SFGATE reports, a lawsuit could frustrate the effort to restore aesthetic lighting to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. A nonprofit organization working with Caltrans and the Bay Area Toll Authority is behind a project, Bay Lights 360, to replace an LED light display that deteriorated to the point it had to be turned off in 2023. The new system would double the number of lights on the bridge and make them visible on both sides of the span.
However, a lawsuit filed this week alleges that the lighting would create environmental and health risks that haven’t been sufficiently assessed. The plaintiff, the leader of the Soft Lights Foundation, claims the pulsing of LED lights is “neurologically intolerable” for people with disabilities such as epilepsy, autism, PTSD, photophobia, traumatic brain injury, and migraines. The suit aims to stop work on the project until further reviews are conducted.