- Even if your distance glasses prescription isn’t very strong, put them on at the start of any long trip. You’ll tire less quickly and feel better at the end of the drive if you are not straining to see.
- Keep your windshield clean inside and out. Filming on either side of the windshield can cause a veiling glare when bright light hits it, and every bit of road spatter on the windshield becomes two bits of annoying spatter (one for each eye) when you are looking at a far distance.
- Your rear view mirrors should be adjusted properly, and that should be done after you have the seat positioned, and never use the vinyl cleaning and brightening agents on your dashboard because they make the veiling glare effect of reflected light from the dashboard worse.
- Be sure you are not tilting your head into a chin-up position as you drive. This can cause you to have eyestrain and even distance blur from your prescription lenses. Adjusting the seat upward and tilting the steering wheel downward may help you keep a good head position.
- Wait until the sun is fully up before putting on sun lenses for driving, and take your sun lenses off before dusk sets in. Dusk and dawn drive times are known to be times at which you need all the light you can get for safe driving.
- Your eyes will tend to get tired if you simply stare straight ahead on long road trips, so keep your eyes moving as you check your mirrors and potential hazards from either side.
- Make a point of “triple blinking” (i.e., three fast, full blinks in quick succession) every few minutes especially if your eyes feel dry and have a burning sensation.
- Don’t stare at bright incoming headlights. A prolonged look at bright lights will mean a prolonged glare recovery period after you look away from them.
- Blinking lights such as another driver’s turn signal or the lights of an emergency vehicle can hold your visual attention long after those lights are no longer relevant to your safety.
- Take frequent stretch breaks and stop before you start feeling tired on long road trips. While on break, turn your eyes up, down, right, left and toward all directions in between as far as you can. This can refresh the muscles that aim your eyes, and it will tend to ward off eye fatigue.
Tag: vision and driving
Eyes on the Road
Shorter days and rainy weather, both contribute to difficulty driving. A driver’s vision guides 90% of driving decisions, so good eyesight is essential for road safety.
Start with an eye examination to assess clarity, peripheral vision and eye disease. Having the proper vision skills and prescription are important for many reasons:
Distance vision is imperative for judging distances and reaction time when driving. Poor distance vision increases the risk of making unreliable judgments with potentially disastrous results – even the simplest reactions take 0.4 seconds, so if distance vision is poor, signs or objects may not be seen until it is too late to react safely.
Good Peripheral Vision allows drivers to survey the area without looking away from the road. This includes early recognition of cross-traffic, pedestrians, animals, signs and changes in traffic flow. Impaired peripheral vision can result in the driver failing to react to a hazard on the far left or right, failing to stop at a stoplight suspended over an intersection, weaving while negotiating a curve, or driving too close to parked cars.
Safe Night Driving requires the ability to see in low light conditions and with poor contrast. Impaired night vision can result in tailgating, failing to steer when necessary (since it is difficult to see low contrast features such as edges or irregularities in the road surface), and recover from glare of oncoming headlights.
Glare refers to the disruption of vision due to veiling luminance. Important visual skills for drivers are glare resistance – the extent to which the driver can still see critical objects while facing a steady source of glare (setting sun, headlights), and glare recovery – the rapidity with which the driver’s functioning vision returns to what it was before the glare was encountered. If these skills are not adequate, the driver can miss curves, strike an animal or pedestrian or crash into slow moving or stopped vehicles.
Besides regular eye exams, additional tips for good vision while driving include:
- Always wear sunglasses when driving to reduce glare
- Keep headlights, tail lights , windshields and eye glasses clean
- Keep side and rear view mirrors adjusted correctly to increase your field of vision and reduce glare from headlights
- Always wear glasses or contact lenses if they have been prescribed for driving
Eyes on the Road
As summer approaches, millions of California drivers will hit the road for family vacations, ball games, barbecues, and beach parties. Many will have their car checked out to ensure it is in good working order before embarking on a major trip. However, not many drivers will even think about having their eyes checked as well. Not surprisingly, a driver’s vision guides 90% of driving decisions, so good eyesight is essential for road safety.
Having the proper vision skills and/or prescription is important for many reasons:
Distance Vision
Adequate distance vision acuity is imperative for judging distances and reaction time when driving. Poor distance vision increases the risk of making unreliable judgements with potentially disastrous results – even the simplest reactions take 0.4 seconds, so if distance vision is poor, signs or objects may not be seen until it is too late to react safely.
Peripheral Vision
Good peripheral vision allows drivers to survey the area without looking away from the road. This includes early recognition of cross-traffic, pedestrians, animals, signs, and changes in flow of traffic. Impaired peripheral vision can result in the driver failing to react to a hazard on the far left or right, failing to stop at a stoplight suspended over an intersection, weaving while negotiating a curve, or driving too close to parked cars.
Night Vision
Safe night driving requires the ability to see low contrast objects and in low light conditions. Impaired night vision can result in tailgating, failing to steer when necessary (since it is difficult to see low contrast features such as edges or irregularities in the road surface), and recovery from glare of oncoming headlights.
Glare
Glare refers to the disruption of vision due to veiling luminance. Important visual skills for drivers are glare resistance – the extent to which the driver can still see critical objects while facing a steady source of glare (setting sun, headlights), and glare recovery – rapidity with which the driver’s functioning vision returns to what it was before the glare was encountered. If these skills are not adequate, the driver can miss curves, strike an animal or pedestrian, or crash into slow moving or stopped vehicles.
Besides regular optometric exams, additional tips for good vision while driving include:
- Always wear sunglasses when driving to reduce glare – especially in sunny California!
- Keep headlights, tail lights, windshields and eye glasses clean.
- Keep side and rear view mirrors adjusted correctly to increase your field of vision and reduce glare from headlights.
- Always wear glasses or contact lenses if they have been prescribed for driving use.
Regular optometric exams are especially important for senior citizens who drive. Visual ability decreases with age, and certain skills lessen with age-related eye diseases such as glaucoma, which narrows peripheral vision , and cataracts, which increases sensitivity to glare.
Schedule your eye exam before you hit the road.