Nightwalking for aging eyes

[Rich Jordan]

Since we brought a new dog into the family last year, we've been walking him in the evening for about 1 hour (morning too). There are two routes out of our development, one leading to a major road that still has a lot of traffic at night, the other to a side road that is quieter but 'rolls'. I've always been a little 'photophobic', which drove the eye doctors nuts as I'd tear up when they were doing the bright light exams; apparently the sensitivity is increasing with age. Walking through neighborhoods or at the park, distant parking lot or bright porch lights appear 'piercing' and really hamper any developed night vision. But cars are the worst, in the park parking lots or access roads, and especially on that rolling back road; you can be walking along and get no hint of an oncoming car (several hundred feet away) till it crests and blast its headlights in your face (often enough someone with those wretched HID retrofits that make it even worse).

I carry a dual mode flashlight too; the low mode (18-20 lumens, I think) is almost too bright when it hits the white dog or other light surfaces but lower light levels make it hard to pick out the droppings from the grass and dirt for pickup; bright is unusable except for special circumstances (like a skunk or coyote, which seem to dislike getting 190 lumens in the face and go away)

Sunglasses are a no go, even mildly tinted ones; there's not enough ambient light in many areas (not a lot of street lighting) when the moon is not full to counter their effect. I wear a baseball cap (in winter the coat hood has a visor, or I wear a brimmed insulated hat) and I find myself tipping my head down to interpose the cap bill to block the light.

That of course puts me in the classic 'victim wannabe' pose, walking along head down a lot of the time... so I can still see in all the darker areas. I'm sure walking with a 65 pound vigorous dog is a counter, but still. This is ill annoy. No defensive carry allowed.

So are there any good options for dealing with the impact on vision of excessive light while walking at night?

[Fivetoes]

Best I can think of is polarizing lens. However the more polarizing, the darker the lens. It is something like 50 percent transmission with full polarization.
Keep your eye on the dog too, he should be alerting you to anybody in your immediate area that you are not aware of.

[Aglifter]

Have you tried a night driving lens? (EG, yellow shooting glasses) - they seem to really cut glare, and not interfere w. seeing too much.

[308Mike]

When a car comes over the hill and/or heads towards you while you're facing it, try closing one eye until it passes, and use the same eye each time (at least until you get your full night vision back into the light-blasted eye). Alternate protected eyes each evening.

If you find closing one eye messes up your vision, making it blurry until you can get it cleared, try using a flip-down eye patch to cover it as you turn your head away/to-the-side until you get the patch down.

It's one way to maintain SOME night vision when around vehicles at night.

[Rich Jordan]

Which brings up another issue that I've mentioned before but not in this thread. My right eye doesn't work too well; lazy eye with a pretty big dark spot in the middle; I can see motion pretty well, have great peripheral vision, and can move around without bumping into things with it but (f.ex) can't read or aim with it. That's why I have to shoot rifle off the left shoulder, and shoot handguns in the right hand but aimed with the left eye. No stereo vision either.

Closing one eye is better than nothing for the short term (when I walk where I know there are stationary problem lights, I can close one in advance).

I think I'll pick up a mildly tinted polarized clip-on to try. Maybe one of those dorky banker's visors with the transparent tinted bill would be worth a shot.

[Frosch]

Polarized lenses won't help -- at all. Their beauty is that they are selective, assuming you have
incoming glare which is polarized. Other than very minor headlight reflection off the pavement,
that won't be the case. Therefore, they act as tinted lenses, cutting everything equally.

[Evyl Robot]

Have you tried a night driving lens? (EG, yellow shooting glasses) - they seem to really cut glare, and not interfere w. seeing too much.

I also wonder if the funky yellow lenses would do anything for you.

[308Mike]

I think I'll pick up a mildly tinted polarized clip-on to try. Maybe one of those dorky banker's visors with the transparent tinted bill would be worth a shot.

Or any kind of visor which you can tilt your head and use the visor to block the light coming to your face/eyes. Hell, I see people walking around here after dark wearing wide-brimmed straw beach hats (especially when it's warm out), so having someone dip their head (to block the light) as you're driving towards them wouldn't be unusual AT ALL.

[Rich Jordan]

Or any kind of visor which you can tilt your head and use the visor to block the light coming to your face/eyes. Hell, I see people walking around here after dark wearing wide-brimmed straw beach hats (especially when it's warm out), so having someone dip their head (to block the light) as you're driving towards them wouldn't be unusual AT ALL.

Yep, do that already with my baseball cap or winter headgear; that's why I'm wondering if a tinted/transparent visor cap would be a useful thing to try.

With the rolling road, there's literally no warning before getting an eyeful of headlights... often the parking lots across the park too... by the time you dip you've already taken a real hit to the dark adjustment you might have built up...

[308Mike]

With the rolling road, there's literally no warning before getting an eyeful of headlights... often the parking lots across the park too... by the time you dip you've already taken a real hit to the dark adjustment you might have built up...

Is it possible for you to install (pound into the ground) stakes with reflective indicators to let you know there's bright headlights coming your way? Perhaps some reflectors across the way just to give you a heads-up?