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High Contrast Glasses At Night
Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2009 1:18 am
by Squishy
On unlit streets, I sometimes drive at night wearing high-contrast glasses (you may know them as shooting glasses) to highlight lane markings, shadows, and, during a snowstorm, where the two tire tracks on the road are.
Are there any legal ramifications of doing this? The light transmittance of these amber glasses are around 75%, compared to sunglasses which I think are around 20%. There's s. 73 (2) of the HTA which prohibits any coloured coating on the windows, and I guess I'm violating the "spirit of the law" by wearing coloured glasses. I could get by with just my yellow fog lights in a snowstorm, but they don't seem to help with lane markings on wet roads, where the high-contrast lenses do.
BTW, MTO really needs to start putting more recessed Bott's dots on our highways, or at least switch to a more reflective lane marking paint.
Re: High Contrast Glasses At Night
Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2009 2:18 am
by racer
Squishy wrote:On unlit streets, I sometimes drive at night wearing high-contrast glasses (you may know them as shooting glasses) to highlight lane markings, shadows, and, during a snowstorm, where the two tire tracks on the road are.
Are there any legal ramifications of doing this? The light transmittance of these amber glasses are around 75%, compared to sunglasses which I think are around 20%. There's s. 73 (2) of the HTA which prohibits any coloured coating on the windows, and I guess I'm violating the "spirit of the law" by wearing coloured glasses. I could get by with just my yellow fog lights in a snowstorm, but they don't seem to help with lane markings on wet roads, where the high-contrast lenses do.
BTW, MTO really needs to start putting more recessed Bott's dots on our highways, or at least switch to a more reflective lane marking paint.
I think that the law was written to allow the police the view of the inside of your vehicle. Wearing shades should be fine...
Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:43 am
by Squishy
That's another part of the same section. Section 73 (2) deals with the driver's view of the highway, while s. 73 (3) is the other half that deals with persons from the outside looking in. It specifies windows and windshields, so I'm legally in the clear as far as that section goes.
Maybe 'careless driving' if the officer doesn't like the glasses. How would I demonstrate in court that the glasses were safe?
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:58 pm
by racer
Perhaps convince the JP to kill the lights and try the glasses on?