Posted on 07/30/2010 4:37:06 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets
How to achieve good vision while driving during a heavy downpour.
We are not sure why it is so effective; just try this method when it rains heavily. This method was told by a Police friend who had experienced and confirmed it. It is useful...even driving at night.
Most of the motorists would turn on HIGH or FASTEST SPEED of the wipers during heavy downpour, yet the visibility in front of the windshield is still bad......
In the event you face such a situation, just try your SUN GLASSES (any model will do), and miracle! All of a sudden, your visibility in front of your windshield is perfectly clear, as if there is no rain.
Make sure you always have a pair of SUN GLASSES in your car, as you are not only helping yourself to drive safely with good vision, but also might save your friend's life by giving him this idea..
Try it yourself and share it with your friends! Amazing, you still see the drops on the windshield, but not the sheet of rain falling.
You can see where the rain bounces off the road. It works to eliminate the "blindness" from passing semi's spraying you too.
Or the "kick-up spray" if you are following a semi or car in the rain. They ought to teach that little tip in driver's training. It really does work.
This warning is a good one! I wonder how many people know about this~
A 36 year old female had an accident several weeks ago and totaled her car. A resident of Kilgore , Texas, she was traveling between Gladewater & Kilgore. It was raining, though not excessively, when her car suddenly began to hydro-plane and literally flew through the air. She was not seriously injured but very stunned at the sudden occurrence!
When she explained to the highway patrolman what had happened he told her something that every driver should know - NEVER DRIVE IN THE RAIN WITH YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON . She thought she was being cautious by setting the cruise control and maintaining a safe consistent speed in the rain. But the highway patrolman told her that if the cruise control is on when your car begins to hydro-plane and your tires lose contact with the pavement, your car will accelerate to a higher rate of speed making you take off like an airplane. She told the patrolman that was exactly what had occurred.
The patrolman said this warning should be listed, on the driver's seat sun-visor - NEVER USE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE PAVEMENT IS WET OR ICY, along with the airbag warning. We tell our teenagers to set the cruise control and drive a safe speed - but we don't tell them to use the cruise control only when the pavement is dry.
The only person the accident victim found, who knew this (besides the patrolman), was a man who had a similar accident, totaled his car and sustained severe injuries.
NOTE: Some vehicles (like the Toyota Sienna Limited XLE) will not allow you to set the cruise control when the windshield wipers are on. If you send this to 15 people and only one of them doesn't know about this, then it was all worth it. You might have saved a life.
I don’t understand how a car will accelerate in cruise control when tires lose contact with the ground. The wheels would still be spinning and the speedometer will still be registering, so why would the car accelerate?
You make a good point, it’s just that when I hydroplane, I take my foot off the acelerator gently. Cruise control, not sensing inertial effects, will try to maintain constant wheel speed, perhaps with nasty consequences. Maybe that one is just as apochryphal. Like I said, I dunno.
Agreed. That stuff works.
I use sunglasses all the time when it rains. Furthermore, I use sunglasses with lenses that are “high contrast” vision. I am an Oakley fan and their “Fire” and “Fire Polarized” lenses are fantastic in the rain and also on cloudy days.
Been using polorized sunglasses in the rain for years. Works like a charm.
I use that stuff all the time, it works great.
Okay ..
Why not just say, 'dubious'?
[just teasing ya :-)]
And it makes cleaning bug splatter off the windshield a breeze as well. Nothing sticks to it.
This is one of those emails that went around.
I tried it (expensive, polarized Ray-Ban’s). I found it makes no difference.
I suppose if the rain is creating a hazy glare it would.
The sunglasses didn’t help me with night time glare, either.
Nothing spooks me more than the kind of storm with sideways rain, etc. when the wiper blades (no matter the speed) won't help.
Will this work in a white-out too, or do I just pull over and wait? We get some serious white out conditions here too in NE Ohio.
That stuff does work. I used all the time when I had my Benz.
For some reason we stopped buying it?
Thanks for jogging my memory, will have to get some now.
I recommend the version that goes in the washer reservoir. It's easier and works just as well.
In sense 2:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cachet
Main Entry: ca·chet
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from cacher
Date: circa 1639
1 a : a seal used especially as a mark of official approval b : an indication of approval carrying great prestige
2 a : a characteristic feature or quality conferring prestige b : prestige
3 : a medicinal preparation for swallowing consisting of a case usually of rice-flour paste enclosing a medicine
4 a : a design or inscription on an envelope to commemorate a postal or philatelic event b : an advertisement forming part of a postage meter impression c : a motto or slogan included in a postal cancellation
That would be my guess. Sounds somewhat dangerous and a placebo effect at best.
Actually, polarized sunglasses ought to help reduce glare and reflected light somewhat in a downpour. Obviously, wipers in good condition and the use of Rain-X (or similar) on the windshield would be helpful as well.
