Over 70 driving eye test

Tried this?

It would appear that the standard requirement to read a number plate at 20m will be tested every three years.

Additionally, the Beeb says this:

Which means three in four drivers killed were under 70, but they aren’t having compulsory eye tests. Statistics, eh?

Personally, I test myself probably twice a week, on random number plates of vehicles in car parks when the requirement of good daylight is extant, and I also test myself daily using an Amsler grid:

Really? I assume this relates to some medical condition you have.

Same as for a driving test maybe? i.e. read a numberplate at 5 car lengths

It’s a very crude test. My mother continued to pass the test even with fairly advanced macular degeneration when she couldn’t read the dashboard instruments and really wasn’t safe to drive.

Tim

Print a DIY Snellen chart?

My mum did basically give-up (but kept her licence) and they got rid of the 2nd car, dad had to have adapted controls, he sort of decided he should stop, but never actually did and had a car park scrape in his final few months.

I assume a report from your oculist will be a requirement for obtaining a driving licence.

I have used glasses for driving for several years now. Bi-focal so I can read the 20m number plate and instruments on the dashboard. They allow normal sideways peripheral vision to spot pedestrians waiting at road crossings etc. Doesn't help with night time LED flat beam headlights:-(

In message snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net>, at 08:08:07 on Wed, 7 Jan

Buy shares in Specsavers!

I have long-sight and use 2.0 reading glasses. Just done a "numberplate test" and it's about 30m with the glasses off. I could probably see the

I've got some yellow sunglasses, often regarded as snake oil, but they do give a noticeable improvement.

Indeed. Nor with those behind you - at least those coming towards you will be gone in a few seconds. With those behind, it can be several tens of seconds or even minutes with glare. Dipping the rear-view mirror helps, but sometimes you get glare from the door (driver's side) mirror. On very rare occasions I have used the "fold" switch for the mirror to get rid of the glare from the headlights behind me. It might be illegal to drive with the mirror in that position even for a short time; I'm not sure.

None of it's helped by the move towards SUVs/4x4s etc which often have the headlamps higher than in other cars.

Yes.

No, it’s a test for a condition that can affect anyone, but is usually associated with the aging process.

Having suffered permanent vision issues as a result of an illness when I was six years old, I’m very vision aware.

I last had my eyes tested 10 months ago, and had no reportable issues other than being short-sighted, as noted on my driving licence.

There’s more on the topic of vision tests here:

In the context of road safety, where 6%[1] of drivers cause 24% of KSIs, it might be worth checking one’s vision in this way.

Having diabetes and using insulin I have had to renew my licence every 3 years even before hitting the 75 threshold. Last year they introduced a compulsory test as part of the licence renewal, this involved the usual chart rest and also a field of vision test.

It should also include the field vision test (Estermann ???).

My acuity passes the test, but I can no longer drive as I've lost some patches to glaucoma. (Although it's furstrating when being driven by an Uber that I am clearly seeing more than they are .....)

I don't find car headlights a problem. They are transient, so as long as I can make myself look away from the beam for a couple of seconds, I'm fine.

What does affect my eyes badly is being dazzled by the brake lights of a car stopped ahead of me in a queue. I've never been good with highly monochromatic lights. I find the old low-pressure sodium lights (intense orange) very tiring to drive by (high-pressure pale-peach sodium, at road junctions, are a lot easier, and LED street lights are lovely because they are broad-spectrum white), and I had to stop doing my own developing and printing in my darkroom because the orange safelight started to make my eyes water and gave me headaches. I wonder if my eyes/brain are trying (and failing) to see colours in the monochromatic image.

Not so much the actual glare as being unable to see cyclists/objects on my side of unlit country roads until they have passed. Could be my 12 year old headlights need renewing! Less of a problem where the road does not undulate so their flat beam actually illuminates the surface.

I doubt that the optometrist will take you outside and ask you to read numberplates! It'll just be an aspect of the regular eye test. I suppose that the optometrist may be required to issue you will some kind of certificate, probably digitally.

I would expect it to be much more involved than just a basic 20m test.

The optician before the one I use now used to have a miniature number plate arranged at the proportional distance so you could see for yourself whether you could read it easily.

nib

That is more like what I would expect... My licence is due for renewal in June, so I was wondering if I would be caught by this test, and of course what form the actual test might take. I have a regular, annual eye check each March anyway, for mild T2, so I was wondering if perhaps the two checks could perhaps be combined, into one visit.

When I have my eyes tested, every 2 years (as recommended by my optician, my prescription hasn't changed enough to require new lenses in a decade if not more), they do a field of view test, along with checking for glaucoma.

These tests seem to be standard, at least at Specsavers. Everyone seems to be 'processed' through the room they do the tests (they aren't done by the person who checks the 'basic' reading the letters tests etc.

I had wondered about that. White LEDs are in fact blue LEDs with a yellow phosphor, the colour spectrum shows a large fairly narrow blue spike with a much broader and smaller yellow hump. So filter out the blue with your yellow glasses and there should be an improvement.

Of course, if you have LED headlights yourself, then they'd appear less bright too.