Is my vision good enough to drive?

From filling out (many) VicRoads forms, the two main elements assessed during a Visual Driving exam are visual acuity and functional peripheral vision. Whilst a formal eye check is the only legal way to assess fitness to drive for a Driver's License, a quick way you can screen yourself at home to see if there is anything askew is through the following:

1. DISTANCE VISION
Can you see number plates and street signs approximately 20 meters away? You should check this both during the daytime and at night time. Some patients with uncorrected astigmatism find this much harder at night due to glare sensitivity and “sun-bursting” from headlights and other surrounding lights. If this is not easy for you, an eye test is required as you may need glasses or a further ocular health investigation to ensure you meet the legal limit for driving. In fact, one of our most common presenting complaint in patients is “difficulty seeing street signs”.

2. PERIPHERAL VISION
Whilst there is no requirement for binocular vision (depth perception) in Australia (where I practice), a visual field of 110deg horizontally and 10deg above and below fixation is required to drive safely. Bottom line, you don't need two eyes to drive but you do need to have functional awareness of what’s going on around you. You can check this at home by looking straight ahead and assessed whether you notice things in your peripheral side vision without needing to turn your head. If this is not the case, a formal binocular visual field test can be done to check.

Whilst these home screening checks may give you an indication whether something is “off”, they’re not definitive, and a formal eye test is always recommended.