To ask how the hell to drive in the dark and rain?

[hanketypankety]

So yesterday I got caught driving home in a huge rainstorm. It was dark and I was driving along a main road but in an area surrounded by fields and no street lights. I'm embarrassed to say that I panicked and was crying in the car because I genuinely could not see a thing. To make it worse, lots of cars were either riding up my arse or overtaking me very fast. I eventually came up to an estate and pulled over to quietly have a stern word with myself to pull it together. But I guess I was just a bit overwhelmed that the majority of the traffic continued to be able to drive at the speed limit of 60 quite happily. I honestly could not see the road markings and that road often floods so no idea if and when I would hit a huge puddle and either skid off or flood my car. Any tips? Please be kind as I was genuinely frightened

I hate this too. Many of the road markings have worn off near me. I really struggle with glare. Despite having drive coating on my glasses.

Sympathies, I absolutely hate it. Not helped by the fact that road markings and street lights are crap generally. My eyesight is fine for driving but I got a pair of glasses with some sort of night vision coating which helps a bit but then they get steamed up. I can’t win. You don’t need to drive at the speed limit and it’s sensible to slow down in bad conditions

Do you need your eyes checked? My vision is good enough to drive and do most things (except reading, because I'm older) without glasses by day but I have astigmatism, so at night all I see without glasses are flares of lights and, in the rain, flares of reflected lights. I couldn't understand how anyone could see anything and thought it was just that lights were too bright these days. See 1st pic.

When I got proper glasses that corrected my astigmatism, suddenly I could see clearly defined headlights and outlines of cars.

If you do need glasses, get anti reflective lenses - see 2nd pic

I was driving back from Hereford the other night. And I couldn't see standing water until I hit it.

This. Some people will know the road Well and will get frustrated if you are crawling along. You can only go as fast as you feel comfortable with in low visibility.

I don't like pulling out in the dark on the motorway because I can't tell how fast cars are coming up as easily as I can in the light. It means I can get stuck in the middle lane but I just keep up with traffic and know I will get there in the end.

It was good you pulled over and pulled yourself together because panicking and crying makes you unsafe. You did the right thing. Next time just stay calm and go slow and steady.

As much as we are all trained to take the utmost notice of other drivers, this is one of the times when you ask yourself a few questions and then ignore the silly buggers.
Am I showing all appropriate lights
Am I driving to the road conditions
Are they idiots.
If you find yourself blinded by oncoming lights, you could keep a cheap pair of lightly tinted sunglasses in the car to bung on. There is generally no minimum speed limit on UK roads. Remember that.

Ah, just seen that you had a recent eye test.

Sometimes conditions are just dangerous and the right thing to do is pull over for a bit until it eases and you feel more comfortable. Always listen to your human factors (are you tired, stressed, hungry, just out of your depth - anything that would affect your decision making) when driving, we all have them and it's good to know and recognise your own limits. Plenty of people hate driving in those conditions so don't beat yourself up.

You did the right thing pulling over to take a breather. I'm not a confident driver but it's the conditions I mind it's the fear that dangerous drivers will take me out. Don't be bullied by tailgaters.

One of the major problems with driving is that you have to be able to ignore what other dickhead drivers are doing. If you are distracted by people getting too close then you aren't paying proper attention to the road and are therefore a hazard yourself. Ignoring the idiots gets easier with practice though.

I don't like driving in heavy rain, and have been utterly terrified in a sudden downpour (on the motorway so no way to pull over and let it pass). Sometimes all you can do is slow down, turn off the radio and concentrate on the road as much as you can.

Do you have astigmatism? It causes night flaring of lights, whatever the conditions.

With your wipers on full, your headlights in and at a reduced bit appropriate speed, you should have been able to see. Is your car very old? Is it well maintained? Are you a new driver? How do you find night driving usually?

I live semi rural so I’m used to driving in the dark, down country roads and when it’s raining. It doesn’t bother me and I just drive as I normally would.
If multiple people were over taking you then you must of been driving dangerously slow at a crawling pace.
Crying because it’s dark and raining is also pretty extreme.

There was a thread on here a few months ago bemoaning drivers who do less than the speed limit.
The majority of posters agreed that slower drivers cause accidents by forcing others to overtake. I'm not talking doing 30 in a 60 limit, they were frustrated even by people doing 50.
I'm in my 50s, I drive 20k+ miles a year without incident, I consider myself a good driver but that thread proper affected me.
Why the rush? Why the aggression?, why the risk?

You’d probably benefit from practising driving at night until it becomes normal and you stop feeling fearful.

