Posted by It’s that time of year when the sun is low in the sky, and twice a day at around commuting time, it can be a real problem.
Data from the Department of Transport suggests that around 4000 people are injured in crashes annually, where sun blinding was a contributing factor.
Because the sun is low in the sky during winter, and often we have wet roads that reflect the bright sunshine, the problem can be quite severe. Often, your sun visor isn’t enough to stop you being suddenly blinded by the glare. There’s also the problem that with bare trees and hedges, the light flickers through the side windows producing a strobing effect that can seriously affect your concentration.
So, what can you do to help lessen the problems?
Well, a good pair of sunglasses can help a lot. I say a good pair because many cheaper sunglasses have very bad optics and can magnify the problems, quite literally. The best ones will have polarising lenses. These work by effectively blocking out horizontal light but allowing vertical light to pass through. This actually should give you improved vision in the glare. Keep your sunglasses in your car too so that they are always available.
You can usually unclip one end of the sun visor and swing it round so that it protects the side of your face from the strobing effect if the low sun is to your side, and likewise, you can do this on the passenger side if you need to.
There’s a really important one too. Keep your windscreen, and rear windows clean. During the cold weather, the inside of your windscreen is going to get misted up overnight as the warmer air inside your car cools against the cold windscreen. You should not use a cloth or tissues to wipe the inside of the screen, but rather use the airconditioning. I know it sounds mad, but it will clear a windscreen faster than putting the heater on in a cold car. If you have to use a cloth of some sort, it’s really important that it’s clean and doesn’t have polish on it. The use of the heater/demister during winter will leave a greasy deposit on the inside of your screen over time too (Because the air it’s pulling into the car contains all the pollution from car fumes etc outside.) and this must be removed with a good proprietary screen cleaner.
It’s actually a good idea to replace your wiper blades prior to winter too. They are not expensive at around £10-15 a pair for most cars. Keep your washer fluid topped up with a proprietary washer fluid. You can buy ready to use fluid, or for about the same price, get three times as much by mixing it yourself. During the winter the fluid should be a stronger mix because it has antifreeze built in and will still remain fluid when sprayed onto your screen on a cold day. Incidentally, the windchill effect can mean that the temperature over your screen will freeze screenwash in seconds if it’s not strong enough, and this can be very dangerous if you’re on the move.
My old SAAB had a built-in screenwash heater and it was amazing. I can’t understand why all cars don’t have them. The hot screenwash worked better all year round and people used to give my car funny looks as the steaming jets cleaned my screen in the winter.
Another rather obvious one is to change the time you commute if there’s a particularly bad road or bad junction that you need to use. You won’t need to change your timing by much, as the sunrise changes by about 10 minutes every fortnight at this time of year and sunset by about 10 minutes every 9 days. As we creep back into spring and summer, the difference gets faster.
The simplest way to protect yourself is to make sure you allow a little more time for your commute, not just so you have more time to make sure junctions are clear, but because everyone else will be having the same issues.