Anyone got ticket for tint windows?

Hopefully you will admit that you are ignoring his other paragraph, and ignoring the limits of the pupil's ability to constrict to pinholes.

From outside the tinted car, when I want to cross the intersection on foot or bicycle, I cannot distinguish you from the less alert drivers. Some of them have stopped to let me cross. But others don't see me, and have stopped only for vehicular cross traffic, or to look for an address, or to look at their handheld device, or to ogle the pretty girls in some other direction.

If I can see that they are not looking at me, then I know I'm at great risk of getting hit if I exercise my right of way, or take their stop as an invitation for me to proceed. This is easy to see with the legal tint limits my state used to have, until the limit was sharply relaxed a few years ago. But an increasing number of cars have tints, legal or otherwise, that make it impossible for me to see if the driver is looking my direction, or is even in the car at all.

I have already been sprawled once on the hood of a car that didn't see me in the crosswalk, with the walk light in my favor. Fortunately a cop witnessed the hole thing, and came down very hard on the driver. (I should have left more fist dents in the hood.) Another time, mom wasn't so lucky and was thrown more than thirty feet. Worse, her injuries didn't heal before she needed chemotherapy, which attacked the remaining joint inflammation as well as the cancer. The unobservant driver didn't contribute directly to her death, but did make her last months extra miserable by greatly shrinking her mobility. Yes, his insurance settlement paid extra for that, but that check isn't of much use while lying on a hospital style bed in the living room as your children provide home hospice care.

Offending you is not my concern. The safety of me and my family in the presence of driver impairments, is. I'm seeing many tints that amount to significant impairments.

Yes that is a problem. Many children and teens just aren't mature enough to have developed a respectable survival instinct.

And many adults pedal just as badly as they drive. But they are generally not the ones getting killed, as they seem be attentive in their misbehavior. The great majority of the dead cyclists around here have been properly in their lane, or properly stopped and waiting their turn at intersections, and are mowed down by impaired or distracted drivers who could not stay in lane, or who weren't looking as they made improper turns.

 

So then if you believe his statement that tint doesn't matter from the perspective of the driver as a darker car will just open the iris more? You can't have it both ways.

And tint was why he didn't see you or was he not paying attention?

Malicious destruction of private property is a crime more significant than tint - and a sign of anger management issues.

And was this tint related or a driver not paying attention?

Like I said, I CAN see you and I AM paying attention, unlike those that struck you and your mom. If you can't see my eyes and you want to act accordingly, go for it; act as defensive as you want. May I suggest that perhaps you speak at high schools regarding the dangers of distracted driving, a quite serious issue that has had quite a serious effect on your life and the lives of thousands every year.

 

Fortunately, my sunglasses are polarized.

 

You argue that people can't see when they have tint then you argue that tint doesn't matter because it's not polarized and the iris will adjust accordingly.. Please pick one.

 

I can easily set fire to that straw man argument...
Tint does matter, because it cuts down the amount of light in situations of already low light.
Polarization matters because it's the only way to reduce glare (tint doesn't do that).
I would also like agree with the point that maintaining eye contact is an important safety factor, and tinting impairs it.

 

So you take off your sun glasses every time there's another person that might want to make eye contact?
Also if you think that tint doesn't reduce glare (or brightness or whatever term you want to use) you're fooling yourself.. Your polarized glasses are only reducing horizontally oriented light waves.. Headlights and the direct sun? Unaffected.. Except for the tint part of your sunglasses, which I'm sure you will still admit works fine. Just remember to take those off next time someone is near so they can see your eyes.

 

If you've ever driven towards a low sun with a wet road ahead, you'll appreciate polarized glasses. And since I wear my sunglasses, oh, 10% of the time, I can make eye contact 90% of the time. Also with over-tinted glass, they can't even see which way your head is turned. Keep trying, but you're not making much headway.

 

You are conflating different limitations. Human pupils can shrink to only about 1 mm. This isn't enough to abolish the need for sunglasses, nor prevent snow blindness.

Greg is talking about pupil dilation, not constriction, inside a darkened vehicle. Different limits apply.

This impact impressed on me (pun intended) the need to actually see where the driver is looking. Just because the car stops in front of the crosswalk just as the crosswalk light turns in my favor, externally appearing to acknowledge my presence, doesn't mean the driver is actually looking in my direction. In this case, the driver was looking at the cop waiting on the other side of the intersection.

