Commuting - glare on the night commute

does anyone have any ideas for countering the glare of oncoming headlights at night? i commute on a path that parallels a busy hwy and on the ride home i am riding against traffic. the lights from the cars blinds me, and even with a light on the bike i lose nearly all visibility. would wearing grey-lensed sunglasses help? if so are there any brands you guys could recommend?

There's a trail I use for running that has a similar problem. I can't see a thing!! I can only imagine biking along such a trail.

Short of looking down at your pedals, I don't think there's a thing you can do except to find a different route.

I think this is just something we all have to put up with, I have the same issue, it's very hard to see the road in front of you. I find the clear glasses that are not scratched and a bright head light will help a bit. It will be interesting to hear what others do for this.

The only thing I do is to make sure my clear lenses are clean. (Cheapie changeable things from nashbar.com. Well worth it)

I haven't tried this a lot, but the yellow lenses on the ski googles I wear in sub-zero F weather do seem to help without interfering with my vision. Unfortunately, I don't have any yellow lenses to try in warm weather. Anyone else try yellow lenses?

If you do wear lenses, avoid at all cost small micro-scratches in the surface which cause point sources of light to flare. You get these from rubbing with a dry cloth, the small dust particles turn into abraisives. The only way to safe clean plastic lenses is with detergent and water, then dab them dry without rubbing.

I’ve used the yellow lenses the past two years. They help with the glare, but I think they filter too much light. I just bought a set of clear lenses in preparation for winter riding. I probably wont need them for a few weeks.

yeah, i just ordered a pair of yellow lenses for my glasses, and am thinking about getting clear ones. ill let you guys know what i find.

Use a cycling cap. I learned this trick from fellow randonneur Kent Petersen. You can wear it under your helmet and simply duck your head enough to block the headlights until the car passes.

When you say lights... How bright? I find 20W halogens kill most of the glare... The cap is a good idea also.

i don't have a pair, but i had an old friend who wore a pair of yellow lensed driving glasses (not just any yellow lensed glasses) when driving at night... he told me that they're great for reducing glare. you might want to see if you can find a pair of these.

I tried that one time because I was getting too lazy to change to the clear lenses... I find that when it is completly dark outside that any tint reduces my visibility and I tend to run over holes or junk on the road more often...

I know how annoying that glare can be, and I think because I had a laser eye surgery about five years ago it's a bit worse for me now than it used to be (flatter retinas). There is only so much you can do, but I've had luck with certain kinds of tinted sunglasses. Some cheap ones merely tint your vision, without any shading that would be ridiculously dangerous at night. You might want to try something like that.

How about carrying a high intensity rechargable lamp-say 250,000-1,000,000 candles? You could flip that on when overwhelmed and see the trail. Possibly use them in conjunction with sunglasses.

Or for those guys who flip their bright lights on as they approach the cyclist to dim their lights with a taste of their own medicine.

Interesing thread. After moving house in the spring, I have just made the first dark journeys of my new route. Glare is a real problem. A large section of the ride is along a wide bike path (which caters for both directions) that runs alongside a busy dual carriageway. There is also no lighting along the route. On the home run this means one is facing a constant glare of headlights - a very disorienting situation.

Despite having a pretty powerful headlamp on my bike, the dazzle caused by the oncoming traffic makes it very hard to see the path ahead. Not only that, a couple of evenings ago I almost ran into a group of oncoming cyclists. They were wearing dark clothes and had no lights, my only warning being a glint of light from a reflector. Amazingly, they complained to that my light was dazzling them, but without it we would all have been in trouble. I told them to get lights...

The solution in my case is difficult unless I change route, which means a long detour through town with bike-ignorant traffic. Perhaps it will be one of those things you get used too, but I don't like it.

Cheers,

Ed

Had my first chance to commute in the dark home last night with the new lenses. The yellow lenses (rudy project) did a decent job of reducing glare, and made the commute alot safer i feel. i still couldnt see too far down the trail, but at least i could still SEE the trail. i guess having a higher powered headlight would help (im running a cateye 5-LED) but since i rarely commute in the dark it seems like a bit of overkill. if anyone finds any other good ways of reducing glare please let me know.