On the cleanest comparison the data allow, with the same inspector, the same vessel type, and the same time window, the Jones Act tanker fleet has a meaningfully worse deficiency record than the waiver fleet. The effect isn’t marginal. The domestic fleet not only has a higher deficiency rate but also a notably higher number of deficiencies.

To be clear, this isn’t a claim that the waiver fleet is “safer” in some general sense or that Jones Act tankers are unsafe. PSC deficiency counts are imperfect proxies for risk, sample sizes among both fleets are modest, and deficiencies can range from a fire door improperly propped open with a hold-back hook (Clearocean Fuku) to missing lock-out valves on a fire-suppression system (American Energy), the two vessels already cited above as each fleet’s highest-deficiency ship.

What it does show is that TI’s specific claim that the waiver fleet’s PSC record demonstrates a unique threat to American infrastructure doesn’t hold up once both the Jones Act and waiver fleets are given equal treatment.

High-beam rules are pretty similar throughout the US. In most states, the distance you need to dim your high beams when an oncoming vehicle is approaching is 500 feet (152 meters). When you’re behind a vehicle, this is reduced to 200 to 300 feet (61-91 m). //

Mungus the Unhyphenated Ars Tribunus Militum
9y
1,899
For Europe, at least, it's a shame that lighting regulations pushed aside selective yellow as used primarily in France. The lighting color actually makes a huge difference in reducing dazzle and glare, especially in wet conditions. It also provides excellent contrast in the range that human vison needs to distinguish objects at night,

It seems counterintuitive that light shifted toward yellow works better than brilliant blue-white, but it does. It's due (as in the name selective yellow) to how it's filtered for specific wavelengths that compensate by improving visibility where human vison at night is weaker, and limiting light wavelengths that tend to appear as overpowering glare. Essentially, it can be more effective at lower outputs, and less blinding when dialed-up to higher outputs. It also doesn't adversely affect the driver's night vision for the area beyond the cutoff as badly. But it seems subjectively "dim" at first look. You have to drive behind a set of selective yellow lamps to get the real effect.

Now that we have LEDs that can be engineered with phosphors and filters to emit virtually any spectrum we want (instead of having to build bulbs or headlight lenses which contained large amounts of highly toxic chromium) it seems just lazy that we've gone for automotive lighting that emits in really the worst spectral range for working in harmony with night vision, when we have technology that probably can revisit and improve on an older and more useful concept.