“They have a lifetime of driving experience,” Jim Flaherty, communications director for AARP Wisconsin, said over Zoom Wednesday.
Flaherty said every senior driver is different, and the decision to put down the keys should come from a person’s family or their doctor.
The AARP has been talking this shit for a long time. I’ll repeat something I posted on another thread today: for a “personal responsibility” argument to make sense, the consequences have to go predominantly to the person who lacks personal responsibility. In the case of cars and pedestrians, the pedestrians can do absolutely everything correctly and still get hit. The consequences to them can easily be severe injury or death. The consequences to the driver are comparatively small, even if it involves damage to the car and long term PTSD. Therefore, the consequences are not at all matched up with personal responsibility.
I get why the AARP does this. Being able to transport yourself without help is an important part of feeling independent to older people, and that’s important to their mental health. The solution is better public transportation for everyone, not letting people drive who have no business driving.
There’s definitely a point that only taking away driving privileges only hurts some of our most vulnerable people. We should feel responsible for providing alternate support for their independence
And no, self-driving cars is not a solution even if we eventually get it. Firstly it doesn’t exist yet and secondly it may never. However just as big a concern is that not everyone will be able to use it.
I know it’s anecdotal but the reason we finally took the keys from my grandmother …… she had long agreed to drive only to church, the same route she’d taken for like 60 years. However then we got a call from the police that she was lost and disoriented on the other side of the city. She appears to have held onto the physical skills of driving even while losing the awareness to know where she was going. Self-driving would not have helped. Plus she was uncomfortable with technology, self-driving would not even have been usable. Self-driving cars are not the answer
Anyhow, I don’t know what the renewal requirements are but I hope they would flag people like my grandmother, even if she passed the skills test
and the gerrymandered to hell and back republican state assembly will surely expand public transportation throughout the state to give the elderly who shouldn’t be driving an alternative method of getting around… right?
right?!?!
yeah… didn’t think so.
being Murica, I am sure the conclusion would be to jail the parents of the kid for letting a 12 year old out into the street
It has happened and the driver got nothing
This is why it’s important for people of all ages to support transit and walkable cities.
Cities and towns should not be designed for the demographic of people physically abled to drive. Nor should they be designed solely for the car.
Once we get older, most of us will loose our independence and be stuck at home as a result. If you live in a sea of single family homes locates in suburbia you won’t be able to get anywhere.
I would recommend you try and challenge yourself to navigate your neighborhood through the eyes of a elderly person or even that of a small child.
How walkable is your neighborhood, are there any car free areas or neighborhoods close by? Do you feel safe walking to the bakery, do you feel safe walking to the pharmacy.
What is the closest coffee shop and restaurant to you. Can you walk safely to the mall and school. Look for any uneven sidewalks and highsteps, is it comfortable to navigatable in a wheelchair or pushing a walker?
When I die, I want to go peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming, like the passengers in his car.
start retesting at 40. It’s ludicrous that you only have to be tested once in your lofe.
Dangerous drivers come in all age brackets. A skills-based license should expire in 5-10 years for everyone and require mandatory testing to renew. None of this ageist debate.
in my state they did away with the skills test for a couple years during covid.
Plus given how poorly people drive these days, regular retests may help people remember to pay attention rather than just keep getting worse.
At work we take mandatory computer security training. Everyone grumbles about how stupid it is. But there are stats that show even stupid security training makes a difference as a reminder. Similar deal: by all means grumble about stupid drivers retest every five years, but if it helps even some people remember how to drive safely it will save lives
Im down with retesting every 10 years. I just picked 40 because it’s roughly 25 years after the first test.
The children of the elderly are complicit in this. You know your parents are nearly blind, barely able to turn their heads and with the reaction time of a tortoise. I’m sorry it’s inconvenient to stop them from driving.
No that’s just finding someone to blame. Yes, the family should be first to notice a problem. Yes, family should do the right thing. Yes, family should help their parents maintain independence. But passing the buck to family is bs. Not everyone has family. Not everyone has family nearby. Not everyone has family who can help. And get this, even non-elderly can be incapacitated or otherwise unable to drive
We as society are equally complicit in not identifying when driving privileges should be revoked and not supporting alternatives. It takes a village to help someone age in dignity and we all are that village
Hell yeah. Number one problem is car dependency!
When you reach 60, they should give you transit for free.
When you reach 0, they should give you transit for free. Even as a car brain, I like the idea of everyone having free public transport and the people who rely on it could probably use a break financially.
No shit
