FLORIDA, November 2003 — If you’re 80 or over and a Florida resident, you will not be able to renew your driver’s license unless you pass a vision test at either an eye doctor’s office or the Department of Motor Vehicles. The new law, which goes into effect in January 2004, requires 20/40 vision for everybody, either with or without eyeglasses or contact lenses.

Florida’s new law looks comparatively lenient considering some of the other states that have special requirements for seniors. In New Hampshire, vision and driving tests are required for those 75 and older. In Utah a vision test is needed if you’re 65 and older, while in Oregon it’s 50 and in Maine it’s 40.

The law will affect a lot of people: more than 650,000 of Florida’s drivers are 80 or older, and it is likely that those with advanced cataracts or vision loss from glaucoma or macular degeneration who are still on the road will not pass the vision test.