Nightime Driving

[Tilly2]

I am really unnerved and upset.

I have just returned from a journey through the countryside to a village eight miles away. I hit the kerb twice, once going and once coming back.

I have never hit the kerb before and wondered if I am now safe to drive in the darkness. There was a lot of oncoming traffic due to the 'rush hour' and I found the journey quite difficult.
Do night-time spectacles help, at all? What has happened to my vision?

[Tilly2]

Another 'joy' of getting older then, 237. :-(

[diddlydo]

Tilly - you are not alone. I like driving and am 100% confident in the daytime but in the last year or so I really don't like night driving. I wonder whether some of it is due to the very bright lights of modern cars which seem to blind me???

[237SJ]

Probably. I was told this by a work colleague who had had been to see his optician and that's what he was told.

[rockyracoon]

“I wonder whether some of it is due to the very bright lights of modern cars which seem to blind me???”

I’d agree with that, they do seem so much brighter.

[Tilly2]

Can somebody verify that car headlights are now a lot brighter than they used to be?

[Baldric]

Yes I think they are. I have just upgraded my dipped beam bulbs, mucc better spread of light now, and no, they don't dazzle anyone.

[EDDIE51]

ALL modern cars now have Halogen lights. They are a lot brighter than the old Tungsten filament type.Night time glasses are NO help at all, in fact they just make things worse. From your comment about hitting the kerb , NO you are NOT safe to drive in darkness. I strongly advise you to give up night time driving.

[Prudie]

Yes many of the latest cars now have Xenon or LED headlights and they really dazzle so exacerbates the problem, I think they dazzle all ages!

[bainbrig]

All excellent advice Tilly. The only point I’d differ on is your choice of optician. If you’ve got a local independent one, you might get a better service - their advice will be less about what fancy frames they want to flog you!

[jno]

agree with 1581960, I also find driving at night increasingly difficult, and in the rain I go at a crawl (only a matter of time before some cop breathalyses me, I suspect). And that's on the well regulated streets of London, not winding country lanes.

Something similar happened about 20 years ago when I was only in my 40s: oncoming car lights were dazzling and confusing me. I mentioned it to my osteopath, who poked and prodded my spine and lo and behold, the problem vanished.

He said, as I understood it, that slightly misaligned vertebrae were squeezing a nerve that widened and narrowed the iris - it was working too slowly, so my eyes weren't contracting when bright light shone at them. I have no idea how that works but maybe it has some relevance to you.

[EDDIE51]

All large Hospital will have an 'eye clinic' which will test your eyes without trying to sell you the latest expensive glasses. The clinic can also do a 'Night Vision' test , and offer free advice.

[237SJ]

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/health/13brody.html

[Baldric]

Mrs B and myself have used Specsavers for years, have had a first rate service and never been pressured to buy the most expensive frames or anything else we didn't want.

[kvalidir]

I've got appalling vision and DO find driving glasses a help, but as Chris says make sure your windscreen is sparkling inside and out because if it gets that nasty mikly road film on it that you get this time of year it really spreads oncoming lights. I'm 20 btw so nothing to do with my age, but I like my driving glasses.x

[EDDIE51]

If you hit the kerb , you need to get the wheel tracking & alinement checked, you may well have put it out of alinement. Take the car to a service station and explain what happened. They will check it free.

[Tilly2]

I have an appointment at Boots optician tomorrow afternoon now, B. If I'm not happy, I shall go elsewhere. I'm not a designer frame sort of person. The simpler, the better.

[237SJ]

I suspect that they will just tell you that your eyes don't respond to changes between light and dark when you get a bit older.

[Tilly2]

I really just want to know that I don't have a major problem with my vision.

[Baldric]

/// Take the car to a service station and explain what happened. They will check it free ///

Yeah right!

[237SJ]

I`m not an expert but I would be very surprised if you do, to be honest