seeing at night, in the rain

I've always found seeing in the rain at night seriously challenging. Painted pavement stripes completely disapear. When other cars are coming at me with their headlights,I often can't see the road at all. It was always a problem, but now it's getting downright serious.

I'm sure some of you have similar difficulties. Have any of you ever found any type of driving glasses or such that actually helped you see when driving at night in the rain.

Same problem here. It's not insurmountable at the moment, I just don't look at oncoming headlight glare. But it would be nice to find something that helps.

I got the same problem. Stupid crappy eyes....

If you're thinking of glasses which auto-darken when hit by bright lights, I don't think they exist at a darken/lighten speed fast enough for driving in the rain at night.

The strategy I've always used is to look away from the headlights and watch the white line along the right side of my vehicle. When driving in the snow, with the road lines covered and no other visual references, I just feel the road through the car and keep the right tires close to the shoulder.

As you get older, I'm now 42, I believe (expert needed for verification) that your night vision takes longer to recover after being exposed to bright lights. Wet roads at night are the worst because of the additional light reflections from the road's surface.

Keeping your front windshield clean inside and out also helps along with regular use of Rain-X.

Hope this helps, and don't look into the light

Cheers, Steven Cagle

Last year I got a pair of prescription glasses with yellow #3 lenses. They cut down the night time glare pretty well. Works great for the rain, fog, haze, and hazy snow. If it's sunny and snowy it's too bright for the yellow lenses.

Before I got the prescription glasses I tried some hunting glasses with yellow lenses over top my regular prescription glasses. It was a cheap experiment and proved the concept.

-Rob

I have to agree that my 51 1/2 year old peepers don't recover as quickly as they used to.

Getting older sucks. But it beats getting colder. I'm going to have to try the yellow lenses. Thanks for the tip Rob.

that was 15 yrs ago... not sure how much worse it has gotten, just know that I can't see for E36M3 at night .. in the rain... yellow lenses help as much as anything I've been able to find

what about an HID kit?

Obvious point, but I've found a big difference in the headlights from one car to another making a big difference. For example, going from my 96 Miata to our 00 Villager made it much easier to see at night & in poor conditions. Likewise, going from the Villager to our Fit made an even larger improvement.

I may look at yellow lenses as well.

Another thought - I have a friend who's legally blind, although he actually sees pretty well. His nighttime vision is the worst though, and he has amber-colored lenses he wears over his glasses.

There were a couple of periods a few years back when I discovered that I couldn't see well over long distances at night (think distant highway signs). I got some mild prescription glasses (see below for the rest of that story), but later found that it was more of a seasonal problem. I spent more time inside in the Winter and did more reading and, thus my eyes were out of practice for distance.

Back to the glasses: I had read about a special anti-glare coating (Yates or McCluggage, I think) and I paid extra for it. In an out of character moment for me, I also sprung for some stylin' frames. I was disappointed to discover that, while the lenses were good at minimizing glare, there was something about the frame that lit up like white circles, reflecting oncoming headlights or just about any other source of night time light. The glasses were useless at night.

Shop carefully.

Is there a doctor in the house? Will someone please call the MythBusters?

The yellow lens sounds like a winner, but why does it work?

+1 on cleaning the inside of the windshield. It's completely amazing how much crap deposits itself on there from (I gather) the sun evaporating plastic fumes out of your dashboard. And that's assuming nobody smokes in the car.

Stealthtercel wrote: +1 on cleaning the inside of the windshield. It's completely amazing how much crap deposits itself on there from (I gather) the sun evaporating plastic fumes out of your dashboard. And that's assuming nobody smokes in the car.

Yes, this makes a difference.

Also, I have sworn off cheap Chinese windshields, having found that they quickly become pitted, which affects night (and bright daylight) vision. Buying from the dealer or OE supplier can be $$$ but the safety and longevity is worth it, IMO.

I've been having a problem with this lately as well, though my night vision was never too good.

What i have had success doing is changing to yellow tinted headlights. Yes, i know, you lose some true light output, but still can easily be compensated by using some higher watt bulbs over the OEM equipment.

