I think some points are being missed in the overall "melee" of this topic.
Tints are illegal in most states for more reasons than just police
insecurities, there are scientific reasons also.
On that police topic, my brother, being a deputy sheriff, will be more than
happy to tell you that you are saving your own life by not tinting your glass.
You CAN see *slightly* through heavilly tinted glass, but if you're whipping
out a pen or something behind that tint and the police officer sees it as a
gun and blows your head off... their internal investigations will clear them
every single time. The illegal tint prohibited clear lines of sight and is
taken as an intentional obstruction of the officers view by the suspect (you).
If the officer waits to find out if it's a gun or not, he is endangering
himself. So you guys can continue to black out your glass... be my guest, but
I think you've earned the ticket.
On the other issues of tint, it's not safe because there are only 2 kinds of
conditions where tint is useful and both include "bright lights", either the
sun or headlights. We have stringent restrictions on headlight aiming. If
they aren't aimed right, then they (the bad headlight folks) are the law
breakers. Mr. Sun doesn't really care what laws we pass, but he's kinda
predictable in that he only bothers drivers in the morning and at night for a
period of about a half hour each. This leaves the other 23 hours of the day
and night where tinting is harmful to driving. When you cut down your
available light, your brain is MORE likely to give you wrong information.
It's the same concept that makes those shadows at night look like other
"supernatural" things, because your brain is making up info as it goes. So
when you go to change lanes with those tinted windows, you are vastly more
likely to miss that little subcompact sitting next to you because both your
mirrors and your direct vision is impared.
If you are bothered by Mr. Sun, invest in a pair of $3 sunglasses- tons
cheaper and more effective than tint. You can justify your tint 'till you're
blue in the face, but to me, you're a road hazard and you'll have to forgive
me if I go around your vehicle by a wide margin (plus around here, dark tints
are common on the gang-bangers cars and I stay away from those morons on
principal). Tint's at 5% or less really don't do much harm (optically
speaking, it's little more diffraction than double paned glass) so if you're
talking tints at these levels, I can understand, but over that and it's really
not justifiable.
As a personal taste, I don't like tint on any other color vehicle but
black, and even then, not more than 5%.
Shaun H.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:14:10 EDT