enipla I ordered those with prescription frames from Maui Jim. They’ve been excellent.
Ace sunglasses are for slapping on your face when it’s bright out. They make it easier to see, and they should protect your eyes. Second, if your vision is so compromised that you can’t see where you are going (glare, asteroid, moose, whatever) stop accelerating and consider braking. Otherwise, you hit stuff.
Why? Anyone can be blinded by the sun at anytime. People here have said it can happen even with sunglasses.
I get checked by an ophthalmologist annually, that includes the condition of the eye and vision test. I’ll have cataract surgery when he recommends it.
I am looking into transition lens and over the glasses sunglasses.
Glare had always been manageable for me. I’ve driven for 40 years in Urban areas. I’m a little older now and realize there are steps I can take to be safer.
I started this thread to gauge how others manage sun glare when driving.
I’m making changes regardless of the poll.
I’m going by Target this afternoon to buy sunglasses that are worn over prescription glasses.
Transition lens will be included in my new glasses I order after my eye appointment in a few weeks.
I don’t care for sunglasses but I do keep some in the car. I particularly don’t care for sunglasses in the shade and, since most of my driving isn’t open highway in Big Sky Country, I’m transitiining from sunny to shade very often, even a few times a second in trees. I mostly wear them when it’s really bad or at the beach, apres ski, street festival, sporting event, etc.
I don’t agree with the reflexive ‘You need to hang up the keys!’ comments but you should be concerned that something changed. We assume you’ve been driving nonblinded for decades and the sun is a pretty consistent thing. Suddenly, this consistent thing is blinding you to the point of losing control of your car.
I never, ever wear sunglasses. No matter how bright the sun is, when I wear sunglasses I feel like I can’t see. It feel claustrophobic.
The only time glare bothers me is if I am driving straight into the sun–like the exact wrong 10 minutes on a particular day on a particular road. If I come around a corner and can’t see, I brake.
One time I was driving into bad glare. Visor was down, head back, and I was going very slow–no faster than I could see to brake in time. Angle shifted and the glare lifted and I realized there were two bikers in the lane next to me. Freaked me the fuck out. I mean, I would NOT have changed lanes into a lane I couldn’t see clearly, but it was still a stark reminder that when glare is really bad, it can wash a lot out.
I’ve always worn polarized sunglasses against driving glare (I want to see the road, not the windshield), but starting in my 40s, intense pinpoint glare, like the kind scintillating off the chrome of the car in front of me, started triggering migraines - the kind that ruin your whole day, including fun optical hallucinations. At the least, worrying about getting a migraine from glare makes me extremely cautious of it on the road.
I never wear sunglasses, but usually have to wear a hat brim.
I was told by an eye doctor that cataracts can make sun glare and oncoming headlights worse, due to the clouded eye lens refractory issues and the brain being unable to interpret it correctly and being overwhelmed. A friend who just had cataract surgery said that was her experience.
Because you think it’s fine to pull out into traffic even when you can’t see. Then you blamed people with compact cars for the damage you caused with your gas guzzler.
Anyone can get blinded. It’s not your fault that you were blinded by the sun. It is your fault that you were operating a motor vehicle, realized you couldn’t see anything, and it never occurred to you to use the brake. Instead, you just kept on going through a turn, completely unable to see, until you crashed head-on into a stationary car.
If your reflexes and common sense are so degraded that “I should stop and figure this out” never entered your mind when you were suddenly completely blind, then you are no longer equipped to safely operate a car.
I was crossing in front of three lanes of traffic. The left turn signal was about to cycle off. There’s an urgency to get clear before those cars start moving.
I can’t pinpoint when I realized the glare was overwhelming. The entire turn took under 10 to 15 secs. I did start breaking just before hitting the car.
Low speeds made a big difference in the outcome. Air bags didn’t even deploy.
There’s no question that I’m at fault.
Sometimes accidents happen in spite of being careful.
Hard to see how you were “being careful” in this situation.
Sun glare sucks, and I’m short, so the visor is definitely not enough. My 8th grade biology teacher told us that sun glare is more of a problem for people with light colored eyes and eyelashes than it is for someone with brown eyes and dark lashes that can absorb more light instead of reflecting it, and this seems to bear out because glare bothers me, a person with blue(ish) eyes and blonde lashes, more often than my brown-eyed friends.
Those other cars are not going to start moving while you are still there. Unless they proceed despite being temporarily struck blind.
Dude, was it a year ago you rear ended someone because you assumed that the car in front of you were going to merge into traffic? IIRC, you were checking oncoming traffic over your shoulder or in the rearview mirror and started driving on the assumption that the driver in front of you had also decided to merge?
The thing about cataracts is that they diffuse light, almost like the effect you get if you smear a camera lens with vaseline. That means it’s harder to pick up tiny details. Adding a glare to that will only worsen the situation.
I don’t care what you say about your eye doctor. I have been in the exact same situation: “We’ll see at your check-up next year.” My eye sight made it legal for me to drive, and I’m sure you are too.
That didn’t mean I was fit for driving. Get the damn procedure and report back. None of this “I’m gonna try this and see if it helps.” It won’t be cheaper than surgery if someone is seriously injured, including yourself.
BTW: I’m about your age I think, have been driving in urban traffic for 40+ years and I thought I was fine.
Affect, God damn it!
That out of the way, I own two pairs of prescription glasses: the sunglasses live in the car, precisely because of glare. The visor doesn’t do jackshit at sunup.
I have blue eyes and have always been very sensitive to glare, even when I was a kid. I wear prescription sunglasses anytime I’m outside and it’s sunny, and certainly while driving. (The prescription sunglasses are a relatively recent development; the prescription isn’t very strong, but it’s helpful for reading, and I got tired of not being able to read my phone when I was outside on my bike looking for a bike-share station, or using the GPS function, or checking when the next bus was coming, etc.)
I wouldn’t dream of daytime driving without sunglasses; they live in my purse. Before I had prescription ones, I always made sure to have regular ones that covered up my whole eye area so no glare got around the sides.
At certain times of year at sunset, I get really bad sun glare on my commute home. So I, uh, proceed very carefully and don’t make blind turns hoping for the best.
Thank you. 
Sun glare doesn’t effect my driving vision, but it does affect it.
Usually it’s not too bad, but if I have to drive east in the morning or west in the evening it can be super annoying. Also if I’m trying to check my blind spot by looking over my shoulder and the sun just happens to be right in my eyes.