Tips to help people having issues with night visibility
QI don't usually write to the paper, but was scrolling through one of your recent articles (on visibility issues tied to bright LED headlights) and it's something I've been considering lately.
I've experienced similar issues, even as a young person, to those described in the article. Here are thoughts I'd like to share:
1. Some people never turn off their fog lights, which can appear to other drivers to be high beams or bright LED lights.
2. Perhaps 30% of people don't know they have fog lights. I hadn't experienced fog until a few years ago and eventually figured out that driving Highway 17 in dense fog at night is much easier with fog lights.
3. Cars with a bright digital dashboard can produce too much interior lighting, making exterior visibility more difficult. Turn down interior brightness!
4. I'm a relatively healthy young person, but stare at screens 14-15 hours per day, and sometimes more, which has affected my vision. Night driving is getting more difficult.
My advice for anyone staring at a screen: Limit screen usage as much as possible, follow the 20-2020 rule for taking breaks, and maybe invest in an E-ink monitor, which can be easier on the eyes. — Nick Toscano
AThanks for sharing your tips. The 2020-20 rule is that for every 20 minutes of screen time, you pause to let your eyes relax by looking at objects 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
I asked Liz-a-Roadshow-niece-and-ophthalmologist what she advises about managing screen time. She said that “concentrated near work” (including reading and studying) and screens of any kind (including phone and TV) can make eye dryness worse since we don't blink much at those times, but said this has not been shown to cause retinal damage. Difficulty with night driving may be related to a need for glasses or other conditions unrelated to screen time.
QYou probably remember that when Mike Evanhoe retired from VTA in 2004, the Assembly passed a resolution renaming the Highway 101/ Highway 85 interchange in south San Jose as the Michael Evanhoe Interchange.
The short story is that Mike passed away in the fall of 2021 and the signs were installed in the fall of 2022. — Casey Emoto
AMike Evanhoe served as the first executive director of the Santa Clara County Congestion Management Agency and later, as the chief development officer at VTA. He became the first executive director of the California Transportation Commission.
When the 101/85 interchange in San Jose first opened, it was dangerous, and traffic had to cross lanes to get to 85. Evanhoe found the millions needed to pay for an upgrade to separate the ramps and make the interchange safer.