There are two major issues with driving in a downpour - your own windshield, and the hazing effect of the rain itself. When it’s really pouring (like it was here in Jacksonville yesterday afternoon), the cleanest windshield in the world won’t be enough.
Arrrrrgh! Now you're throwing French words around.
I'm going to need a bigger dictionary ;-)
I’ve used cruise control in the rain for years. I slow down which is the most important factor. I drive an AWD vehicle which may be another factor in that the car can tell when any one of my wheels is turning faster than the others. The cruise control will detect hydroplaning and cut the accelerator faster than I can.
RainX works. So does waxing your windshield with regular car wax.
RainX is awesome.
Yes I did.
I figured a word that simple, you wouldn't misspell by accident.
But I didn't want to go there as my head is starting to hurt. And I have to get to work soon which involves some of that 'physics stuff thingys'(1), so I want my head clear. Nothing too complicated like 'Quantim Mechanicals'(1), just that 'Newtonian type stuff'(1).
(1) Technical Terms.
:-)
I can confirm that I definitely use my sunglases in the rain. In fact I wear them most of the time. But the glasses I wear are hard to find and are fairly expensive. They are Revo polarized photo chromatic optically ground glass they substantially improve visual acuity.
IMO they were the very best you could get for the money, but unfortunately Revo stopped making them a few years ago. Serengeti makes a few modes and Ray Ban also makes one or two models, but none are as good as the rose colored Revo polarized photochromatics.
When I found out Revo stopped making them I bought several pairs to keep for later as I will no doubt eventually break of lose a pair now and then.
I can confirm that I definitely use my sunglases in the rain. In fact I wear them most of the time. But the glasses I wear are hard to find and are fairly expensive. They are Revo polarized photo chromatic optically ground glass they substantially improve visual acuity.
IMO they were the very best you could get for the money, but unfortunately Revo stopped making them a few years ago. Serengeti makes a few modes and Ray Ban also makes one or two models, but none are as good as the rose colored Revo polarized photochromatics.
When I found out Revo stopped making them I bought several pairs to keep for later as I will no doubt eventually break of lose a pair now and then.
Tere you are. Te dirty scoundrel wo stole tat letter between te g and j from my keyboard.
To see better in heavy rain, get your face closer to the windshield.
The car doesn’t accelerate, (although it does feel like it) but the wheels lose traction and the cruise control keeps the wheels spinning at the set speed. This prevents the tires from regaining traction, and you skid off the road with your drive wheels trying to keep the car travelling at the set speed.
Without cruise control, you reflexively lift your foot off the accelerator pedal, which allows the wheels to slow down, thereby regaining traction and control.
Snopes is not trustworthy about politically charged subjects; why trust them for anything else?
Hey, good news then, there may be a movie of Quantum Leap.
http://www.screenstar.com/Blog/Entry/59
Snopes is not trustworthy about politically charged subjects; why trust them for anything else?
Question. What should a baseball outfielder do with an incoming fly ball?
Answer. Cachet
Sorry, thought I was on the Friday silliness thread.
Thanks, I will try it.
Well, I just assumed you were cursing, so I pardoned your French.
Here, I’ll give ‘em all back:
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Lots more where those came from!
good stuff
and excellent for making bugs easier to scrub off when on a long summer road trip
You could have thrown a few A’s. HAHAHAHA
I was in a mini van with brakes designed not to lock. Suddenly, in a rain storm, a freaking idiot pulled out in front of me and I slammed on the brakes. They “let go” and began pumping themselves until I crash-stopped in the side of the car. Before that kicked in, I was stopping fine and was on the way to avoiding a crash.
Luckily, my brother-in-law knows how to undo computerized “safety” crap on autos. Made me a believer in his warning. Human brains often work better than do computers.
The ABS would have allowed you to STEER away from the incident had you trusted it a bit more.
You were doing just great, but your threshold braking BROKE THROUGH the threshold, which started the ABS pulsating brake action.
The whole purpose of ABS is to keep the amount of skidding by the tires to a minimum, which will allow the driver to STEER away from the problem, rather than HOPE they stop in time.
Though I wasn’t there and cannot know the whole story, I see this as a very good example of technology that outstrips the training and knowledge base of the driver. As far as I am concerned, unless the purchaser, manufacturer and dealer are willing to invest the time to inform their customers about both the advantages and detriments of the new “safety” technologies and HOW TO USE IT, they should NOT sell it.
This is only an outgrowth of having better and more sophisticated technology in our cars, and another reason for having drivers rewrite tests on basic driving knowledge every 5 years, and take a road test every 10 years until 70, then every 2 years thereafter.
Thanks for explaining the techonolgy to me, Don.
I wanted control at that moment of emergency and I had control fo my van...until I didn’t. I know I would have avoided an accident under my own control.
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