This. Far too many crap drivers these days, including me.
Should wrinkly old people be forced to retake their driving exams?
- Thread starter Mr Pigeon
- Start date
Im 62, I retire at 65. Im pretty active, still surf and play footy, I cant imagine being told to stop driving at age 65.
My mother is 81 and still drives. She has to retest her driving licence yearly now. She uses her car to go to the supermarket once a week which is not too far away, about 1.5kms. She does know that at some point in the not too distant future she will have to stop driving, its a conversation we have had. Right now the freedom it gives her is invaluable not in terms of being able to get around but in terms of self confidence and self worth.
My partners dad is 72 and drives trucks for a living, he is retired but works 3 days a week in retirement.
I think the driving restriction should be on competency not age.
No one asked for your opinion, grandpa
Yes.
Overall, the privilege afforded to the elderly (at least in my country) is utterly absurd.
Overall, the privilege afforded to the elderly (at least in my country) is utterly absurd.
I think I have this opinion because my brother-in-laws grandmother had a stroke driving a car, and died. Thankfully no one else was injured in her crash. She was bright and very lively. Played golf, did pilates every week at a quite high age and then it just suddenly happened. My partners dad was an absolute danger to drive with in his late 60s.
I generalise a lot and there will be a lot who knows their limits and knows when to call quit on the driving. But knowing there are options (where I live) for elders I just don't see any reasons not to make use of those. And hopefully those options will only get a lot better in a near future.
But I get your point with competency over age. Tests and such are fair for sure - we just don't that here.
There's actually a fairly large bus network in STL, it's not overall great but it's still one of the better cities
I'd say automatics are far easier to drive and on average will reduce accidents in older people. Manuals have a higher chance of rolling back than of lurching forward and it means you can concentrate on maneuvering the car rather than having the distraction of gear changing for example. Plus who drives a manual these days? Not that many people under 30 will have ever driven one and probably never will.
I think the stats show we should retest in some way for the over 70's, but it shouldn't be a traditional full driving test. More a supervised drive e.g. do ylou keep distance, drive at a safe speed, not miss red lights and can park at the supermarket, combined with eye and health certification - as you say competence based but only imposed over a certain age.
Having transport is hardly pandering to privilege.
In Australia when you are diagnosed with dementia the specialist usually gives you the option of voluntarily giving up your license, and if you don't they will report that you should have your license withdrawn. The problem with dementia is that the person will often realise that something isn't right, but they also often have very poor insight into exactly how impaired they are, and particularly when it comes to driving. We had this with my Dad and feck me that was hard, nearly as hard as getting my folks into care.
And you can't really blame them. Unless you are wealthy most are homes are fairly dreadful and personally if I have dementia I'd rather be euthanised first. TBH if my mind has totally gone, as happens with mid/late stage Alzheimer's, I don't want to live as an empty shell of flesh anyway.
I personally dislike automatics.
I have 3 friends who are driving instructors and they reckon that apart from women from certain ethnicities majority of young drivers want training in a manual car.
Maybe it's different from country to country?
I also think, talking to some drivers/mechanics that automatic cars these days give you more issues and expensive ones at that. I've heard "bought the automatic version, gearbox is shit in those" with cars that are routed for being generally reliable.
In the UK we have quite robust laws around dementia so surprising she was able to drive.
Edit: oh, it's Scotland so might be different up there
Edit: oh, it's Scotland so might be different up there
I thought they did at some point. My grandad had his taken away he was a nuisance on the road.
The majority of driving instructors here teach on autos and the vast majority of cars on sale are autos. Only the very cheapest cars come as manuals with auto as an options. My son and his mates, all 25/26, have mainly never driven a manual.
Auto gearboxes are generally now very reliable and far more fuel efficient. They are probably a bit more expensive to fix/repair but so are all the various things we put in/on cars these days. It is where the dealers make money.
It depends where you live, Wibs. Here in Italy most people drive manuals, including the young people. Automatics are easier to drive, I agree, but a lot of the oldies (and I mean really really old) here drive ancient Fiat Panda 4x4s, the ones with the narrow wheels and the word Fiat embossed across the hatchback. The cars are absolutely ancient too. All manuals. It's because they're cheap to run and insure.
We have a newish roundabout in the village (a bone of contention, but that's another story) and the other day one of our oldies in one of those Fiats parked halfway round it to pick someone up. You have to expect the unexpected with the ancients here. There are many people here still driving in their late 80s and 90s. I hate to think what damage they'd do in an automatic.
