Ninety years old seems to be a good age to stop driving in America.
I conclude this based on the examples of two people who I admire greatly.
The first was a former neighbor who lived down the hall from me in a multi-family building. I would see her in the hallway often, and always enjoyed talking to her. She was one of those lucky seniors who had lived a fairly ordinary life, with some sadness and terrible days, but she did not like to complain. When she turned 90, she decided not to drive anymore. She had people to bring her necessities, and really preferred to stay home anyway. She opted to do this on her own, and we admired her judgement and willingness to end a practice that she had been doing for a large portion of her life.
The second was my father. He was 89 last year when he experienced a fall that led to a terrible case of sepsis (is there any other kind?). It hastened his decline, and when he returned home after post-acute care and some time in assisted living, he sold his car. His timing was good in that way, at least — there was still a pandemic-related shortage of used cars, and his almost pristine ten-year-old Toyota fetched a nice price.
Both my neighbor and my father, as Illinois residents, had been taking on-road driving tests periodically, as the state requires drivers to take tests beginning at 79 years old. Drivers 87 years and older take tests yearly. Which prompts some good questions, such as why do we let people generally go from age 18 (or whenever they obtain their driver’s license) to 79 with theoretically no road driving test needed? Drivers with a certain amount of violations do have to take written or road tests, but unless you accumulate a list of road accidents that are your fault, we say “See ya much later” to the road examiner once we have our first license.
Illinois is the only one of the 50 United States to require tests for older drivers, but according to the article linked above, that may change. We were also one of the last of the 50 states to allow law enforcement broad denial of mandated concealed carry gun permits. As with many court cases, the path is convoluted, but I believe Berron vs. Illinois is where our state was basically told that every other state lets practically everyone carry a concealed gun, so we had to as well.
I was working at a library at the time of the Berron case, and because we would now be facing potentially more people coming into Youth Services with a rifle hidden in their jeans, the Illinois legislature clarified that places like libraries could ban concealed weapons. I remember when our building services people placed stickers on every entrance notifying the public that you could not bring your weapon here. (Still, humans are flawed creatures, and we had to watch, during our active shooter training, a video of a young man dressed in baggy clothing unload a cache of weapons from his pants, shirt, socks, etc.).
All of this is to say that as an Illinois resident I don’t need to be following the crowd. I like that we test senior drivers. I am in my 50s now, and I am noticing changes in my driving ability, especially at twilight and in the dark. This is a common feature of human aging. And it is because of changes in eyesight, depth perception, reflexes, etc., that many people over 80 or so decide to stop driving. I admire this wise self-assessment and the courage to make such a drastic life change. But humans are flawed creatures, and some seniors drive beyond the time where they can safety be behind the wheel.
Still, seniors are safer drivers than young people, everyone notes. I agree! Young people do not have the experience, but they generally have the eyesight, reflexes, and strength that I am losing. So I think it is safe to conclude that an on-road driver’s test might be good throughout one’s whole driving life. How about getting in the car with an examiner at 40, 60, 80, and then every five years after? How about issuing decals that you can stick on your left back passenger side (the safest place, I think) that brag about passing an on-road test? How about getting McDonald’s or Culver’s to let Decal Earners have a free drink after they pass their on-road tests?
How about: if we are not going to invest in public transit, we then invest in driver safety? How about forcing drivers of thousand-pound hunks of metal to jump through the same hoops as marijuana users? How about treating new drivers, middle-age distracted/tipsy/accident-prone drivers and aging drivers all the same and requiring proof that they should be allowed to operate a collapsable combustion engine-powered machine through a crowded area? How about banning behemoth vehicles that loom over most students and many teachers from within 500 feet of a school?
Ideas for new legislation related to driving? Oh, I have them.
Carol Morency 