every 10 years while you are under 60, then one every 3-5 years after that
Why 10 years? If your job involves working with dangerous chemicals, heavy machinery, high places etc, your employer usually requires you to take a course and a test every 3 years. In some cases, every year. A 10 year cycle would be silly. Looking at the numbers, cars are really dangerous.
The real answer is a LOT more good, efficient, and affordable public transit options.
I just wish we had functional public transport.
The mistake is applying it only to older people. We’re so used to expecting facilities to decline and not pay attention to seniors limiting themselves but most importantly ignoring the injuries and deaths caused by poor drivers of all ages.
Post-Covid traffic was a real eye opener as so many people seem to have forgotten how to drive. It appears to be back to normal finally but as a frequent pedestrian, I am endangered almost every turn, despite staying on sidewalks and crosswalks and using crossing signals, and living in a place where drivers are better than most and there are few stroads. There’s always someone blowing through a light or ignoring the crossing signal or “stretching” the red, or blasting through a right in red (despite the law saying “after a complete stop”) or driving through the crosswalk, and pedestrians are in danger every time.
Drivers suck. Test them all. Fail those whose bad habits endanger other road users, and make them take remedial driver training.
I don’t think this opinion is as unpopular as you expect. Especially post COVID where everyone clearly forgot the little driving skill they did have.
The problem is who the opinion is unpopular with. About 22% of registered voters are in the AARP, and they’d be most at risk of losing their driving privileges. Any legislator proposing this or voting for it may as well kiss their office goodbye.
for a couple years during covid, they didn’t even do behind-the-wheel driving tests here, even for new drivers
At least in some places well before COVID they didn’t bother with road tests. My first GF got her first license in a tiny little town in GA way back in 1998-99. No driving test was administered
That would all depend on state.
I agree. It’s not that your driving skills might be lost over time, it’s to refresh everyone on laws and regulations. It would also catch people who have had cognitive decline and should not be driving.
I am nearing 70 and I have 2 cataracts. I am voluntarily taking myself off the road as I don’t feel right. Selling our vehicle at end of month. I will not be one of those old farts that crashes into people for my own convenience. It sucks but it’s the right thing to do.
My grandpa is 85 this year. He’s only had one eye for the last 55 years, and his good eye is…bad. He has no peripheral vision.
He legally gets his lisence renewed at the local AAA insurance office, because they don’t make you take an eye exam like they do at the DMV. And they just do it, they just look right at this blind man and hand his wife a renewal form to sign for him. Then she gets in the passenger seat and let’s him drive home.
Anyway, thanks for your sacrifice. It’s the right thing to do ♡
Thank you for your kind words. Appreciated.
Bro, as your friendly neighborhood eye doctor, please go get your cataracts fixed. It’s honestly one of the best quality of life improvements you can make. Most surgeries are less than 15 minutes.
I have been to an eye doctor. Unfortunately they are still ripening and not yet ready to be fixed. About 3 months ago he said come back in 6 months. I heard it is not good to work on them until the right time?
I watched my grandpa’s driving deteriorate to where I didn’t feel safe being driven around by him, for myself or for others.
thank you for making that choice. 70 feels early, to me, comparing to when I noticed it in my grandfather and what I am seeing in my father now, so I respect your decision even more
hopefully you live somewhere that you can still get around decently, as my grandfather did. he could still walk or bike all around town, and did
The important point is it’s not age specifically, but health conditions that may become common with age …. And can also happen at younger ages
Do it when you get your colonoscopies. A little propofol, a little road test… have fun with it.
You can’t leave until you run out of gas.
Sure, why not. Make it a 20min exam at something like 30 bucks and it’ll improve road safety for everyone at a manageable cost for the individual. I mean I’m paying way more for the repairs, insurance, gasoline… Also spend way more time in some traffic jams. Guess I could do it every few years or so…
Edit: And go ahead and ask them some questions as well. Like: You’re in a traffic jam. What do you do? a) change lines 200 times – b) do something useful.
