How do all you drivers cope with glare or dazzle by others headlights?

[Pushkin]

I find as I get older, I cannot cope with the lights of oncoming cars, be they main beam or dipped.  I find this a bit worrying as I do not want to end up in an accidental crash or be the victim of one?  How do others cope with this issue?  I am going to see my Optician and will mention this to him/her to see if there is a simple thing like the yellow lenses that others have said works for them.

Pushkin 

[Bigbob]

You can get a pair of yellow glasses like sunglasses the really help , What gets me is the amount of folk that drive on full beam and wait till they light up your car before putting them on dipped beam 

[Gordon R]

I normally lift a hand, to shield my eyes when a car approaches with full beam or a badly adjusted dip beam. Newer cars seem to have much brighter lights. I will be interested to know if the optician has a solution.

[old man]

Could well have to do with some modern motors having retina burning led lamps? Look to the nearside kerb?

Obviously not including the ones who have done bulb changes  and are out of alignment.

[London Best]

And the 50% of cars which are not dazzling people coming the other way are driving about with only one headlight, or tail light , or both.

[Yellow Bear]

I use Yellow clip on lenses, or you could try polaroid.

[billytheghillie]

Let someone else drive 👍

[DUNKS]

I spent a fortune at my opticians with "special" coatings to stop this glare, did no good, changed opticians to be told the problem was cataracts. Had both eyes done and now no problem except of course glare from the stupid superbrights which affect everyone.

We have a local road a mile or so long and straight, cycle track runs alongside this road. I find some approaching bike lights worse than any car!

Edited December 14, 2023 by DUNKS

[Scully]

My OH bought a pair of glasses which seem to cope with glare. I haven’t tried them but she says they work well. 
You can even get them to go over your own glasses or clip ons. 

[Mice!]

42 minutes ago, Bigbob said:

You can get a pair of yellow glasses like sunglasses the really help , What gets me is the amount of folk that drive on full beam and wait till they light up your car before putting them on dipped beam 

I bought some night driving glasses, they are yellow but don't fit that well so I tend not to wear them, but I did find they helped. 

But I brought some yellow safety glasses home that I wear all day in work yesterday 😁

I find part of the problem with new cars is the auto lights, if I put mine on they sometimes take a second or two longer to flick the main beam off, and then some people are muppets. 

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello, it happens to often but i give the car a flash up and they put on dip, well not always🤔

[old'un]

[steve_b_wales]

I hate the newer vehicles with 'floating' headlights. When they come behind me and there's a dip etc in the road, it looks like they are flashing me!

[oowee]

Don't know what you are driving but a higher driving position of an SUV will certainly be better than a low slung driving position. 

[strimmer_13]

I reckon a few causes to today's night driving issues, and my take for the op at the bottom 

Modern cars are higher, think all these fake 4x4 like a ****qui and all those. 

Modern cars have superbright LED lights which are great as a driver, not so if your on the recieving end

 

Out council has decided to stop (and even take up) cats eyes. So it's kind of guess work where your going if theres a bit of water on the road, and you can't see because of the 2 above. When ever you felt blinded you could just aim for in-between the verge and the cats eyes. Well that brings me too...

 

And also I have a theory that overgrown verges suck up light, instead of reflecting it because they don't get cut, also pushing cars further into the middle, which you have to guess where it is, because of the above

 

And mainly age. I'm not old, well I don't feel old being early 40s but my eyes are now. I've recently gone to the opticians to have my first set of glasses and I got their anti glare coating which I assumed was a con, but it's worked for me. They are fresh so we'll see how resilient they are after a year or two. Also before when I drove round west Wales delivering cars to customers, I used to wear yellow shades at night and they helped as well. 

 

I used to love driving at night, even used to prefer riding at night, not so much now, in fact I hate short journeys around here past sunset 

 

[wymberley]

I got older. 

