road lights can be set up near the lighting to form a transition between light and dark and avoid the sudden attack of strong light.
There are also netizens who support the trick of pulling down the visor and adjusting the driving sitting position to avoid strong light, but it is difficult to be widely recognized.
According to reports, since 2020, many places have replaced new environmental protection bayonets in response to the problem of over-brightness of monitoring fill light equipment.
In Shanghai, the public security traffic police department promoted the "micro-light electronic police", without the additional use of LED fill lights, only relying on the embedded light source of the camera, the use of image restoration and superimposed integration of multi-functional electronic police illegal capture algorithms, the development of the same law enforcement deterrence at night "micro-light electronic police".
In Beijing, hundreds of locations have been installed with environmentally friendly bayonets without light pollution, and LED smart fill lights are used to effectively cut off stray beams, reduce brightness, and achieve clear capture at the same time.
The Jinan Municipal Public Security Department has adopted methods such as reducing the brightness of the fill light, adjusting the angle of the fill light, and increasing the ambient fill light to minimize the impact of the fill light equipment on drivers and surrounding residents.
Chongqing has upgraded and replaced a number of fixed speed measurement gantry capture equipment in the whole road network, installed environmentally friendly bayonet equipment, and used infrared light to reduce the brightness by about 50%.
Experts suggest that while meeting the needs of traffic management, scientific and technological means should be used to effectively eliminate light pollution, reduce potential safety hazards, and ensure road traffic safety.
(Changjiang Cloud News reporter Chen Yaxi)