With the darker tints, I can't even see if a driver is in the proper seat, let alone where he is looking.

So you blame the victim.

From the cop's viewpoint, it was a very normal and understandable reaction to getting splattered across the hood of a motor vehicle that seconds earlier appeared to have stopped to allow me to cross. As the cop sharply pointed out, had I been not a strapping and nimble 20-something man, but instead a senior citizen carrying a bag of groceries, or a parent walking a small child, the situation would have turned out far different.

The driver was prosecuted. (I was moving, so didn't learn the final disposition.) It was extremely fortunate it was witnessed by an on-duty LEO, very few accident victims are that fortunate.

Again, dark tints interfere with the other party's ability to defensively negotiate the situation.

Like I said, I CANNOT identify you from the thousands of others out there who are NOT paying attention. Thus, for defensive reasons, I need to see the driver's face.

You seem to want me to either blindly trust that the driver can see me, or be so defensive as to decline to use the crosswalk, even when the WALK light is in my favor, anytime a strongly tinted car is present.

May I suggest that you quit rationalizing an impairment of a tool essential for my defensive cycling and defensive walking, just because YOU -- but not many other drivers -- have perfect and infallible attention.

 

I'll add to this. In regards to front tint legality you are right, lowest allowable front tint is 24%

But in regards to lane splitting you are wrong. CA is the only state in the Union to allow it. Even then it's more that it ISN'T prohibited. Europe is mostly free to do so and hopefully the legality of it will spread to more and more countries and states.

We're both right and wrong.

As for my comment on people shitting on modifiers here in the Prius C section, I get why they think the way they do. What I don't get is why they go on here and degrade us. Fairly certain Prius C owners don't go into the other model sub sections and give their owners crap for keeping them stock... LOL.

for reference tintlaws dot commmmm

 

I take it you haven't been reading the other sections yet?

This thread is about a very generic topic, not really specific to the 'c' or even the Prius family or even hybrids. The other sections have hundreds of such generic threads, with responses from car owners of all stripes and brands.

 

I got one for front window tint about 5 years ago, and ours was pretty light in front. Back then a fix it ticket didn't cost anything. Now in California they charge you around $60 just as an administrative BS tint signoff fee. Welcome to California.
.

 

Yeah, last I saw was $24, $25, or $26 some odd amount. The worst part about a fix it ticket? Lets just say that you WERE legitimately legal (smog part, db limit, tint, regs, ANYTHING...) You STILL pay the fee. even if you weren;t caught in the wrong and needed to "fix it" but were legit all along.

While yes this thread is VERY generic I'm met with the same mentality and sentiments here as I seem to find in MOST ALL other accessories and modifications threads. I'm reading what applies to me which is modification on the Prius C. The vast majority of threads are filled with a "don't mod", "Toyota did it right", "keep it stock", "unsafe", "disgusted", "It's a Prius leave it be", mentality/statements. Sucks. There's good info to be had for sure but sucks to HAVE to weed through so many "keep it stock" naysayer types.

 

The OP wasn't looking for a wiring diagram or review on ceramic tint, or even asking what tint is legal in the PRC.
The thread's title is:
Anyone got ticket for tint windows?

One may presume that 'anyone' means anyone, and not just Priussy owners, just like PriusChat means PRIUS CHAT and not just PIP or C-type Prius forums where all opinions are welcome as long as they're all alike.
As stated previously, we all have to share public roads so illegal tint, blackened tail lights, cars (and motorcycles) that set off alarms with noise affect the community, not just the one-percenters that drive this car or that truck.
Like I said.....I like it when people mod their cars.
The nail that sticks up is the one that usually gets hammered down.

Have a nice day!

 

Well, I think I see a commercial bias showing. Are you by chance a dealer for mod equipment?

 

Not at all, just an avid Tuner. Have owned over 10 cars and 30 motorcycles in the last 15 years. Before that I would and still do tinker on bicycles. My C has everything I want except for two things so far. Air suspension and wheels then I should be virtually done. This community is VASTLY different than the sportbike, cafe racer, Ruckus scooter, SCION (xB particularly), Supra, and BMW communities I have been or still am a part in... It's quite sad and disheartening. Although I've never been a "Prius hater" I now KIND OF understand why so many other enthusiasts are.

Trust I KNOW that a Prius is not (in the traditional way at least) a performance vehicle. That doesn't mean we can't make them our own and modify to our hearts content! ha ha

 

5% rear window and rear doors. 35% front. Missouri legal.