It should also be illegal for car manufacturers to design and build cars where you need a full tool kit and have to dismntle the front of the car and take the engine out just to change the headlight bulbs. Grrrrr.

And even if you have tunnel vision or only have one eye, as long as you can read the number plates, you're OK ...

Surely someone with vision in just one eye can't just distances very well?

I have glasses but my optician says my eyes are 'nearly fine' and the specs are a minor tweak. I could probably pass the eyesight test on the European standard 18 metres on a good day but not on our 20.

From a UK legal point of view, the minimum test doesn't test distance estimate - and if you can't pass the UK 20m test unaided, you're legally required to wear your spectacles at all times when driving.

From a realistic pount of view, most drivers judge distance by apparent size, not the focussing effect of two eyes.

Many people wouldn't realise they weren't plain - probably use them and complain about the previous owner buying cheap sunglasses with poor optics !!

I meant perceived cheap, not real cheap.

When you change glasses every two years, prescription bifocal sunglasses are a thing you cannot afford on a pension :-)

The prescription sunglasses can be single vision, ie distance vision and often free on a "Buy one, get one free offer" - there are also a few frames supplied with magnetically attached polarised tinted filters - my polycarbonate single vision glasses are like this and the "sunglass" attachment goes on or off according to needs.

G;lasses only need changing if the eyesight changes - the rate of change slows down eventually !

I too have problems with super-bright headlights, but only on country B roads. The worst offenders are cars with discharge lighting. When they were first used they were on expensive cars but now increasingly on cheaper models. I pointed out to my wife how the colour of the lights changed from blue to yellow/white as the cars went by.

I began later than most. I took my motorcycle test during the late 1950s and my car test in 1963, both of which I passed first time. My latest eye test (this year) showed that I was marginal on the number-plate test so I bought prescription driving glasses having tinted polarised reactolight lenses.

I used to wear polarised sunglasses when driving in bright conditions, and I always have the sunshade visors down - I got those habits during my years in Africa. Passengers have complained that they can’t see the sky, but that’s the point; the sky gives veiling glare (as do the brighter street luminaires) and I want to see the road ahead.

I was advised by the optician to wear the prescription glasses at night too. I didn’t think that they would be acceptable at night, but they are; the tint under low light conditions is very slight. When conditions are really bad I don’t use them.

As for people using fog lights when there is no fog, I can think of two things

A - I wonder if the driver needs an eye test, whatever their age

B – Does the driver know where the switch is ?

I have fog lights on my car but they cancel to OFF when the ignition is switched off.

No, carry on, Jamie - a forum member recommending a good product, as I might recommend Skoda for example, is different from someone trying to advertise their own product for free.

I think there is a huge problem with chavs fitting HID kits to bangers and cars without ellipsoidal headlights and so diffusing and scrattering light everwhere.

Some of these kits are 50w instead of the OE 35W so even worse.

I see them every day coming the other way, often with rediculous blue/purple shades of white.

The other problem is chavs 'doing up' cars with headlights bought online meant for LDH countries and so dipping into the faces of oncoming traffic..

Yes but you can only be plugging Skoda for a bet.

Ive got glasses from www.goggles4u.co.uk/ on four occasions. So long as you know your exact prescription you'll be fine, if not then get an eye test at Specsavers, they'll print it on a little card for you.

They come from California and they do take a few weeks to arrive so if you're in no rush they're a good deal.

i've never understood how that works - as well as the dioptre/prism parts of an opticians prescription which is all they give the customer, conventional opticians also measure the eye centres for width/height and is used to order spectacles. In the case of bifocals and varifocals they also have to determine the vertical distance between the two focus centres and for varifocals they select one of many intermediate patterns to suit the customers "lifestyle".

Since you never get given the precise positioning measurements, how can the correct spectacles be made by a 3rd party ?

How do you measure "rear focal distance" ?

I'm a pensioner, I go to Specsavers who will do prescription Polarised sunglasses as part of their 2 for the price of 1 offer for a modest additional fee.

Alternate years, I take their prescription to an independent in Holmfirth who will provide my ordinary varifocals at a reasonable price (less than £50 including frames).

Ask around and you may find a similar independent supplier.

Not sure how the thread has gone down the Eyesight avenue as this issue seems to effect people with all types of vision. By the way, you can get a Private Pilots Licence with one eye.

I have noticed that many Xenon type headlights (even on new cars) can appear badly adjusted.

