Vision Factors in Road Safety

Below is an excerpt regarding the function of vision in high-speed interactions such as road safety, based on scientific research and documented in the book 'SSSRD and the Cortex Eye'.

Dramatic optic flow in motion in the cortex eye

 We can experience close range cortex flow in motion in a very dramatic way. The figure above illustrates that when a front seat passenger in a car traveling on a lined roadway, places a small black sticker ‘F’ on the window screen, aligned with the centre dotted line on the roadway. When sitting back in the passenger seat and focusing on the black spot, the passenger will experience a dramatic display of cortex optic flow. In figure 6.11B, the passenger will observe that the sidelines on the road are actually crossing each other and the centre dotted line appears to be dramatically approaching from the left side. This is the overlap in the cortex eye. The centre dotted line is in the centre of the intersecting visual axes, and is viewed coming from a direction farther than the line on the left of the roadway.

Figure 6.11: The overlap that occurs in the cortex eye creates a constant optic flow that accelerates with motion.

Optic flow generated by the cortex eye is occurring all the time, even when we are static, and it greatly accelerates when in motion, for example, when driving, running, cycling or walking. However, it naturally occurs in a less dramatic way than illustrated, so much so that we do not even notice it. When we examine optic flow in the cortex eye in a very dramatic way, such when driving, we can clearly observe that there is no value to be gained from optic flow for any kind of directional purposes. The benefit of cortex flow in the optic array is created by the acceleration of the mathematical process in perceiving depth and distance judgement. On closer observation, it is noted that the cortex flow is equivalent to the speed of motion. The crossed lines on the roadway mirror the structure of the cortex eye as they are observed to approach faster as the car accelerates. This means the mathematical computations of depth perception acceleration are comparable to our speed in motion. In other words, visual accuracy is correlated with speed in motion. This explains our visual accuracy in motion and our visual confidence when, for example, driving a car at 100 kilometres per hour.

Gaelic hurlers or footballers can pick up a ball at speed as easily as when they are in a static position. A bird can pick up a tiny crumb or fly through a densely branched tree at full flight, yet while static on the ground it is vulnerable to preying cats or dogs. Our speed in focusing increases proportionally with the speed in motion even if the eyes are in a fixed distance position, which is what occurs when driving in a car. This in turn increases the speed of the mathematical processing, which in turn proportionally increases our depth and distance judgement, but the dominant eye always controls the accuracy of visual direction. Figure 6.11 illustrates the dramatically changing optic flow of the cortex eye. 

Another new debate arises from the correlation with accuracy of vision and speed in motion: the reflexes of any animal must match and react to their mathematical perception of speed. In other words, it is dangerous to feel visually comfortable driving a car at speed if our reflexes are not sharp enough to be compatible with that speed when the need arises. It is also important for the reaction of the vehicle to be completely in tune with our reflexes. There is also another obviously natural compensation regarding this correlation that occurs: age. As people become older, their reflexes slow but they also instinctively tend to drive slower. Increases in the speed of the mathematical processing which in turn proportionally increases depth and distance judgement also explains the reason why fast moving animals such as birds with small binocular overlap and large monocular areas have excellent vision when in motion.