And take away their permit do go downtown or drive while rush hour if they’re bad drivers.
Adding more friction to driving might yield better transit options. Let’s do it.
Mixed medium density cities would do it. We gotta do that in the US to have any hope for improvement.
I think you’re making an assumption that isn’t true:
https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/overview/age-of-driver/
I’d be interested in seeing a percentage based graph taking into account the number of drivers per age group. I would expect there to be fewer drivers in the last two groups, concurrent with an increased percentage of accident drivers.
I’d assume older people drive less (but I might be wrong), so I’d be curious to see accidents per 100000 kilometers driven broken down by age
Anecdotally they do. Every one of my elderly relatives self-limited how frequently they drive, long before they had to give up their licenses
For example they may stop driving at night or long distance or into cities
I fully agree but I think we actually do need to take the independence of seniors seriously too. No they shouldn’t be driving but for many there are no good or affordable alternatives. I don’t like the idea of nana and pawpaw rotting away at home waiting for visitors when they had a normal social life. If this is implemented free or low cost public transportation or shuttles should be provided for anyone over say 65.
I don’t like when nana and pawpaw get on the freeway hesitantly at 35 mph AND FUCKING TRY TO KILL US ALL!
Do you live in the States? I went to Michigan for the first time a few years ago and it seemed like so many homes were just separated from stores by so many roads … I wonder if ebikes and scooters and safer travel for those is a solution. I kinda want it more for Canada right now because living in the suburbs I see so many kids.
I upvoted because this IS an unpopular opinion (outside of this bubble)
I agree with the premise but can guarantee I would hate the outcome
With how many psychopaths have licenses - why do we think an even more bloated system is really gonna “catch em all”
…
But not to argue - please carry on
Are you really saying that since so many bad drivers currently have licenses, we shouldn’t even try?
More like I’m not really sure the system in place is well set up to catch the psychotic, selfish, idiots who make the road dangerous. And that by bloating that system further means we will probably get worse results overall and a painful but at the end of day completely ineffective system.
I mean doing what is suggested would require increasing the number of DMV workers and administration by like 5-6x
But yeah a little bit of fatalism is there too
I’ve been saying the same for years. The thing here is that when you put people through re-education, knowledge tends to stick. And other good things can be warned as well. More attention towards cyclists, pedestrians, etc.
At first people say they don’t care, then it gets into their subconscious.
At work I need to take monthly training on computer security and ethics. It’s all basic stuff I’ve heard many times. There’s nothing unique about it. But there are studies verifying that the regular reminders make a huge difference.
Even if all we do is periodic reminders of good habits, even if people already “know”, it does help
The only problem with that is that for the last 90 years we have been making our cities car dependant
Sure in places where there are alternatives to driving make it hard to get or keep a driving licence so it’s only the competent drivers on the road, but in places with no cheaper alternative the deal the majority has accepted is everyone needs to drive no matter how bad at it they are
I’m also for a yearly update on what traffic rules changed.
Or make it more scientific. What bad habits or violations contributes to the most harm last year? Stress those
The Germans: LOL! FAKE WISSENSCHAFT! GET OUT OF HERE, I NEED TO DRIVE 300KM/H ON MY AUTOBAHN!
If that’s a Nazi joke, touché
Otherwise there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. The autobahn gives you a safer environment, separated from pedestrians, cyclists, turning traffic. There are fewer things to endanger with speed. And the internet keeps telling me driving standards are higher in Germany: nothing wrong with proficient drivers going faster in places they don’t endanger anyone but themselves
I did Nazi that car coming
Fully agree with you. I believe science has an effect on car safety standards. That’s just not enough. In Europe, every country has individual road signs and ground markings. I want to know which pedestrian crossing design is the safest and then apply that to the streets everywhere.
High speed autobahn has its pros and cons. You can cause way worse accidents at 250km/h compared to 120km/h. In rush hour, statistics show that slower max speed increases throughput, which is why currently it is so fancy to install dynamic speed limits.
I don’t think the rules change very much though
