Strange front windscreen glass

[raybarrow]

Hi Folks,
We a have local set of traffic lights with a staggered change to facilitate right turns. From one direction the change is quick, 3 cars max. Not a a problem it's a quiet road. I stopped the other day third car in the queue. When the lights went green I realised I was in the wrong gear (after 55 years of changing down to stop, I'm trying to get used to the 'new-fangled' way of braking to a stop and then changing down.) Anyway that delay in selecting the correct gear resulted in the light changing against me and the person behind trying out his horn.

Looking in my mirror I couldn't see through their windscreen. It had a sort of slightly green iridescent sheen on it. Darkened windows I've seen but this was a new one on me. Hopefully they could see out of it but I suspect no camera could see who was driving. Surely that's illegal or I am just naive?

The person behind then drives around me squeezing between me and the bollards, the lights are now fully red so they stop and reverse towards me and into the green cyclists area. When the lights change to go, they sit there for a few moments, I presume to make me miss the next change. No big deal and it didn't work anyway. The car was nothing special, an old VW Jetta. It didn't race off into the distant. Saw a young child in the front passenger seat so the driver could have been telling them about to drive well!

The old, but calm, codger at the lights,
Ray.

[Itsallaguess]

The old, but calm, codger at the lights

Was the old but calm codger wearing polarised glasses or sunglasses at the time?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[bungeejumper]

Old car, horn-blaster, squeeze-paster, and a young child in the front passenger seat where a young child shouldn't normally be. I'm getting a picture, and it's consistent.

WRT polarised sunglasses, I think zoned toughened windscreens went out in the 1980s? Some sort of a fancy stick-on film on the windscreen, I'd guess. Probably one of the illegal super-dark types. Okay, that's enough unbsubstantiated assumptions from me for one day.

BJ

[CliffEdge]

Old car, horn-blaster, squeeze-paster, and a young child in the front passenger seat where a young child shouldn't normally be. I'm getting a picture, and it's consistent.

WRT polarised sunglasses, I think zoned toughened windscreens went out in the 1980s? Some sort of a fancy stick-on film on the windscreen, I'd guess. Probably one of the illegal super-dark types. Okay, that's enough unbsubstantiated assumptions from me for one day.

BJ

Uninsured, untaxed, no licence, tattoos, jobless, unmarried, criminal record have a few more assumptions just to be on the safe side. Welcome to the UK.

[AF62]

Surely that's illegal or I am just naive?

It’s called ‘chameleon windscreen tint’.

Is it legal - probably not. Does the driver care - undoubtedly not.

In the unlikely circumstances of being stopped they will not have any form of identification on them, and will have bought the car an hour before from a bloke in the pub for cash but won’t know their name.

Driving licence - doubtful. Insurance - “I think I am insured under my brother’s uncle’s, sisters, daughter’s, girlfriend’s policy”. Previous convictions - too many to list. Care about getting more points on the non-existent licence - are you serious?. Worried about how to pay the fine - “nah, it will just get added onto the others being paid at £5 a week”.

[9873210]

There may be nothing nefarious here.

As a pedestrian I frequently can't see drivers through a windscreen. The sun angle, reflections off of nearby surfaces, dirty windscreens, mild window coatings and many other things contribute. Sometimes the hidden zone is quite small and moving half a metre or headbobbing works to get a clear view of the driver.

Looking through a mirror restricts you to a narrow view and adds more optical surfaces so it's sure to happen occasionally.

[XFool]

Hi Folks,
We a have local set of traffic lights with a staggered change to facilitate right turns. From one direction the change is quick, 3 cars max. Not a a problem it's a quiet road. I stopped the other day third car in the queue. When the lights went green I realised I was in the wrong gear (after 55 years of changing down to stop, I'm trying to get used to the 'new-fangled' way of braking to a stop and then changing down.) Anyway that delay in selecting the correct gear resulted in the light changing against me and the person behind trying out his horn.

You in London?

