Over 70 driving eye test

In message <10jl7c8$fg09$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 09:00:56 on Wed, 7 Jan

My second car is a BMW convertible, rather low, and one of the reasons (apart from the weather) I usually only drive it in the summer is the headlight issue.

In message <10jlfsh$jf90$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, at 11:26:09 on Wed, 7 Jan

No good on the roads I drive, because one second behind that car is another, and another, and another...

According to my optician the requirements can be mapped onto the standard lines on the test chart. I am good to drive a car but not good enough for a C1 licence. Yearly checks due to both T2 and a mother with glaucoma.

Cheers

Dave R

Glasses wearers are familiar with the chromatic aberration from the LEDs, when checking following cars in door-mirrors the blue part of the spectrum is shifted quite a distance ... yet the non-blue part doesn't appear yellow, it still appears white ... how is that?

The field test *is* the test for glaucoma. Because you can have the disease (progressive destruction of the optic nerve from the eye back) with perfectly normal intraocular pressure.

It's how mine was spotted at the ludicrously early age of 34. Not that it helped - I've still lost vision (not helped by a COVID enforced break in monitoring).

I would have no problem with a standard eye test. Like most people I have one at regular intervals anyway. Of course, I would prefer if this requirement was co-ordinated in some way with my routine eye tests - rather than being pulled in two separate directions (IYSWIM).

Or would that coordination require too much joined up thinking?

I've often wondered about the ecconomics of Specsavers. Whenever I go there the place seems to be filled with more staff than I can count. Given a huge wage bill plus all the associated costs, their margins must be huge.

Not Specsavers, but a local optician I went to a few years ago for my first free eye test. The optician was an elderly Indian gentleman who worked there afternoons only. The other four staff were sales people, trying to get you to pay £200 for £1 worth of plastic.

(I bought my glasses online for £20 and have had then for over 10 years.)

My eyes gradually changed, over a few years, then seemed to stabilise, they way they are, ever since, and so my prescription, hasn't really changed, since getting used to wearing glasses for reading.

After my eyes settled, I then marginally needed glasses for driving, but that driving prescription never changed. I still wear those original prescription glasses, when I remember, though I'm fine without, or even wearing my reading glasses.

I haven't seen the details, but I thought that one option was to provide evidence of a recent eye test, so nothing extra required.

Chris

Last eye test, at Specsavers, they asked me what glassed I wore, and pulled out my cheap pound shop pair, and asked to put them on for the test. After the test, and to my shock, I was told they were absolutely fine, just carry on wearing them.

I'm hard on glasses, regularly break them, so always have a few cheap ones in stock, for when I do.

I suspect mine have been stable for more like 20 years, if not longer. I switched to varifocals in about 2004 and, while I’ve changed them a couple of times, it has been more to do with the frames getting damaged etc than the lenses. I only need glasses for distance so, the lower section is ‘plain’.

I mentioned this stability to the optician during a test and she assured me it was quite common in ‘older people’ 😞

She went on to saw that, while I was remarkably clear of signs of cataracts for my age, developing them was all but inevitable as I got older. Perfectly normal as people are living longer.

She looked about 18 so I probably seemed ancient. 😉

I like to have ‘photo chromatic’ lenses.

I recall the first pair I bought, in about 1977, when the supply of glasses was all through small, expensive, optician businesses ( unless up you had NHS frames etc). I paid £120, with ‘student discount’.

I’m pretty sure I could get a similar pair now - simple metal frames, basic prescription ( not varifocals etc), but photo chromatic for not much more than £120 from Specsavers.

I’ve just used the Bank of England inflation tool. £120 in 1977 equates to £711 in Nov 25 ( the latest date available).

I forgot exactly what I paid for my current glasses - two pairs, varifocals, high quality lenses with fancy coatings, one pair photo chromatic ( I like to have a clear pair), ….. but I’m sure it was far, far, less that £700.

I recall the furore when the rules changed a companies like Specsavers started. It was claimed they would offer a third rate service. Certainly the one we use doesn’t.

I have only used Specsavers once, The varifocals they supplied had such a narrow field of view that I got headaches. I went back to Boots.

I have 'proper' Specsavers glasses for driving (I don't wear them at any other time since my distance vision is pretty good anyway), but around 8 pairs of cheap & cheerful reading glasses strewn around the place so there should always be a pair to hand when I need them.

I'm sure than wouldn't work for many people, but the arrangement works well for me.

Pretty well what I do. In addition, I carry a monocle.

Dunno, but what were 'normal' incandescents are pretty yellow. You just get used to it. Remember old film photos taken under incandescent light without a flash. Yellow/orange.

In message <WbB7R.15569$s snipped-for-privacy@fx15.ams, at 22:34:29 on Wed, 7 Jan

Works for me too. I've even got a pair of reading glasses in a special holder in the car, in case my regular ones are forgotten or broken.

I find it's the hinges on the £2 glasses which go first, MTBF about three months. Bought a repair kit a few years ago, but frankly it's easier just to buy a new pair (Aldi central aisle in packs of three, for example)

They offer different ‘quality’ lenses. One of the differences is field of view. We ( Senior Management also has VF lenses) were recommended the widest ones as we both drive.

I recall being told some people take time to adapt to VF lenses. I was lucky, I assume my eyes / prescription are such I didn’t have any problems.