Window tinting films
November 21, 2009 by Tim Schewe
Filed under BC law, Feature stories, Safety, Travel
Behind the Wheel –
Window tinting looks cool, keeps your vehicle interior cool, or hides your vehicle contents from potential thieves. The drawback with tinting certain windows is that it limits the driver’s ability to see and be seen. It is also illegal and may result in enforcement action in the form of either a ticket or a repair order.
One of the rules of defensive driving is to make eye contact with other drivers. A wise pedestrian will also make eye contact with a driver to insure that they have been seen before walking in front of a vehicle. This is impossible for other drivers and pedestrians if you have darkened side windows.
Studies indicate that seniors are particularly affected by window tinting. Their ability to identify and react to low contrast targets is significantly compromised by the light transmission restriction of the film. This applies to a lesser extent to all of us, regardless of age.
The Motor Vehicle Act Regulations are very specific about any film that reduces the light transmitted by a window. You will note that there is no mention of how light or dark the film is. If it reduces the light transmitted in any way, it may only be applied on certain windows of the vehicle.
Film may be applied to the top three inches of the windshield or to any of the side windows behind the driver’s shoulders. The film may also be applied to the rear window if the vehicle is equipped with an outside mirror on both sides. Film must not be applied to the windows of the driver and front passenger doors.
The author is a retired constable with many years of traffic enforcement experience. To comment or learn more, please visit www.drivesmartbc.ca.
Thanks for the info!
How about a story on those new fancy headlamps? Isn’t there some legal limit on the amount of lumens you can use in Canada?
That’s an interesting thought, thanks. I’ll add it to my list!
Those headlights are one of the reasons I do not drive at night. I don’t know what they are supposed to do but I do know that whenever I see them coming at me down the road, my instinct is to pull over to the side of the road until the vehicle has passed me. When the vehicle with those bright lights gets anywhere near me, I just go blind until it has passed. If there is no time to pull over or conditions are such that it is impossible to do, I want to just stop in the middle of the road until I can see again.
I don’t know who thought they were a good idea. They are a hazard, not anything to do with safety.
Lynn, a very good question. One of the problems, in my opinion, is that all vehicles have their headlights aimed at a certain angle. While that may sound good in theory, it does not work well if you are driving a car the is half the height of the truck approaching you. It’s headlights will be in your eyes, while yours will barely be high enough to see the road ahead of you. Something is not right with the logic. Maybe all headlights should be a standard distance from the ground?
I used to have a big problem with light-sensivity driving at night, and went blind when bright lights passed, as you describe. Bright headlights used to bother me even in the daytime.
What I have learned since is that this seems to go with general over-sensitivity of the nervous system. Also, my eyes could not seem to adjust quickly enough to the change of brightness. Fortunately I am no longer so over-sensitivite, but I still find it dangerous because excessive brightness blocks your vision of what lies beyond.
You may want to look into a good full-spectrum vitamin B complex, such as Advanced B Complex by AOR. I find it does make a big difference for a sensitive nervous system.
Just to let you all know, I moved out here from Ontario (lol like 90% of the pop here) but back home its almost impossible to find a car without tinted windows. In order for me to get my saftey in BC I had to peel the tint of of my front windows. However they did tell me I can keep the front half of my front window tinted if I wanted. Thats seemed as ridiculas as it would have looked! So I just took all the tint off the front. When we peeled the tint off, I actually had smoked glass windows (basicly tint build into the glass) This is legal in BC. Only film tint is illegal.
The facility was incorrect. All of the front side windows must be clear of any tinting film. See 7.05(8) MVAR.
Tint contained in the glass is also regulated. The glass must be marked by the manufacturer and be one of AS-1, AS-2, AS-10 or AS-11.
Ah… well that explains. My daughter recently drove a car out here from Ontario and before she left she removed the tinting film from the front side windows (but not the back ones). I had no idea why at the time. Now it all makes sense…
I guess i was wrong, I got my info from the ICBC office in Invermere. O well they still passed the saftey for me, my fronts are smoked glass, im sure they arent over the limit because thats how they came from the factory. It would be alot eaiser if Canada had the same regulations across the country rather than each province.