CagleRacing wrote: Is there a doctor in the house? Will someone please call the MythBusters? The yellow lens sounds like a winner, but why does it work?

can't help you with why... just seems to... shooters wear them a lot... they seem to "sharpen" the image somehow

An old pilot's trick is to close one eye when confronted with bright lights. Once the light source is out of view, the eye that was closed can be reopened, and the pupil will be more dilated than the one in the eye exposed to the light, allowing for quicker recovery of functional night vision.

wbjones wrote:

CagleRacing wrote: Is there a doctor in the house? Will someone please call the MythBusters? The yellow lens sounds like a winner, but why does it work?

can't help you with why... just seems to... shooters wear them a lot... they seem to "sharpen" the image somehow

From: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10701805

The detriment in color vision caused by yellow-colored lenses enhances contrast when viewing bright objects against a blue-based background, such as the sky. Contrast of overlying objects is enhanced due to the selective reduction of short-wavelength light by the yellow lenses.

I have a few comments from personal experience:

1) Clean the windshield regularly. Mine develop a haze from sitting in the hot sun during the summer that wreaks havoc on nighttime driving in the fall/winter.

2) Pitted windshields only make things worse.

3) Visine can make a big difference if your eyes are dry (especially at night). I won't make a long trip without some nearby, it's really a lifesaver for nighttime driving.

4) If you sit in front of a computer all day, turn the brightness and contrast down so the screen matches your surroundings. At first it looks ridiculous, but your eyes will adjust. I used to have my monitor cranked to 100% brightness and 100% contrast all day long, but then I couldn't see road signs on the way home. One of my co-worker's husband had the same issue and his eye doctor gave the suggestion above about your monitor settings. Mine's currently set to 15 brightness and 15 contrast, but I'm sure it varies widely by monitor. And the good news is - now I can read road signs when coming home from work!

Holy E30 M3!

I tried the monitor thing, and it makes a huge difference. My eyes don't bother me anymore.

I have had fairly good luck with lightly tinted polarized glasses. They cut down on a lot of the glare and reflections. I use them mostly around town where it isn't a lack of light, but the reflections that come off of everything.

The closing one eye trick works pretty good also when passing oncoming traffic.

I'm glad my yellow lens tip was helpful. Billy3esq's answer explained it a whole lot better than my "cuts down the glare" explanation I was preparing.

I'm going to try adjusting the brightness on the monitor at work tomorrow. Maybe my eyes won't be as tired when I go home. Or I should say maybe my eyes will just be as tired as the rest of me.

I'll try to remember the close one eye trick too. Already try to keep up with the windshield cleaning.

I get the anti-glare coating on my regular glasses and it does help in the office. The coating usually lasts about 2 years if I don't get any garage based liquids on them. Just noticed the current lenses must have gotten something splashed on them over the holiday garage binge. These aren't going to make the 2 year mark.

-Rob

I cant even drive on unlit roads at night, becasue any light from someone coming the other way makes it so i cant see, especially the bmw hids.

Here's another computer trick...

In Excel, change all cells to black and the text to bright yellow or bright green. It not only looks cool, but is very easy on your eyes. I do this at work with my most frequently used spreadsheets.

First mod I make to any of my old beaters is a brand new windshield. For $200 (there's a guy who'll come to your place to install) it's a godsend for night time driving. I was driving a new Caddy SUV all last week, during some really long distance holiday trips. While I really like the HID headlights, it's surprising how many other drivers "flashed" at me, assuming I had highs on. Made me start to think about the possibility of windshields that can filter out glare - since I always feel guilty when driving a premium vehicle with blinding white headlights, yet love their visibility.

I have another theory since I am young and still have functional eyes

I have noticed lately that even freshly painted lines disappear at night in the rain, and it pisses me off because they didn't do that just a few years ago. I can actually see the old lines better than the fresh ones! I think there has been a change in the paint they use on the roads that is possibly more "environmentally friendly" but like everything else, is marginal at what it does now.