(no subject)

[drcuriosity]

After many years of procrastination, I finally have my learner's driving licence. I have  L -plates, though no car of my own to practice with just yet, but at least the first step is done.

The eyesight test at the AA was tricksy, though - given my lack of true binocular vision, I didn't integrate the two parts of what I was seeing with each eye directly, so didn't realise there were 12 letters per line (with the middle four shared) until it was pointed out. Oops. Far less of an issue for me in a real-life situation where I'm not being artificially forced to try to be stereoscopic, since I have other ways of compensating. All the same, you'll be happy to know that I won't be trying to drive without my spectacles on.

Theory was fine - but then I've been a road user for around two decades even if I haven't been using a car, and the stuff that pertains to using a car on the road wasn't too bad to study. Given how much time dad spent working in the Strategic Traffic Unit before retiring I'd be feeling pretty whakama if I'd failed that. Happily, the majority of our road rules are pretty consistent in terms of the various times and numbers we employ, and minor exceptions aren't too hard to remember.

So, wheels in progress.

Comments

[badasstronaut.livejournal.com]

Congratulations of getting that far. I spent years getting around to learning to drive.

What will you attach your L plates to in the meantime?

[drcuriosity]

Currently they're sitting in the cupboard. I could attach them to my bicycle, but I fear that would probably be a bit unwieldy.

[cheesecat.livejournal.com]

I've heard a lot of people have trouble with that eye test machine.
My vision's perfect but I couldn't force my eyes to focus in that way to make the middle set of letters overlap; I was just lucky to notice that the leftmost ones were the same as the right. Haha.

[cheesecat.livejournal.com]

Er, I mean the rightmost letters on the left eye and the leftmost on the right eye were the same. You know what I mean though.

[leinahtane.livejournal.com]

hmm.. the eye test part of the license program here is a regular eye chart. cover an eye and read the smallest line possible, then switch eyes. Usually parallel parking on the driving portion of the test is what most people here fail.

[drcuriosity]

This is for a learner's licence - it's the tests you do to be qualified to learn how to drive. At this point I can only drive with appropriate L-plates posted to warn other drivers, when someone with a full licence is with me in the car, and then only at certain hours of the day. At the end of that learning period I apply for a restricted license, at which point I go in for a practical skills test. If I pass that, then eventually I can get a full licence after spending a period as a restricted driver.

The eyesight test they have looks a bit like a binocular microscope. Inside is a bunch of illuminated rows of black letters on red and green backgrounds. There are two columns of four letters per eye, but the innermost columns are common between the two eyes. The start with both eyes, then switch to each separately on subsequent rows.

My issue there is that I don't have true binocular vision, so the two views didn't integrate properly. Once I knew to switch eyes and keep reading, it all went fine.