Re: Learning to Drive: Try this

Posted by Fred Dickie on :

In Reply to: Re: Learning to Drive posted by Jill on :

If you are worried about what you can or can not see and about hurting yourself and others when you are behind the wheel, then try this out. Find out what the braking distance is for your car,
either by looking in owners manuals, auto magazines, or better yet, take it out to a deserted industrial park some weekend, get it up to speed and then brake to a rapid but controlled stop and measure
the distance. Now add the distance traveled in 2 seconds at the speed you conducted your test and add it to the stopping distance (2 seconds is way more than enough reaction time). Now if you don't
have little ones of your own, borrow a small child from a relative or a neighbor and place the child at your test distance, If you can see the child well enough to know that there is danger ahead then
you can stop in time. Remember if a child runs out in front of you at a point within the safe stopping distance of your vehicle then it does not matter what you eyesight is, in this situation no one
regardless of sight will be able to safely stop the vehicle. I have been driving like this for over 14 years now and I have become comfortable with my vision while driving. I have often told people
that it doesn't matter what that object in the road ahead is, dog, child, man or Mack Truck, I can see that there is something there and I don't want to hit it.

Good Luck
Fred

BDN, low vision driving driver, drive, BiOptic, albinism, albino, macular disease, nystagmus, cataracts, corneal diseases, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, archived by, BIOPTIC DRIVING NETWORK