Went through the slowing down bit, the looking at the nearside kerb bit and the clip on polaroid anti dazzle glases which did work, but in the end I realised my eyes weren't adjusting quickly any more. Don't drive at night now except in built up areas and the short dash to the farm. The only inconvenience is that a couple of choice restaurants out in the sticks are reserved now for summer evenings.

EDIT: Just seen Strimmer's last bullet point - except for the riding, absolutely spot on.

Edited December 14, 2023 by wymberley

[marsh man]

I now try and avoid night time driving all together even though our roads are fairly quite , even worse when it is raining and at my age I cannot see it getting any better ( excuse the pun ) , so unless it is urgent I now leave the journey till it get light .

[enfieldspares]

2 hours ago, Pushkin said:

I find as I get older, I cannot cope with the lights of oncoming cars, be they main beam or dipped.  I find this a bit worrying as I do not want to end up in an accidental crash or be the victim of one?  How do others cope with this issue?  I am going to see my Optician and will mention this to him/her to see if there is a simple thing like the yellow lenses that others have said works for them.

Pushkin 

Me too. I had some new glasses a month ago and they have anti-glare coatings. Also making sure your windscreen is clean helps. For cars behind my Mazda 2 came as standard with what they call a "dipping (rear view) mirror".

[Dave at kelton]

2 hours ago, Bigbob said:

You can get a pair of yellow glasses like sunglasses the really help , What gets me is the amount of folk that drive on full beam and wait till they light up your car before putting them on dipped beam 

+ 1

[team tractor]

I find a clean screen makes a massive difference. 
I have the led headlights on my van and they’re amazing but I know cars don’t like them driving towards me . 
 

I get flashed regularly but my lights are self adjusting on height and I don’t have my high beam on 

[BlaserF3]

3 hours ago, Pushkin said:

I find as I get older, I cannot cope with the lights of oncoming cars, be they main beam or dipped.  I find this a bit worrying as I do not want to end up in an accidental crash or be the victim of one?  How do others cope with this issue?  I am going to see my Optician and will mention this to him/her to see if there is a simple thing like the yellow lenses that others have said works for them.

Pushkin 

Depends how old you are. I had cataracts when I was in my sixties caused by smoking, removed, it made a very big difference to my night vision and bright lights are not a really big problem now.

[bruno22rf]

I think you may have Cataracts, common problem, get em sorted and you will not believe the difference.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

I wear a spare pair of yellow shooting glasses, have been doing so for years to soften the glare.

[Westley]

I was at the Opticians yesterday and I raised this very topic. Since having a detached retina,  which led to later surgery for cataract in my left eye, I suffer from bright sunlight, especially at this time of year. I was asked how I coped with driving at night. I admitted that I find some headlights worse than others, but I tend to watch the nearside kerb and try to avoid looking at oncoming headlights. My own vehicle is fitted with auto dipping headlights which I will not use. I think they do not react quickly enough to oncoming traffic, thus causing oncoming drivers to flash or even leave their lights on main beam. The yellow glasses don't work for me and the Optician did not seem to think they worked very well either. The only other thing I have done, which I find invaluable, is to fit a 'dash mat'. That stops a lot of daytime sunlight glare, but I think it helps stop a lot of nightime reflection too. It is certainly an age related thing in my case. I drove emergency vehicles day and night for some 30 years, then after retirement, I drove for the Locum service, which was always at night. IF, yellow glasses worked, I do think emergency service drivers would be issued with them.

I would add that I am paranoid about a clean windscreen.  I carry neat windscreen washer additive in the vehicle and use a non scratch pan scrub to clean both screen and wiper blades. In winter, I clean ALL of the car windows and lights, before every journey. Just a carry on from my previous employment. 

Edited December 14, 2023 by Westley

[Vince Green]

4 hours ago, Bigbob said:

 What gets me is the amount of folk that drive on full beam and wait till they light up your car before putting them on dipped beam 

Cars with automatic dipping headlights do that. My stepdaughter has a car thats terrible in that respect. They don't dip till the last minute.

She was told to drive on full beam and let the car do the rest. I wince when you see the oncoming cars getting the full blast and they are powerful lights too