Poll: Should Driver’s Retake The Driving Test When They Get Older?
I have friends now dealing with elderly parents, including facing the difficult decision to take away their keys or at least convince them to not drive at night. My brothers and I were getting close to this dilemma after our our father had a few minor accidents, and one that totaled his car. He bought a replacement car but shortly thereafter he became ill and passed away at age 78, saving us from what would have been a very difficult discussion. My father had expressed to me his fear of not being able to drive.
I also have close relatives & friends at or quickly approaching 65 years of age. With people living longer and Baby Boomers now turning 65 this become an increasing issue. Neither of my grandmothers drove — ever — but they were born in 1902 & 1905. Today’s seniors likely have been driving since they were teens.
Letters like the following letter to the editor in a Pennsylvania paper will be increasingly common:
Editor, the Record:
In regard to the article stating that older drivers are more to blame for auto acidents, it doesn’t sit too well with me and other senior citizens in the area.
First of all, we’re not in any hurry to get anywhere, so we don’t speed. We don’t gander, looking out the window while driving — we’ve already seen it all. Very few us us drive at night. So I don’t think the privilege of driving a car should be denied us. We don’t all have family members at our disposal to take us to the doctor, grocery shopping, etc.
And I’m sure you won’t find any bags of heroin or other illegal articles in our trunks.
I drive back and forth the the Loder Senior Center five days a week to have lunch and visit with other folks my age. Without my car, this wouldn’t be possible.
LAURA (mcwilliams) kappes
East Stroudsburg
But senior drivers are a cause for concern:
While traffic fatalities are down across the country, older drivers still account for a “disproportionately high share” of the casualties.
[snip]
Consider this: One in every five drivers will be 65 or older by the year 2025, the report found. (STLtoday.com)
The report mentioned above was released this month from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials:
With the first wave of the Baby Boom Generation turning 65 in 2011, the number of older Americans and their share of the population will begin to grow significantly in the coming years. And as this generation continues to age and grow, it will demand a level of mobility and an active lifestyle that far outpaces any of America’s previous generations. This aging population will both create and face significant transportation challenges, including a transportation system that lacks many features that would accommodate the level of mobility and safety older Americans desire and expect. Transportation innovations to accommodate the Baby Boom Generation’s need for improved safety and mobility will benefit users of all ages. (Full report: Keeping Baby Boomers Mobile: Preserving Mobility and Safety for Older Americans)
Regular readers know I advocate making our regions more pedestrian & transit friendly, partly to help out our aging population. Regardless of that, many seniors will want to keep driving so the issue of testing comes up:
There was strong support for testing senior drivers, with 76% favoring drivers over the age of 75 to take a driving test every two years. A majority of American drivers also indicated they would support requiring expanded road testing of already licensed drivers. Nationwide, 56% said drivers should be required to take a road test every 10 years, and 76% said those who have their license suspended or revoked as the result of a moving violation should have to take a driving test to get it reinstated. (Source)
The poll this week asks your thoughts on retesting drivers. The poll is in the right sidebar — mobile users need to switch to the desktop layout to vote in the poll.
– Steve Patterson
There are two issues here:
1) Are older drivers (at least, many of them) less safe?
2) Does the fact that people cannot have a reasonable quality of life without a car mean that they should be allowed to drive even if they are less safe?
Based on the statistics you quote, the answer to 1) is yes.
2) is harder to deal with. In much of the US, public transportation cannot fill most people’s basic transportation expectations. As people grow older and typically less mobile on foot or bike, this problem only grows. Dense, pedestrian-oriented development can minimize the problem – but that is a long-term solution which will only help the next generation of older people, at the soonest.
A more immediate solution is self-driving cars. They are already legal in one state, and will soon be in more. For now a license holder must be present in such a car, but once they have proven themselves on the road, that will likely become unnecessary.
http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1073910_california-proposes-rules-for-autonomous-cars
Self-driving cars will not solve many of the issues of car usage, for example high oil prices or global warming. For those issues, transit and urbanism will still needed. They will, however, solve the problem of populations, like the young and old, whose mobility is limited without the ability to drive.
That assumes a senior citizen could program the car to get to their destination. My aging mom has problems changing the chanels on her TV with a remote and won’t go near a computer.
It also assumes they’ll be able to afford such vehicles.
JZ71: Your mom feels no need to use a remote or a computer, so she doesn’t bother to learn. I assume that if the need were pressing enough, like buying groceries or visiting doctors, she would take the trouble to learn. With the years she has become more fixed in her habits, not less intelligent.
Steve: Computers are cheap (hundreds of dollars) compared to cars (thousands). While the first generation of self-driving cars will be a luxury item, they will quickly become commoditized, and the extra cost would be minimal.
No, my mom is baffled by technology, and no, she no longer drives. She’d like to use a remote, but her vision has deteriorated and she’s not quick enough anymore to hit the keys in the proper sequence to change the channels. She wants to watch TV, and would be perfectly fine with the old analog controls (one knob to turn on the set and control the volume and another that clicks thru the various channels), but that’s no longer available. Assuming that all senior citizens can manage to program a VCR or operate an iphone or ipad simply shows the arrogance of youth. It’s not a matter of intelligence, tt’s a matter of an interface that requires dexterity, good vision and relatively quick reflexes, all things that deteriorate as one ages, and are the same hurdles that make operating a motor vehicle more difficult today: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27200093/ns/business-autos/t/aging-suit-helps-develop-cars-older-drivers/
Off topic, but I came across the following site. It is quick and easy to add information to and could be quite useful once it is somewhat complete. Please check it out.
http://wheelmap.org
I was at the DMV this week and was third in line. The first person in line, an elderly woman who was likely older than 65, had to renew her license. She didn’t pass every test, but got a license anyway. She said she couldn’t see the light blinking on the right side or see the column of letters on the right hand side. They put a restriction on her license that any vehicle she drives needs a mirror on the right side, but is that enough? I think that testing older drivers more frequently helps keep drivers safe and elderly drivers who are losing their eyesight and have slower response times off the roads. It keeps everyone safe.