The car park near the church is like Death Race 2000 after Mass on Sunday.
We have loads of old Italians where I live, it was virtually 100% until they started dying off and the local car park is likewise chaotic, mainly autos but I don't think the gearbox is the issue
I think we have moved away from manuals here much faster as we are at the mercy of what gets imported. Until a few years ago we did get lots of base models of small cheap cars as manuals but that seems to have changed to a large degree, especially as we now don't have domestic manufacturing. Or cheap cars.
Unless you can find one of the old MG3's (with no ANCAP rating) in a showroom somewhere, the cheapest car is the Kia Pincanto at about A$21,000, although you can save about $500 if you can find a manual one. Also assuming you can get into it as it is a VERY small car.
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Unless it's voting day. We don't half turn out for that.
My 75 year old uncle who can barely walk, has had a heart attack and a stroke in the last year, spent over an hour complaining to me last time I saw him how he couldn't understand why he was no longer allowed to drive. He said he was given some tests at the GPs and felt it was harsh as he didn't understand what he did wrong and that the thing was going too fast anyway. The guy struggles making a cup of tea, but showed no sense that he understood the issues with him operating a tonne of metal on wheels.
I wouldn't trust him to operate a mobility scooter.
I wouldn't trust him to operate a mobility scooter.
You're in Australia if I recall?
Must be a country by country thing. Used to be automatics on tv with the American shows and movies. Always made a thing about "driving stick". Finally figured out that meant manual.
As I say though where I am manual seems to be the preferred option apart from certain young women.
I work in the transport industry now and a lot of the drivers prefer manuals. In a previous job those with automatic kept complaining about certain issues and changed.
Me personally, I prefer manual. But again I think it's the driving experience on the types of roads etc. just feel more in control of the car. When I've been abroad and there are long roads then I can see the benefit of automatic.
If you do that here your driver's license gets a remark that you're only allowed to drive automatic, while doing driving school on a manual will allow you to drive both manual and automatic. For that reason almost all driving school cars are manual, and very few people do the automatic-only license to not limit themselves. If somebody had that license and wanted to upgrade it to allow them to drive manual as well they'd have to complete (and pay for, of course) additional 450 minutes of driving school on a manual, and finally do a 15mins practical driving test.
The situation for that here is pretty dumb. Basically, a doctor can prohibit you from driving, but it is not legally binding and if you do it anyway it will have no consequences. However if the doctor knows or suspects that you do not adhere to it they are then allowed to inform the license authorities of their diagnosis and those can then legally take your license away. Really wish they were just obligated to make a report. Not share your medical details, that should still be private, but that you're unfit to drive and for how long.
And of course that person would need to see a doctor about those issues first, and have them diagnosed. Plenty people don't. Hence why I want mandatory regular checkups and checkrides. In aviation that is already totally normal. If I want to keep my private pilot license, I have to have a minimum of flight hours as well as take-offs and landings in command of an aircraft logged in the past 24 months, and do a 1hr ride with a certified instructor. Alternatively I can do a proper checkride with an examiner which usually costs a lot more and is way stricter.
As for dementia... yeah, I feel you. My granduncle just came back from the hospital after we already thought he might finally lose the fight. Didn't recognize anyone anymore, lost the ability to speak and was just catatonic for large timespans. Surprisingly for everyone he actually got better. Still forgets a lot, but at least he recognizes his closest relatives again, he can talk, and he's mobile and even keeps himself busy by doing small household tasks like clearing the dishwasher. But just like you, if I ever developed a condition like that, I'd hope they just take me behind the metaphorical barn. I do not want to live out my days like that. I do have a patient's decree that states that I do not want lifesaving and lifeprolonging measures if it is unlikely that I will ever get my proper mental and physical faculties back. I can just hope it will be found and honored if that day comes.
Here, if you train on auto (120 hrs logged practice, lessons and test) you can only drive an auto until you have held a full licence for 2 years (I think), so about 5 years in most states, as you have to hold 2 levels of P plate between passing your test and getting a full licence.
I suspect it is the same here but I don't know for sure. My Dad voluntarily gave up driving after the specialist asked/told him to, with added cajoling from me - who then became their fecking taxi for the rest of their life.
Wow. That is very unusual I believe.
The problem with just not having life saving or prolonging treatment is that it doesn't end your suffering. I'm firmly in favor of euthanasia.