Best glasses for driving
There’s three main issues that come up with driving glasses when you need a prescription:
- What type of tinting is best?
- What type of lens design – single focus, bi-focal, or progressives – work best for driving?
- Do you mind having a separate pair of driving glasses, or do you want to do everything in your life with just one pair of glasses?
Lens tint options
Fixed tints
Be aware that you can get all sorts of colours and intensity of tint – so you can get lenses with less tint if you find regular sunglasses too dark, or, if you have a pair of existing sunglasses that you really love the tint colour and intensity, you can ask to have the tint matched in your new pair. You can also get them made as ‘gradu-tints’ – where the top of the lens is more tinted than the bottom. That makes sense because most of the light you want to block will be from above.
Polarised lenses reduce glare in an extra way – they selectively block out more light from reflected sources. Light reflecting off other surfaces is often responsible for what we feel as ‘glare’. So with polarised lenses you cut out more of the light you don’t want, while getting more of the light you want.
Clip-on tinted lenses work well if you don’t mind having to remember to take the little clip-on bit with you. They have the advantage of having a clear lens underneath, so you can turn tinted lenses into clear ones when the sun goes down, or whenever you don’t need glare protection. Most clip-ons have polarised lenses in them, but be sure to check. Lots of frame models now have a matching clip-on, so that the whole unit still looks good. Some people opt to have a photochromatic lens as the base lens, and then they only need to use the clip-on when they are in the car.
Changing tint – photochromatic – lenses
Due to some good marketing efforts, this type of lens is mainly known in Australia by one brand, Transitions. The lens reacts to UV light and goes darker, coming clear indoors. Standard photochromatic lenses are not polarised, and so not quite as good as a dedicated sunglass lens for glare, and they take a little time to adjust, so not as good as a clear lens indoors – but many people find it more convenient just having the one pair of glasses, rather that different pairs for indoors and out.
There is a special caution though for photochromatic lenses and driving, and that is that they won’t go as dark inside a car as they will outdoors. The reason being that the car windows reduce UV, and it’s UV that keeps the lenses dark. For people that drive a lot, or long distances, a standard photochromatic lens may not perform well enough, again, for many the convenience of not having to change between different pairs of specs outweighs the performance drop.
Drivewear
Perhaps the ultimate lens for driving has arrived – the Drivewear brand combines a polarised lens with some photochromatic properties to produce a lens with both variable tint and excellent glare reduction. It’s available in single focus and as a progressive lens. In low light levels it has a mild green-yellow tint, moving through copper-coloured to a reddish-brown tint in bright light. Part of the changing tint doesn’t depend on UV to trigger, so it still changes tint inside a car. Because the tint doesn’t fade to clear, it’s definitely a second pair of specs for those that need glasses fulltime. It’s not cheap, but if you want something optimized for driving, this is the best I’ve seen around.
What about when the sun goes down?
The best prescription lens for driving at night is a clear lens with an anti-reflective coating.
- Fixed tint glasses will have to be swapped for another set for night driving.
- Clip-ons can be taken off leaving a clear lens underneath.
- Transitions say their lenses can be used for driving at night.
- The ‘Drivewear’ manufacturers recommend not using them for night driving.
Lens design
Under 40-ish
Things are simple before you reach the age of needing reading glasses. Driving glasses are single focus long distance lenses. Your eyes’ natural focus will take care of reading maps, the dashboard etc.
40s+ (ish)
Once you reach the stage of needing a reading prescription that’s different to your long distance prescription – which for most people is some time mid forties, things get a bit more complicated.
- Single focus long distance lenses
Great distance vision | Borderline to poor dashboard vision
- Bifocals
Good distance vision | Good to borderline dashboard vision
For people in their 40s, a regular bifocal lens should work well for dashboard distance, but from 50s and on, a regular bifocal section might be focussed a little too close to get really sharp dashboard detail.
- Progressive lenses
Good distance vision | Peripheral vision dependent on lens design | Good dashboard vision | All progressive lenses have some distortion out to the sides.
There are lots of different designs of progressive lenses, each with a different emphasis placed on long distance, intermediate and close work. What this means is that the best progressive design for, say working at the computer (an intermediate vision task), is different to the best design for driving, where long distance vision is the main emphasis. If you are getting a pair of progressive lenses mainly for driving, be sure to ask about the progressive lens design.
If it’s your first time in progressives, don’t take to the road in them straight away. Give yourself a little bit of time to get used to the variable focus and the peripheral distortion before hitting the road.
One other thing about progressives – it’s hard to get them to work well in frames that have a lot of ‘wrap around’. A frame with a flatter/ less wrapped front will work better.
Specific driving glasses or one pair to try and do everything?
This is perhaps the biggest question for you to think about in your choice of glasses for driving. A specific set of glasses for driving can be made in quite a customised way to suit your requirements. But they may mean they aren’t suitable for other activities.
How much of a hassle is it to swap them for another pair for other tasks? People that drive long distances, or drive for leisure might be quite comfortable swapping specs when they get to their destination, but a courier delivery driver, for instance, would be driven batty if they had to change specs at every stop to check the parcel dockets.
For some people, the priority is to have just one pair of glasses. Swapping from one pair of specs to another is a formula to them for leaving behind/ losing glasses. That’s fine, as long its realised you can’t optimise a pair of specs for driving AND computer AND reading AND as a sunglass all at the same time.
