An image recognition apparatus comprising: an image information acquisition unit configured to acquire a plurality of frames of image information sensed at predetermined regular time intervals, each frame including at least a road surface (Ro) of an area in the surroundings of a vehicle; an image recognition unit configured to perform an image recognition process, in a detection area defined in each of the acquired frames of the image information, to detect one of a leading end (Pb) and a trailing end (Pe) of a lane mark included in said detection area of an acquired frame of the image information and to detect the other one of the leading end (Pb) and the trailing end (Pe) of the lane mark included in said detection area of a subsequently acquired frame of the image information; a distance detection unit configured to detect the distance (d) either from the leading end of the lane mark to the trailing end of the lane mark first detected after detection of the leading end as a detected distance on the basis of the speed of the vehicle (v) and the number of frames between the frame in which the leading end of the lane mark is detected and the frame in which the trailing end of the lane mark first detected after detection of the leading end is detected, or from the trailing end of the lane mark to the leading end of the lane mark first detected after detection of the trailing end as a detected distance on the basis of the speed of the vehicle (v) and the number of frames between the frame in which the trailing end of the lane mark is detected and the frame in which the leading end of the lane mark first detected after detection of the trailing end is detected; and a lane mark type determination unit configured to determine a lane mark type of the lane mark on the basis of the detected distance, wherein the distance detection unit produces the detected distance by calculating the distance that the vehicle travels for every frame of the image information on the basis of the speed of the vehicle, multiplying the vehicle traveling distance per frame by the number of frames, and employing the resultant value as the detected distance, and wherein the detection area is defined in each frame such that a location of the detection area is fixed in each frame and a width of the detection area in the horizontal direction is equal to a width of the frame in the horizontal direction, and a vertical height of the detection area is set such that each portion of the road surface (Ro) of the area in the surroundings of the vehicle occurs in at least one detection area. an image information acquisition unit configured to acquire a plurality of frames of image information sensed at predetermined regular time intervals, each frame including at least a road surface (Ro) of an area in the surroundings of a vehicle; an image recognition unit configured to perform an image recognition process, in a detection area defined in each of the acquired frames of the image information, to detect one of a leading end (Pb) and a trailing end (Pe) of a lane mark included in said detection area of an acquired frame of the image information and to detect the other one of the leading end (Pb) and the trailing end (Pe) of the lane mark included in said detection area of a subsequently acquired frame of the image information; a distance detection unit configured to detect the distance (d) either from the leading end of the lane mark to the trailing end of the lane mark first detected after detection of the leading end as a detected distance on the basis of the speed of the vehicle (v) and the number of frames between the frame in which the leading end of the lane mark is detected and the frame in which the trailing end of the lane mark first detected after detection of the leading end is detected, or from the trailing end of the lane mark to the leading end of the lane mark first detected after detection of the trailing end as a detected distance on the basis of the speed of the vehicle (v) and the number of frames between the frame in which the trailing end of the lane mark is detected and the frame in which the leading end of the lane mark first detected after detection of the trailing end is detected; and a lane mark type determination unit configured to determine a lane mark type of the lane mark on the basis of the detected distance, wherein the distance detection unit produces the detected distance by calculating the distance that the vehicle travels for every frame of the image information on the basis of the speed of the vehicle, multiplying the vehicle traveling distance per frame by the number of frames, and employing the resultant value as the detected distance, and wherein the detection area is defined in each frame such that a location of the detection area is fixed in each frame and a width of the detection area in the horizontal direction is equal to a width of the frame in the horizontal direction, and a vertical height of the detection area is set such that each portion of the road surface (Ro) of the area in the surroundings of the vehicle occurs in at least one detection area.