I’m putting this here since it’s automotive related. I ride a bicycle on streets, and for my safety I always try to make eye contact or at least look to see if a driver is looking my direction before going into an intersection. But more and more cars have windows that are tinted so dark that you flat out cannot see the driver. Today I saw a Toyota HIghlander that had the front windshield tinted so dark that you couldn’t see the driver thru the front window. I thought there were supposed to be laws about front windows being tinted, mostly for the safety of law enforcement officers who have pulled someone over. But these super dark windows seem to be more and more common these days.
I checked and there is a federal law that front windows cannot be lower than 70% light transmission on the front windows or windshield, but Kansas is 35% on ALL windows, which means that only 35% of the light gets thru the tinting. I checked other states and some have even LOWER rates - I found this map interesting.
I guess I noticed it more today since I was following a car on a rather busy street that was being driven as though somebody was texting and driving…delayed starts from a stop light - driving under the speed limit, then speeding up, then slowing down again. But you couldn’t see if they were texting or not because the windows were too dark. I don’t much care for it while I’m in a car, but I hate it when I’m on my bike. There are times that we slow WAY down on a street because we can’t see what the driver stopped at a cross street is doing, and in more cases than I care to see, a lot of folks seem to stop at a stop sign to text…finish, then glance up looking for a car and pull right out in front of us. Those are the ones we can see.
But apparently everybody is cool with it. But if I were a cop, I think I would get on the PA and order them to step out of the car with their hands showing…like they were a criminal. No way I’d want to approach a car that I couldn’t see squat inside in broad daylight.
I live in hot climates. My windows are max dark. If I forget to roll down my windows when approached by a cop, he will signal to me to lower them before he approaches.
It’s not everybody fool. My car has very dark back windows, but you can easily see inside the front ones, as you can with the vast majority of cars. I had never seen one with the windshield tinted that dark.
“Now that we’ve gone over the basics, let’s go over the Georgia tint laws. In the state of Georgia, non-reflective tint is allowed on the top 6 inches of your windshield. Front side windows must allow more than 32% of the light in. Back-side windows can be tinted to any level of darkness or more than 32% depending on your vehicle type. The same goes for your rear windows.”
YOu need to learn that there are more states than Georgia. Here they are for all states
There is a bit of a difference between Georgia and Kansas. I saw one that I suppose would be illegal in Georgia. I thought they were in Kansas, but apparently I was mistaken.
Well…I wonder why cops aren’t pulling the guy I saw over. I don’t have a need to go incognito around town, so I don’t keep up on window tinting or truck balls to make me look manly. And if Brobbs lives in a hot area, why does Nevada only allow more light in that rainy Washington?
Bears beat you to it…but in the 35 years I have lived here, this is the first time I have seen a car with front windows that dark on the street. So no, I couldn’t tell…but your snappy comeback of “if you couldn’t tell he was black, how could the cops” doesn’t play as what I saw was pretty uncommon here.