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Re: Proposal for new driving test regulations post initial test...

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2018 5:24 pm
by jcochrane
waremark wrote:I have no idea whether you are right that periodic eye tests would make a significant difference to road safety. I strongly suspect that the standard test of reading a number plate at 20m is far too simplistic - that level of acuity is less important than field of view and maybe other factors. Observation is vital, it does not depend on particularly good eyesight.

The other day I had my annual eyesight test. All OK but I always ask the optician to check I meet the eyesight standard for driving (with glasses) The line on the chart I read from was dead easy and commented as such. The optician told me that it used to be the next smallest line on the chart that was the required standard but this was changed under EU regulations. I agreed with the optician that the EU standard was not nearly stringent enough.

Re: Proposal for new driving test regulations post initial test...

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2018 5:29 pm
by jont-
jcochrane wrote:
waremark wrote:I have no idea whether you are right that periodic eye tests would make a significant difference to road safety. I strongly suspect that the standard test of reading a number plate at 20m is far too simplistic - that level of acuity is less important than field of view and maybe other factors. Observation is vital, it does not depend on particularly good eyesight.

The other day I had my annual eyesight test. All OK but I always ask the optician to check I meet the eyesight standard for driving (with glasses) The line on the chart I read from was dead easy and commented as such. The optician told me that it used to be the next smallest line on the chart that was the required standard but this was changed under EU regulations. I agreed with the optician that the EU standard was not nearly stringent enough.

Hmm, that sounds like typical anti-EU fluff, so I thought I'd do some googling. Seems it's not quite so simple:
https://www.rcophth.ac.uk/wp-content/up ... r-2013.pdf
My reading is that the standard actually got higher for car drivers, but was lowered slightly for HGV/bus drivers, though still requiring a higher standard than car. I wonder which standard he was testing you to?

I have asked an optician what just meeting the standard is, and agree it's disappointingly lax.

Re: Proposal for new driving test regulations post initial test...

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2018 5:38 pm
by Triquet
The standard test doesn't include field of vision. In fact you can pass on eyesight with tunnel vision in one and being blind in the other. Frightening.

Re: Proposal for new driving test regulations post initial test...

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2018 6:28 pm
by jcochrane
jont- wrote:
jcochrane wrote:
waremark wrote:I have no idea whether you are right that periodic eye tests would make a significant difference to road safety. I strongly suspect that the standard test of reading a number plate at 20m is far too simplistic - that level of acuity is less important than field of view and maybe other factors. Observation is vital, it does not depend on particularly good eyesight.

The other day I had my annual eyesight test. All OK but I always ask the optician to check I meet the eyesight standard for driving (with glasses) The line on the chart I read from was dead easy and commented as such. The optician told me that it used to be the next smallest line on the chart that was the required standard but this was changed under EU regulations. I agreed with the optician that the EU standard was not nearly stringent enough.

Hmm, that sounds like typical anti-EU fluff, so I thought I'd do some googling. Seems it's not quite so simple:
https://www.rcophth.ac.uk/wp-content/up ... r-2013.pdf
My reading is that the standard actually got higher for car drivers, but was lowered slightly for HGV/bus drivers, though still requiring a higher standard than car. I wonder which standard he was testing you to?

I have asked an optician what just meeting the standard is, and agree it's disappointingly lax.


I'm no expert in this but the article you refer to seems to say that the requirement is a visual acuity of 6/12 (20/40 in old money). I think the old standard was 6/6 (20/20). At least that was what my optician told me.

This link https://www.specsavers.co.uk/help-and-faqs/what-does-2020-vision-mean explains what the figures mean.

Re: Proposal for new driving test regulations post initial test...

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2018 6:29 pm
by jcochrane
Edited as duplicated in error

Re: Proposal for new driving test regulations post initial test...

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2018 8:35 pm
by Triquet
Over the last few years I've had cataract ops done in both eyes. The op works on replacing the old lens with a new plastic one, so in theory it is fixed focus to an agreed prescription. My old eyesight was rubbish and I couldn't be adjusted to full 20/20 with the new lenses but to some intermediate level. I still need glasses for driving but I'm now OK for reading and driving the computer.

The new lenses being plastic mean that my eyesight should not change but it isn't quite that simple. It does need a while for the system to settle down.

Re: Proposal for new driving test regulations post initial test...

Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2018 8:47 pm
by mainbeam
The EU standard is a minimum with Member States free to require higher standards as I understand it. Has the distance to read a number plate always been 20 metres (or imperial equivalent)? If the requirement was 20/20 that suggests a greater distance and more than the next line down on the chart.


https://www.ecoo.info/wp-content/upload ... 017....pdf

Re: Proposal for new driving test regulations post initial test...

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2018 1:30 am
by waremark
mainbeam wrote:Has the distance to read a number plate always been 20 metres (or imperial equivalent)?

It has changed several times during my lifetime as the size of the characters on number plates has reduced. I think it was 25 yards when I was young. Each time the change was supposedly to maintain the requirement at the same standard of visual acuity.

Unlike others here I don't think the standard required should be higher - but probably a fuller test covering other aspects such as field of vision would identify some drivers who ought to have help with their vision.

Re: Proposal for new driving test regulations post initial test...

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2018 11:06 am
by Horse
waremark wrote:
mainbeam wrote:Has the distance to read a number plate always been 20 metres (or imperial equivalent)?

It has changed several times during my lifetime as the size of the characters on number plates has reduced. I think it was 25 yards when I was young. Each time the change was supposedly to maintain the requirement at the same standard of visual acuity.

Unlike others here I don't think the standard required should be higher - but probably a fuller test covering other aspects such as field of vision would identify some drivers who ought to have help with their vision.


It's probably no secret that many of us here are not in the first (or even second) flush of youth ...

And, sadly, vision deteriorates as we age. The lens discolours, so we need more light to see, driving at night becomes more difficult. The onset of cataracts worsens the effects of oncoming lights. Also, peripheral vision irresistibly deteriorates.

So harder eyesight tests? Be careful what we wish for!