Glasses

[jim8flog]

Got talking with my wife just now about my getting glasses....which I will be doing....at least 1 pair to see how things go. My drivers license is up for renewal in a couple of years, do they even have some kind of check to see if you are blind or not? When I took my test they made me read a license plate that was in the parking lot (very American-like daft vision test in my opinion.....and yes, I'm American). In the US if I renewed my license I had to go in and they would have you look through a device to see if you can see decently. And......even if they did have a vision check when I renewed (this would be my first renewal, when I was working you didn't need a UK license).....is there a rule that says you can't squint?

For those who get their dandruff up easily.....I'm partially kidding, partially just curious.

When you renew it is just self declaring. It is a requirement in the UK that you notify the DVLA of many medical conditions, guidance can be found here

Check if a health condition affects your driving

Check if you need to tell DVLA about a health or medical condition, how to report medical conditions to DVLA

www.gov.uk

There is push for something else to be mandatory for eyesight.

 

[pendodave]

Perhaps it would invalidate your insurance if you drive with eyesight that was beneath the required level? As if it wasn't enough that you would be more likely to kill or injure someone, especially on one of those infrequent dark journeys. It's really not something to joke about, imho.

Moving on... I'd really recommend having regular eyetests, even if one's vision seems decent enough. My father was diagnosed with glaucoma not long ago. It could certainly have been picked up earlier if he had been tested more often. Once the damage is done, it's irreversible.

 

[Mandofred]

Perhaps it would invalidate your insurance if you drive with eyesight that was beneath the required level? As if it wasn't enough that you would be more likely to kill or injure someone, especially on one of those infrequent dark journeys. It's really not something to joke about, imho.

Moving on... I'd really recommend having regular eyetests, even if one's vision seems decent enough. My father was diagnosed with glaucoma not long ago. It could certainly have been picked up earlier if he had been tested more often. Once the damage is done, it's irreversible.

And there is the issue for ME at least. I see fine.....about the same as it has been my whole life. When I was in my 20's I got a couple pair of glasses....just because (my aunt worked at an eye place). Had a light weight pair that I used to play tennis with (under lights the ball got fuzzed up) and driving at night to help read signs better. I haven't had a pair in 20+ years. I'm good at night for vision......except for reading signs while driving....and a quick squint solves that problem. I can walk in the dark etc (I'm talking REALLY dark, like footpaths in the woods) and can see quite well (avoiding all the usual little things on the trail), since there are no street signs to read it's not an issue. The biggest issue for me is sitting at home and turning on something like Netflix.....jeez, the print is hard for me to read. Glasses would really help there.

Still planning on heading in to town today to Specsavers or somewhere to see about getting one pair that I can use for golf and watching tv. If it turns out to be a real help I could see getting 3 pair total....1 sporty type for golf and two basic ones for driving and tv.

A little over 20 years ago my reading vision started going fairly quickly. I went from being able to read really small print to needing glasses when sitting around reading a book....in a month or two. Figured it was just getting older that did it. Used glasses off and on for a couple of years for book reading and then my vision got better again. Never did understand that one....... If I had a choice I'd rather have better distant vision and worse reading vision and needing glasses to read. I didn't mind using reading glasses.....just bought a few cheap pair and left them around.