A survey from thezabra.com reveals that 66% Americans experience driving anxiety. However, binocular vision problems are largely overlooked. 

Driving anxiety refers to experiencing anxious symptoms when driving, getting ready to drive or thinking about driving. people may have panic attack during driving in the worst case.

Let diving in to see how vision is involved in driving? By the law, we need at least one eye seeing 20/40 and vision field in both eyes at least 140 degrees to qualified to drive (the requirement for driving is varied from state to state). However, vision is much more than seeing 20/40. Driving is very complicated vision task.

As we drive, our vision system constantly judge distance between ourselves and the vehicle in front of us and make decision when to step on the gas or brake. Our eyes need to jump one object to the other objects all the time to see anything in our way. Our vision system needs to be flexible and to shift our focus quickly enough to different distances, which allows us to have enough time to response to the road conditions.   As we are driving, our peripheral vision must process the information around us besides seeing clearly in front of you.  If our vision system fails to do both, the tree at roadside or the tree shadow on the road will bother us and make us anxious. This vision symptoms are known as supermarket vision syndrome as these people also have problem or difficulty in crowded area like busy mall or supermarket.

People who has binocular vision problems usually experience physical fatigue after driving.

When it comes to parking a car, people with binocular vision problem have hard time to park in busy city street without bumping to the roadside or the other cars.

If our vision system can’t work properly or efficiently, the driving task become significantly more challenging and result in high stress which trigger “fight and flight” response.  As we get more stress, the peripheral vision will diminish, which in turn makes the driving even harder and eventually cause more accidents.

confidently and safely requires adequate binocular vision function, proper depth perception, peripheral vision, and good eye body coordination.

Vision and Highway safety by Merrill Allen

Focus your mind’s eye by Dr. H.R. Dawkins, Dr. C, Forkiotis

Do you or your loved one have all visual skills to drive safely?