When I was driving (I seem to have possibly given up now), never mind being in the "wrong" gear at traffic lights, merely having a manual drive was, increasingly, enough to get you the horn at the lights. To start from stationery in a manual drive car you have to take the handbrake off, depress the clutch, move into first gear and release the clutch - Ooh! all of 2 seconds, max. Seemingly this was becoming enough to attract unwelcome attention at the lights.

My 'theory' being, as pretty well everyone else seems to be driving an SUV - and they are automatic, no? - they just have to take their right foot off the brake and put it to the accelerator. So anyone else is "dawdling"...

Can't help with the windscreen.

[bungeejumper]

When I was driving (I seem to have possibly given up now), never mind being in the "wrong" gear at traffic lights, merely having a manual drive was, increasingly, enough to get you the horn at the lights. To start from stationery in a manual drive car you have to take the handbrake off, depress the clutch, move into first gear and release the clutch - Ooh! all of 2 seconds, max. Seemingly this was becoming enough to attract unwelcome attention at the lights.

It's quicker than that in New York, I believe? https://www.urbandictionary.com/define. ... k%20second

As for getting the horn at the lights, it's been a while.

BJ

[raybarrow]

Hi,

No it wasn't sunny and I wasn't wearing sunglasses. I normally have a look in my rear view mirror at traffic lights just in case someone hasn't seen me and have never seen a front windscreen like this before.

It’s called ‘chameleon windscreen tint’.

That sounds very much like it.

Thanks,
Ray.

[Breelander]

Surely that's illegal or I am just naive?

It’s called ‘chameleon windscreen tint’.

Is it legal - probably not.....

Surprisingly, it probably is road legal. See this Youtube video (jump to 8 minutes in for the test results if you don't want to first see how the tint is applied).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4C0lqERs2Q

[pje16]

,
When I was driving (I seem to have possibly given up now), never mind being in the "wrong" gear at traffic lights, merely having a manual drive was, increasingly, enough to get you the horn at the lights. To start from stationery in a manual drive car you have to take the handbrake off, depress the clutch, move into first gear and release the clutch - Ooh! all of 2 seconds, max. Seemingly this was becoming enough to attract unwelcome attention at the lights.

You can leave it in gear, with your foot deprssed on the clutch and keep your other foot on the brake (not in the book of best driving) but it does help speed things up

[AF62]

Surely that's illegal or I am just naive?

It’s called ‘chameleon windscreen tint’.

Is it legal - probably not.....

Surprisingly, it probably is road legal. See this Youtube video (jump to 8 minutes in for the test results if you don't want to first see how the tint is applied).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4C0lqERs2Q

Although from the comments they don't say what strength the tint they were testing was. These sellers are clear that the chameleon film they sell isn't legal for windscreens - https://www.abodewindowfilms.co.uk/prod ... tint-film/

[bungeejumper]

Although from the comments they don't say what strength the tint they were testing was. These sellers are clear that the chameleon film they sell isn't legal for windscreens - https://www.abodewindowfilms.co.uk/prod ... tint-film/

Yes, I'd seen that one too. Even though the film allows 75% light penetration, which is what the law requires. Mind you, it's cheap stuff - AIUI, the good quality film can set you back a couple of hundred.

Then again, the light penetration by itself is only part of what the law should be looking at. What if the film is slightly wavy in thickness, rather than perfectly flat? What if its adhesive qualities involve some kind of glue which might impact on your vision?

And what if the film reduces the visibility of certain colours? Such as traffic light red?

BJ

[raybarrow]

Hi Folks,
Saw the same car again yesterday. Definitely non-see through front windscreen. It was being driven quite 'normally', no signalling when turning, that kind of thing. Perhaps Sunday is a non-aggressive rest day. It must be exhausting being angry all the time.

Ray.

[Redmires]

I wasn't sure what the fuss was about ......until I saw my first one today. This was a bronzey-green tint and stood out like a sore thumb. How do they get away with it ? At the very least, one would imagine that windscreen tinting would be banned because front facing speed cameras will not be able to identify who was driving the car at the time of the offence. Not that it matters. There's so few police around now that drivers can get away with anything.

[pje16]

I saw one the other day, greeny/purple... really stoopid looking
Due for a tug by the police