If seniors are required to retest, then why shouldn’t teenagers also be required to do the same, just as often? Does anyone really feel that an average teenager drives more safely than an average senior? And how safe are these 20 year olds who drive around with the “music” blasting while they’re lounging in the front seat barely able to see over the steering wheel? Or those who drive with a soda in one hand, a phone in one ear, and a mind several miles away? I am 37 yrs old, and I know in 30 years I’ll still be more alert and generally a safer driver than the average teenie bopper–then or today. Maybe EVERYONE should be required to retest after ANY accident involving an insurance claim. That would be fair.
There is a big difference between a teenager and a senior. For one, all teenagers basically act the same and mature, more or less, at the same rate. They all feel immortal. Seniors are far more complicated. A 70 year old can behave and act like a 50 year old, in that case no problem, or worse, a 90 year old and in delicate state. That is the problem. At what age is a senior a senior? But I think at some point, whether it be 60, 65, or 70, there should be more frequent testing. Then of course, this doesn’t even address the issue of driving without a license.
In Illinois, if you are 75 or older, you have to take a road test on every renewal. Up to age 80, you renew every 4 years. 81-86 every two years and 87 and over every single year. I wonder how well this system works.
The challenge is also admitting that one’s capabilities are slowly fading. Some seniors know and are aware of their own limits. Some seniors, like Steve’s dad, need(ed) a strong family to intervene. Some seniors need to hear from the state, officially. And some drivers will continue to drive until they kill themselves and/or others, whether they have a license or not.
Age itself is, at best, only a general indicator, a blunt tool, to decide if someone needs to be retested or tested more frequently. And the testing interval should reflect the rate of decline, not some arbitrary timeframe (2, 5 or 10 years). Unfortunately, laws/rules are also blunt tools, as is the current, cursory “testing” process that does very little to actually test an individual’s fitness to drive or to deprive anyone of their driving privileges, much as Megan noted.
My mom is 86. She gave up driving about 10 years ago, but refused to give up her driver’s license (in lieu of a state ID) and even renewed it after she had given up her car. It had more to do with the sense of self than with actually driving. Today, she has no business behind the wheel and she knows it. Fortunately, she lives with my sister, so getting around is not an issue. As a family, we could force the issue, but since she’s not driving, and never will be, it’s a non-issue for any of us.
In contrast, my uncle / her brother is 91 and (as far as I know) is still driving and knows his limits. He’s in much better shape physically, even though he’s older. Bottom line, there is no one answer. It’s the classic case of personal responsibility versus governmental responsibility. A license gives you the privilege to drive, but it does not guarantee that you will remain competent, in the near or far future. Impairment can come from alcohol, legal medications, illegal medications, health problems and/or advancing age. Ultimately, it remains the driver’s responsibility to know their own limits.
-1 Suggestion and 1 Tip-
Require drivers, over a certain age, to take the written driver’s test annually, either on-line or through the mail. Require a witness to sign that the ‘completion of the test’ was done without help from another party. Test is then scored and will determine if the driver needs to come in for “rehab” driving and/or re-education on the rules of the road. It may be that the witness helps the senior driver on the test, we can’t be sure. But most likely the witness is a friend or relative who cares about the senior and will explain why the wrong answer is wrong and why the right answer is the correct one.Awareness is key, and annually re-familiarizing a senior about the rules of the road can’t hurt.TIP: In the meantime, put a MediPal seatbelt ID on your senior loved-one’s seatbelt. It contains medical and contact info and EMT’s will spot it immediately. My (still driving)-90-year-old Dad has one, and so does my autistic nephew. You can find them at medipal.com
I don’t think that seniors forget the rules of the road, their physical abilities simply decline over time, yet they’re still trying to control a 3500-5000 pound missle in a variety of conditions and situations. Cataracts limit vision, hearing diminishes, arthritis and osteoporosis limit physical movement, because things hurt, people move less and muscle mass and strength diminishes. Multiple medications prescribed by multiple specialists can and do interact, and cognitive abilities decline, naturally, at various rates, up to and including Alzheimers. Any and all of them can render any driver incapable of driving at night, in strange areas, on freeways or driving at all. Some can still pass a written test on the rules of the road, especially if it’s in large print and there is no time limit, but it’s of limited use in identifying actual, physical limitations that are the real problem.
The real issue is that we’ve built cities in America for the last sixty years where you HAVE to have a car to get a lot of places. Ten of millions of Americans are now facing the possibility of being stuck at their houses if they become unable to drive due to age. What then? Who gives them a ride everywhere, or will we be faced with dangerous drivers who refuse to give up their licenses out of fear of being stranded at home for a decade or more? They don’t face this problem in Europe, where cities are still designed around walking, and the elderly are not chained to their automobiles and can still enjoy life by walking to the grocery or city square.