Yes, apparently quite common as we age. Someone once told me the amount of light entering your eyes is half at age 60 of what it was at age 20.

Early onset of cataracts can also cause this.

Perhaps, but other factors such as confidence play a decent part too.

My mum (78) has voluntarily given up driving as I think she has got far more nervous driving generally as she's got older - for the previous15+ years she stopped driving on motorways/dual carraigeways for similar reasons, often taking longer routes on 'ordinary' roads for certain trips or just leaving the driving to my dad.

Now even my dad (same age) does not like driving in the evenings and avoids the rush hours to avoid the stress (as he see it) of driving at those times. He certainly will not drive on snow now, even locally. It also means that for going to see relatives, unless they can stay overnight or someone else can take them there/back, they won't make the trip any more. They often now meet up with friends/relatives 'half way' for a pub lunch instead, knowing they can get home before the rush hour/dark.

They often also get the bus or local trains (which are free or discounted) for quite a few trips now (e.g. to hospital appointments), even though they would take quite a bit longer than driving, though only in the day time - I suspect that some more elderly peopl don't like going out on their own at night per se, except where they are being taken by family members (safety and the chaufeur duties).

Both of them have reasonable eyesight and health for their age, though do tire far more easily, so longer journeys (say over 2 hrs) are normally avoided. At most the drive in the summer to the south coast for a once a year cruise ship holiday.

Should have gone to <insert optician/optometrist of your choice>

Eye tests are free for over 60's and some others

www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/opticians/free-nhs-eye-tes.../

I must say driving in general is geting more stressful due to the massive increase in traffic, even at 4am on the M1 toward London was a wall of some very badly driven HGVs some drivers obviously falling asleep/on the phone/surfing porn sites

Having good headlights helps offset the glare from the other traffic. Unfortunately, the old halogen H7 is hardly up to the job nowadays, especially if its in a badly designed headlight, (eg the dreadful VAG shutter controlled projector lights) The only legal way to upgrade is to change to a more modern car with Xenon or LED headlights.

Edited by brum on 15/01/2022 at 13:16

Depending on your age,

Cataracts don't help..

I've had both cataracts removed and my vision is now good, but I do dislike night driving because of the almost universal fitment of LED headlights and DRLs, most of which seem unnecessarily bright.

I know these are all supposed to be aligned to avoid dazzle but uneven roads, crests of hills (and speed humps) all lead to instances when this happens. Not just opposing traffic, but cars behind you can be an irritation.

Discarding any medical issues, night driving is always worse than daytime driving.

If driving on a winding single carriageway with good traffic, one has to invariably drive slower as not to drive on high beam. Low beam reduces visibility to a good extent.

In an unknown town, night driving is a challenge especially if there are too many signs like bus lane with variable timing, yellow boxes, confusing roundabouts etc. Then throw rain in the mix, windows misting up etc. and stress goes a little bit.

Poor roads/potholes are lot more difficult to discover at night.

LED (or any) DRL's should not be an issue at night.

I think glaring light is somewhat personal feeling. If there are no street lights and I am on a dual carriageway with central divider, I tend to switch on high beam (when no car in front). However, on few times I have been flashed by cars from the opposite side of carriageway. Don't know why it causes any issue to them because if cars are coming with high beam on other side of divider it does not bother me.

If the car following me switches its high beam on, it still doesn't bother me as my rear view mirror automatically dims it (many cars offer this feature). Having said that, while looking at mirror for overtaking/lane changing, it does glare from certain angles. Perhaps side mirrors should be auto dimming too.

You do get glasses specifically for driving in the dark. No idea if they are effective, but might be worth looking into?. If you normally wear glasses, I believe you do get ones to wear over your prescription glasses.

"... extra lights aimed a few yards forward pointing at the curb would let you see the edge of the road and cause no problem for oncoming vehicles."

That, in theory, has always been the idea of the dipped headlight pattern, with a beam directed to the left and slightly upward, to enable the nearside kerb, vegetation or whatever to be illuminated. (This, of course, needed to be modified when driving on the right.)

However, that doesn't seem to be standard any more. My own car, with LED headlamps, has a simple low flat pattern beam on dipped. I presume the idea is that the intensity of high-output lights means that the nearside is supposed to be adequately lit. One advantage is that I don't need to modify them when driving on the right - or so the dealer informs me.

Edited by FP on 16/01/2022 at 09:28

Percy Shaw of Halifax invented the brilliant cat’s eyes which make a difference

Ah, another modern issue. The original design by Percy Shaw was brilliant (literally) being based on a pair of glass lens & reflectors that self clean as a vehicle drives over it. They were called cat's eyes as that's what they looked like as you approached at night with headlights on. Fast forward to 2022 - on major roads/ motorways these seem to have been replaced with coloured reflector strips that get mucky/fail quickly - suspect they don't self clean in the same way. Progress.......

Thanks to everyone who has made this such a useful thread for me, and I hope others.

I didn't find polarised helpful.

Driving in the dark is boring, no countryside to look at or anything else. All you can do is guess the car ahead by its tail lights. Some HGVs are interesting with their array of lights especially the front set ups. It can be difficult to judge what speed you are doing particularly on the motorway. On some A and B roads lack of definition with missing lines and cats eyes is not good. Auto dipping is one of the better extras fitted

I still drive happily at night at least twice a week (yoga). I am 74 with varifocal glasses and variable tinting.

Eyes checked every two years.

I always clean all glass inside and out every 2-3 weeks with a proprietary glass cleaner. I also clean my glasses with cleaning wipes before driving at night. And clean the wiper blades weekly with a micro fibre cloth. Sounds silly but a little dirt on each all combines to make vision a pia.

I also use "dry eye" drops twice a day to improve eye fluidity - scratchy eyes do not help.

And ensure ALL car lights are clean..

All motherhood and apple pie but makes a huge difference. ( I drove from Scotland to Stoke on Trent - some 260 miles overnight in December 2019 with no issues)

I came across a good lane lighting system when I visited Edinburgh last week. On the city bypass at least one multi lane roundabout has active lane line lights that are linked to the traffic lights. When the lights change the lane markings ahead of you light up to guide/keep you to the right lane. I don’t know how effective they are as I only went through a couple of times but they felt intuitive. They must exist elsewhere too.
Round here, in SW England, the rural roads are uniformly a dull mud colour all winter and cats eyes are rare. Maybe a more modern system, such as above, will be introduced here too. Traditional cats eyes are good but if you see one out if it’s road setting they are a heavy piece of kit that must cost a lot.