Are yellow tinted lenses safe for cycling during night hours?
 

I am using prescription glasses for cycling, and the ones with swappable filters do not fit in my budget. I am planning to pick up new pair of cycling glasses, and I was thinking to get either clear lenses, or with yellow tint. During night hours I do have sufficient lighting system for bike, with a couple of strong light in front. Will yellow tint be safe for evening rides?

Yellow are good for poor light, but i don't find them beneficial over clear once it's dark.

I've had a little experience down this road. As I understand it, yellow lenses increase contrast, and are usually used in foggy, or overcast or otherwise murky visibility conditions. Night riding with artificial lighting is contrasty on it's own....the blacks are BLACK and the Lighted areas are BRIGHT. It's not necessary to add contrast to that. Years ago the Ohio State Highway Patrol made some public service ads, one of which said they discourage the use of any colored lenses for night driving application, even yellow. I'd go with clear. Your choice, though.

I agree that clear would be better for pure night riding, but I've always used yellow shades (mainly because I'm usually riding at dusk or dawn).

Right. Amber lenses only come into their own with fog, dust, haze and stuff like that. I've never seen any disadvantage to them for night driving, but also no special advantage.

I have tested yellow lenses at night and find that they do filter out some light. I could still see well enough---they don't filter much---but they are darker than clear, so vision through them is darker than through clear lenses.

I think you could use them with complete safety, though.

If you use prescription glasses, then you can get them with an anti-glare lens coating - No tint, just the coating.
My wife has them for night driving, and finds that they help with headlight flare.
She also says they're a little fussier to keep clean, but worth it.

+1. When I used yellow lenses at night, the lights were very bright but the blacks are even inkier than with clear lenses.

I have a set of yellow lenses and I use them whenever I'm riding in cloudy or overcast days. They really help brighten up an otherwise dull day. So much so that I'm surprised at exactly how dark the day looks when take them off.

Go to Harbor Freight and get some cheap yellow tinted safety glasses and try it out.
After this experiment, I ended up going clear transition lenses. The yellow lens only cut the light level at night and there was no added value.

I ride a lot at night, both velo and moto, and yellow / amber lenses are not bad, but I much prefer clear lenses after it gets dark. Everyone's eyes are a little different, so YMMV, but my vision goes very monochrome at night, especially when there's 'orange' streetlights around, so tints dont do much for me.

I usually use sport-style safety glasses, since they're inexpensive, and my amber tints usually spend a lot of time in a pack / saddle bag, (compared to clears and regular sunglasses) and it's no big deal if they get broken / scratched.

I really like Amber lenses in low light / overcast / fog conditions for cutting through the 'blue haze' Also good if you're on a trail with really heavy brush / tree cover.

I try to stay away from Yellow lenses, since, at least on a moto, you have to deal with traffic lights, and i've had a pair of Yellows that were exactly the same tint as the yellow light on the traffic signal. I could see the red and green lights, but the yellow light had no color.
Kinda unnerving when you're approaching an intersection and the red light seems to come out of nowhere.

I have YELLOW tinted (NOT dark amber) glasses that fit over my eyeglasses. I use them at night because it REALLY helps me see past those cars with the super bright blue-light front lights that'd blind me otherwise.

Cheers

Like others here, I ride with yellow tinted glasses early in the morning and at dusk as they really enhance my vision. The first early morning ride I wore them, I was surprised and shocked how dull the world appeared when I took them off.

Yellow tint safety glasses and yellow tint prescription for night time driving and riding.

Same reason as above with all the jackA$$ with super bright led bulbs as head light, plus a light bar, plus fog lights, and uncarriage light on a clear night.

I wore yellow for a while commuting. I wanted eye protection from rocks being thrown up on the highway but also keep headlight glare minimal. After a few weeks went back to a clear lense while riding in the dark. I found enough light reduction that it made it difficult to spot small road hazards, even with a good headlight. As a note, I wear glasses, close to medium range is fuzzy, good on anything past 2 metres away.

I wear Oakley’s because they have easy to change lenses, I tried yellow lenses for night riding, the just seemed a little dark to see everything on the road, they’re great for dusk and dawn, but I went to clear lenses for night riding

In this regard, everyone's eyes are exactly the same. The eyes' cones need lots of light to function, and they allow us to perceive color; in low-light, the rods take over, and they do not help with color vision, hence we see shades of brightness rather than color.

In other words, yellow lenses at night will simply make it harder to see.

If it's in your budget, photochromic lenses work great for riding from daytime into the evening.

I have Rudy Project photochromic riding glasses. The lens goes from a very slight gray tint to very dark. They list it as ranging from 9% blocking to 74% blocking. (they have other photochromic that cover 20% to 80%, so it depends on the materials, I guess.) I always have sunglasses on outside during the day, I don't like bright light. These are dark enough for me.

It does stay pretty dark until right near sunset -- even very cloudy days darken it most of the way. It takes maybe 4-6 minutes to get to clear, for instance when inside a store. It darkens in 20 or 30 seconds.

Other lens light blocking percentages:
Their yellow lens is 13%.
Their clear lens is 8%! some light must be lost on any lens, I guess.
The dark gray lens is 88%, they also have a "high altitude" very dark 92% lens.