Most people wear driving glasses of one kind or another, including sunglasses to help their vision when driving in bright sunlight. But what color lenses are the most optimum for both bright and overcast conditions?
Firstly, your driving glasses should also protect against 99-100% of all UV rays. You should also remember that despite the color or darkness of the lens, it is the clear outer coating that filters the rays and not the color of the lens itself.
Most people are now aware that they need UV protection and UV radiation comes in at least two primary forms, UVA and UVB and both carry their own dangers. UVA can lead to premature skin aging while UVB may cause skin cancer. UVC has lower radiation and is mostly found in artificial sources such as certain types of lamps. While short-term exposure is not really harmful to the eyes, repeated and extended exposure is.
When considering purchasing new driving glasses, make sure you buy a high quality pair, hopefully these should be polarized sunglasses as they cut out a great deal of the solar glare and dazzle that can result in a temporary blinding effect. Polarized sunglasses work by only allowing light through in a particular direction, and blocking the reflective light that is thrown up from all directions and creating the distracting reflections. Wearing polarized lenses will give you sharper vision and better depth perception by cutting out these reflective rays..
The choice of color of lens for your driving glasses may be determined by the normal weather conditions where you live. However, brown may be the best all-round choice where lighting and weather conditions tend to vary greatly.
For more specific conditions such as driving in strong sunlight, try blue lenses as these will increase contrast by filtering out more of the yellow light and thus improve clarity. Grey will lend itself to medium lighting conditions and provide better color perception while on the road. If driving at dusk, or when the weather is overcast objects can look similar and you will find that amber or yellow lenses will improve contrast greatly.
Finally, don’t be fooled into thinking that the cheapest glasses you can find are as good as the more expensive designer sun glasses. The dearer ones are so for a good reason, years of research and technological advancements have led to superior frames and lenses. Driving can be a precarious activity at the best of times, so put the odds back in your favour and get yourself a pair of polarized driving glasses.
Designer sun glasses are available online with polarized lenses in different colors. Getting the correct lenses will make a real difference when you are driving, so see our range of polarised sunglasses before you make your choice.