Safe driving, LED lights, and campus antisemitism

Growing up, I remember on the back wall of an auto mechanic’s shop were two side-by-side targets of a specific size [“Bright headlights a safety problem for drivers,” News, Dec. 11]. During car inspections, the headlights had to be perfectly centered within those targets for alignment or the vehicle would not pass inspection until it was adjusted.

There was a consistency in headlight size and shape across all makes and models. Nowadays, all that seems to matter during inspection is that headlights function. Is there any benchmark or target, given the vast assortment of vehicle sizes, headlight shapes, color and brightness?

I abhor night driving, even on familiar roads. Wearing yellow-lens fit-over glasses reduces glare a bit, but not enough. I also realized the double yellow lines and dashed white lines separating lanes are not reflective, hard to see, and cars could veer all over the road.

For all the “design and safety features” automobile engineers and manufacturers are adding to vehicles, why don’t they get back to basics and start with the car’s framework. They need to ask themselves, “What will a person coming in the opposite direction on a dark road see as this vehicle approaches?” Until that happens, night driving will continue to be scary.

— Francine M. Scuderi, Stewart Manor

The article confirmed my thoughts about oncoming glare during nighttime driving. This issue is not necessarily age-related.

As a 75-year-old who has driven since age 16, I remember that when I was younger, the only real issues with glare occurred when oncoming drivers failed to lower their high beams.

Back then, I remember when replacing burned out headlights there were adjustment screws in the supporting brackets to aim the replacements. Lights were correctly aimed lower and to the side of the road. Current LED lights cannot be so aimed as they are a part of a fixed complex assembly.

Aim and color temperatures can be changed by manufacturers in higher vehicles such as SUVs and pickup trucks, and in automobiles to help alleviate the problems associated with the benefits of greater brightness and economy that this newer LED technology has provided.

— Peter A. Rogers, Miller Place

We should also consider the lights on emergency vehicles driven by police and ambulances and tow trucks. Many times, I have been blinded even worse than by cars, since the lights are flashing and coming from multiple directions. This, too, is a hazard.

I understand that these vehicles need to be seen, but not at the cost of blinding other drivers and possibly causing an accident.

— Kurt Butcher, Yaphank

Last week, I was in stop-and-go traffic on Sunrise Highway with a Massapequa Fire Department ambulance in front of me. The driver apparently wasn’t on a call. Every time he stepped on his brakes, I got blinded by brake lights that were mounted high on the body. They were in addition to the normal brake lights on the bumper.

Bright lights might be useful if the vehicle was responding to an emergency, but for normal driving they’re dangerous.

— John Eastlund, Wantagh

The article is so on target! Sometimes, I need to hold up my left hand up to block the glare. We need to really tone it down.

— Garry Biggs, Lindenhurst

Gaza campus debates require substantiation

I was disappointed in the guest essay “Universities house antisemitism again” [Opinion, Dec. 7]. It contained several controversial allegations without supporting evidence. We know there is a divisive and heated debate raging on college campuses over the conflict in Gaza and the despicable acts of terrorism in Israel on Oct. 7, but rather than adding thoughtful or constructive dialogue, the essay is incendiary.

Todd Pittinsky, a Stony Brook University professor, starts his essay by alleging that Jewish students on U.S. campuses are confronting the same “antisemitic ideologies and tropes” that infected German and Austrian universities in the early 20th century but omits support for this controversial claim without a single illustration.

His essay goes on to state that many universities contain a “Jew-hate culture” and that “one of the main sources of campus antisemitism is Islamic antisemitism.” These are inflammatory statements that Pittinsky again fails to support with specificity.

If we are going to bridge the divide that has developed since Oct. 7, we need to hear from those who can put forth actual facts that will generate responsible discussion. This is especially true for those who lead and teach at our universities.

— Vincent Lyons, Riverhead

The writer taught social studies in the Farmingdale school district for 30 years.