It went down the eyesight avenue because a significant number of people don't seem to have problems with dazzle while others do - and some older people, needing/wearing corrective spectacles don't have the problem so it's not to do with age or proper spectacles.

So maybe the problem isn't on the cars coming the other way !

Edited by RT on 23/12/2012 at 13:03

My eyesight is fine. However, I do seem to suffer more than some from not only oncoming lights but from bright sky and tend to leave my sun visor down most of the time. I mentioned this to my Optician who said this is down to eye pigmentation. Certain colours of eye let in more light than others and my colouring is one of these. This has nothing to do with eyesight.

Edited by davecooper on 24/12/2012 at 21:43

RT asked: Did the optician say which colour of eye was best/worst ?

This webpage suggests that brown eyes let in less light than the other colours:

www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/lightsensitive.h...m

That doesn't tie in with my experience though. My partner has brown eyes and she wears shades at every opportunity. Mine are blue/grey and I don't even own a pair. The page does suggest, however, that it's not a simple issue.

Another page on the same site bears out my reported observation, above, about dazzle and cataracts:

www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/cataracts.htm

Edited by John Boy on 26/12/2012 at 12:13

I am also not sure of the wisdom of the sudden end of street lights. Heading West on the M4 it is copiously illumintated, then just after J12 you are cast into outer darkness. I find that there are always a few moments of worry as the eyes get adjusted to the pitch black and the oncoming crazed Audi drivers belting down from Swindon ...

"That doesn't tie in with my experience though. My partner has brown eyes and she wears shades at every opportunity. Mine are blue/grey and I don't even own a pair. The page does suggest, however, that it's not a simple issue."

Agreed - it isn't simple as SWMBO (blue-grey eyes, needs sunglasses in any bright weather) and I (brown eyes, use them only when driving a convertible) are the other way round from you. It must be something else to do with the nature of one's eyes.

I'm another of those who can't see the need for xenon headlights - certainly at legal speeds. The most powerful lights I've had in any car are the ones in my current Octavia vRS - more than adequate for any sort of driving that I'm likely to do.

It is; we all have different numbers of photoreceptor cells in the back of our eyes (rods and cones as they are known). At low light levels we use the rods (we've got 120 mill of them and they don't do colour) and in brighter light, the cones, which help us to distinguish colour (about 6 mill of those). There's several different types of those, for different wavelengths of light. This set-up also depends on whether you are colour-blind or not! We have another kind of cell in our eyes which helps the pupils dilate in response to light but it's not a rod or a cone.

Also, blue and green eyes don't technically exist - the colour comes about because of Rayleigh scattering in the pigmented part of the eye (look up 'why is the sky blue?') However, lighter coloured eyes do have less melanin in them.

Like a few others I leave the sun visor down most of the time. It also helps eliminate glare from night street lights constantly flashing into the eyes every time I drive towards them.

As for Xenon lights many as so excessively bright they often cause an oncoming driver to turn their head away from the light thus increasing the odds of a head-on collision with the Xenon lit vehicle. Not what one would describe as making a contribution to road safety.

Anyway I noted his reg down when I got back in the car and will let Old Bill know theres a blind driver in the area.

They will be thrilled to have such an exciting crime to pursue.

You might do better letting DVLA know - I understand they do have procedures for investigating reports of people unfit to drive medically.

It's worth pursuing jamie especially as the person concerned admitted they couldn't see properly.

I reported a speeding Ford driver who was driving like a maniac through a housing estate and a primary school. The police tracked down the offending motorist which shows they do take notice when an eye witness report is presented to them.

"Ok I'll pass it onto the plebs at Swansea."

Better not call them 'plebs' when you contact them. In some circles that's very offensive especially now that, with the recent publicity, people have looked up the word in a dictionary.

I don't know why 'plebs' has become an offensive term: one would need to look up and find out when this happened (I suspect the Victorians).

In Latin 'plebs' (a singular noun - plural plebes) was an inoffensive word meaning 'the general public' - as opposed to Roman emperors and senators.

The Department for Transport (DfT) revoked or blocked 5,285 licences for cars and motorbikes in 2011 because the motorists could not pass a standard eye test. This is an increase of eight per cent since 2010, when 4,906 motorists were banned.

Maybe it's time for a new definition :
P.L.E.B. - Powerful Lights Extremely Bonkers

On my last eye test I also said my alround eyesight was getting better they have just a got a new machine and gave me full test the outcome is that I have the outset of Glucoma apparently it makes your vision better for a short peiod of time.