Where I live in rural Ireland, there are no street lights outside of the main towns and no cats eyes in the road on the rural roads outside of the towns. You have to rely on the rubbish central white lines that are often missing.

If it’s raining or foggy, I just drive much more slowly.

I have night blindness which has got worse as I’ve got older
I find wearing sunglasses helps - I have prescription ones as have poor eyesight anyway
If it stresses you out - pull over as soon as you can let the impatient ones pass you then slowly carry on

To be honest you sound like you were the only sensible driver on that road and had adjusted your driving speed to the conditions!

It IS hard to see when it’s like that OP although an eye test might be good as astigmatism gives headlights and street lamps little halos which makes the whole not seeing thing even harder.

I think a lot of the people you describe were simply being reckless.

Little tip I find is to put your satnav on even if you know where you are going, that way you can see when bends etc are coming up in the road

Flip the sun visor down.. this eliminates a lot of the excess glare from oncoming lights.

That's a good tip, @Bonbon21 , I'm going to give that a try.

I've been driving for nearly 50 years, have lived in a rural area for more than 30, and I still find driving in torrential rain and darkness a bit stressful. In some ways, it's less of a worry on country lanes than unlit main roads. You know you just have to keep to the left, so it doesn't matter that you can't see road markings.

The thing about it that I find most disturbing is coming across a stretch of unfamiliar road that is under water - you have no way of knowing how deep it is and it's hard to guage in the dark.

There’s nothing wrong with stopping if you feel conditions are too dangerous to continue. It’s horrible driving in a cloudburst where the rain feels like a never ending bucket being dumped over the car - combined with rain and other people driving like dicks it IS scary!

I have astigmatism to add into the mix so get that awful flare thing round street lights at night - I don’t do a lot of country lane driving but when the weather is bad I just slow right down.

Take some night/bad weather driving lessons. Just because you once passed your test and got your licence doesn't mean you have to stop learning.

Try not to let your eyes drift to the centre of the road, the glare of oncoming lights can draw your eye. Judge where the outside edge of the road is and drive to that.

Make sure your headlights are on dip beam and the lenses are clean. At this time of year they can stay on dip-beam all day. Check your wiper blades and change if they're worn/old. Use your wipers at the correct speed. Use the dip-mode on the rear-view mirror if lights from behind are blinding you. Check your tyres (tread, wear and pressure), if you lack confidence about potentially skidding you need to trust the vehicle is in a safe condition you can trust.

And ultimately, if the conditions are too poor for your confidence pull-over somewhere safe and wait out the worst of the weather/traffic. Drive To Arrive.

Huge rainstorms are horrible regardless of experience. Had one yesterday (also some hail) and wipers were barely keeping up, road was all running water and fortunately everyone was being sensible.

If you're at the front of a stream of traffic front fogs can help pick up puddles because they're lower to the ground. Be careful through puddles because you don't know if there's a wheel destroying pothole lurking in it. There's one road around us that most locals are very steady on in the wet because we know the potholes are there somewhere, and they tend to grow when wet anyway!

I have driving in the dark and rain. The lights dazzle, it's horrible. I always drive slower, ignore other drivers, if they want to overtake, let them. The only time I would overtake is if a lorry was in front of me, as the spray makes visibility worse.

Oh, yes please!

Some cars have lights that are absolutely blinding, and it's like the inside of the car is briefly floodlit as they pass.

SUVs often have lights that are right at eye level too, the bastards.

There must be a lot of drivers who learned to drive in day time conditions with hardly any rain. Ds has just passed his driving test. His original one was booked for January which could have meant driving in icy conditions for the first time. He was limited to learning over the summer as he is at university.

Back in the stone age I did a pass plus thing where I drove country roads, lots of hills to learn to manage gears and a night time driving lesson too. Conditions are night are always worse for driving and more accidents take place at this time. I would always avoid going out if it was torrential rain but sometimes needs must.

Other drivers up your arse and driving aggressively just add to the stress of it all. OP just go the speed you are comfortable going, turn off and park up if you are getting worried and carry on when you feel ready.

I always wonder how other people manage to drive so fast in the dark and rain. I think some cars have very bright headlights that makes it easier for the driver. I know this because they always blind me in my rear view mirror.

I'm glad others have noticed the absurdly bright headlights in some modern cars. Absolutely lethal, especially on giant (unnecessary) SUVs.

Also I second the advice to ignore idiot speeders. It does feel like pressure to go faster than you're comfortable with but I tend to say to myself, "yes, I'm sure you're terribly important and a terrifically good driver but unfortunately you have to share the road with this average driver and risk reaching your destination 30 seconds later."

I'm going to experiment with tinted glasses to see if that helps with the ridiculous glare.