blinded by car head lights

Tiddlywinks

Stooby2 wrote: »

This may sound daft, but I got this tip off my grandfather for preserving night vision, a trick he learnt in the Army - close one eye. You'll preserve the night vision in that eye so when the car has gone past you will still have reasonable night vision.

Isn't that why pirates wore patches? To preserve night vision when they went below deck:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/52493/why-did-pirates-wear-eye-patches

skivenov

gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »

The headlight war is full on, aided and abetted by ever more LED fairy lights glittering away, factor in massive red eye from more brake lights than you can shake a stick at.

I don't know the answer for bikes, but my van has a set of spot lights on the front and worklights on the back, colloquially referred to as "tw*t-dazzlers". If they don't sort their lives out on a polite flash of the normal headlights, they get the lot.

Stooby2

Tiddlywinks wrote:

Isn't that why pirates wore patches?

Absolutely! It was well known in the days of yore for pirates sailing the Carribean Sea to be blinded by Dwayne in his Escort and its 100w headlamps sailing towards them!

DigForVictory

+1 for polarised lenses for night riding. Sure it's counterintuitive but cutting a little light to maintain overall vision is a worthwhile trade off!

mutley74

don't even get me started with the idiots who have fog lights on when there is no sign of fog!

tykesi

mutley74 wrote: »

don't even get me started with the idiots who have fog lights on when there is no sign of fog!

Nobody did! You seem to have started that all by yourself just like your little rant at bikers daring to have their lights on!

Stooby2

DigForVictory wrote: »

+1 for polarised lenses for night riding. Sure it's counterintuitive but cutting a little light to maintain overall vision is a worthwhile trade off!

Are you seriously suggesting it's a good idea to wear sunglasses at night?

mattyprice4004

tykesi wrote: »

Nobody did! You seem to have started that all by yourself just like your little rant at bikers daring to have their lights on!

Daring to have their lights on? He was talking about bikes with stupidly bright headlights, not all bikes with lights on. Perhaps it's YOU who needs to go to SpecSavers?

Plus, the topic is about bright headlights, so both points he makes are relevant and valid. Engage brain before hitting 'reply'

facade

In The Olden Days night driving glasses with a yellow tint, to block the ultraviolet down to the blue end of the spectrum, were very popular.

In fact, in France yellow headlamps were mandatory in The Olden Days to reduce perceived dazzle and glare in rain and snow. The reduction in light output was more than offset by the improved visual acuity.

I do believe that you can still order such night driving lenses from your friendly optician.

The obvious idea of not staring at them works to some limited extent, but as motorcyclists we are used to looking where we want the 'bike to go, (if you stare at the oncoming headlamps you will hit them dead centre as a 'bike tends to go where you are looking)

EDIT: Forgot to say that it is a fact that our eye/brain combination has trouble processing short wavelengths of light, and these were known to cause glare problems in The Olden Days, but seem to have been conveniently forgotten about recently.

goonarmy

Op have you had laser surgery?