A New Law
When a person turns 16(this is a Pennsylvania Law), they must have their permit for at least 6 months before they go ti get their liscense. Before it was only 1 month. Do you think that this will help? Will it make a difference?
I don’t know but what does everyone think of senior citizens driving? Do you think their liscense should be terminated after a certain age? Lemme know what you think.
~LERINAXE
I certainly think that senior citizens should be rquired to demonstrate proficiency on eyesight and motor skills - as should all drivers - before getting their licenses renewed.
One of the more potent lobbying groups, the AARP, is dead-set against this.
Here in California, you still need to have your Learner’s Permit for six months before you’re allowed to take the driving test. You’re also required to take 40 hours of classroom instruction and 6 hours on the road. While all the teaching may help, it costs a bundle.
Having recently received my license, I think that the six month rule is a good idea.
However, I just don’t understand the basis for some of the other rules, I’m not allowed to drive with other teens in the car, sort of an anti-carpool law.
As for seniors, I don’t think that a mandatory age would fly. People vary, 60 is too late for some, and others are still fine at 100. Tests every ten years or following an accident seems like the right idea to me.
Right now Senior Citizens in NJ are regulated by an eye test at a ceretain age.
Other than that I think the only other standard is how many tickets they get, and of course, how many accidents they get in.
Statistically, teens travelling with other teens in the car have more accidents, and more serious ones.
Also, teenage boys – the worst drivers – generally have their accidents as a result of speeding, and thus their accidents tend to be quite serious. Teenage girls tend to have their accidents as a result of being distracted – often by other teenagers in the car – and so while they do have more accidents than adult drivers do they are not usually as serious as teenage boys’ accidents are. All of this is, of course, reflected in your auto insurance rates.
-Melin
Siamese attack puppet – California
Senior citizens should have to be retested. In fact, it wouldn’t be a bad idea if everyone had to be tested every 10-15 years although I am sure it would be so costly it would never occur. (Also, implementation would likely be perfunctory).
I think requiring seniors to undergo restests on a graduated basis would improve the safety of roads significantly. Maybe starting with a retest (driving, vision, and written) at 65. Then at 70, 72, 75, and yearly.
Most senior citizens well understand that their abilities are fading with age. They’ve got the time to take the tests.
My personal experience? I was in a friends car at one of those courthouse squares that are all over the South. Clear, sunny day. Good visibility. We were leaving the square going straight ahead. Directly across from us was the right hand turn lane. When the turn light changed, the little old woman slowly drove her car into us. She never stopped until she hit us. We sat there in silent amazement watching her. Luckily no one was hurt. When I went to her car I noticed a post-it note on the dash next to the gear shift. It said “Put in P for Park”
I’m just glad she didn’t hit a pedestrian–if she couldn’t see a mid-sized car sitting directly in her path, there is no way she could have seen a person walking.
I remember seeing an old codger trudging up a long, straight rode at about 25 miles per hour (35 limit). Behind him a fire engine was tearing up this long, straight road, siren blaring. Codger never noticed. I was going the opposite direction, and of course pulled off the road - the fire truck had to pass Codger in my lane.
There was a Dateline story on this a while back. They showed John Stossil getting an eye test… not the usual “read these letters” test, but a comprehensive test that included pushing a button every time he saw a light. The machine built up a “map” of the peripheral vision of the person being tested. Stossil had one small black spot in the lower right quadrant of his eye – this was normal (the “blind spot” where the optic nerve enters the eye).
They then tested a senior citizen whose daughter had been begging him to stop driving.
Black spots all over the map.
They also (with the senior’s consent) mounted a camera in his car for a week, and then reviewed the tape with him. He had been oblivious to the number of dangerous near-misses he had.
Even with all that evidence, though, the best he could do when Stossil asked him if he’d agree to stop driving was, “I’ll think about it.”
Tests should be more often than every 10 years. Senior citizens can deteriorate very quickly mentally and physically. It should be biennial.
Chicago has had its share of seniors having serious accidents. The man who plowed into the school children at O’Hare comes immediately to mind. I don’t think someone’s license should be mandatorily revoked at a certain age, however, I do think mandatory, annual testing at some point should kick in. I am of two minds as to whether it should be age based or driving record based, though.
Lackey (in no particular order), SRCO
As a teenage driver, I’d just like to add that being the designated nerd sucks big time.
That is all.
Studi
When I grow up, I want to be the Minister of Silly Walks.
I am a teenager in Michigan. I turn 15 in April. I have been driving since the end of December. Here, we can take driver’s training when we are 14 and 8 months old. We get our permits for 6 months and have to log 30 hours, 2 have to be at night. We go back to driver’s ed for more training, and then log 20 more hours, 8 of which have to be at night. Practice makes perfect.
I have 3 teenagers. Personally, I think they should not be allowed to get their license for 7 years after they get their first permit. And they should have to live on their own. With their own cars. And their own insurance.
Kunilu–you have it EXACTLY right! I am trying to teach my daughter to drive–and we only have one car, with a stick-shift. I am absolutely TERRIFIED when I am in the car with her! Seven years might just do it–if she only drives in areas with less than 1 person per square mile of population!
kunilou and Jaws: It’s hard to do the right thing when someone always expects you to do the wrong thing.
Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.
—Red Green
Here in BC, Canada, we have graduated licensing. Learner Permit at 16, and 6 months of driving before one can take the test, unless they take a driving course. The wait is then determined on how well they progress in the lessons. During this time, the driver must always have the red “L” sign on the car at all times when they are driving. They must be accompanied by a legal adult who has had their license for at least 2 years when driving.
Then they have the first half hour road test. If they pass, they get the temporary license. They can drive without an adult in the car, and they can drive with teens in the car, but they aren’t allowed on the road between midnight and 5am. They also must have the green “N” sign on the car at all times when driving, indicating that they are a new driver. After 18 months (I think), there is the second road test, which I think is one hour long. If they pass, they get their full license.
The Learner permits and ‘New Driver’ licenses are now picture IDs here. It’s against the law to sell alcohol to anyone who presents one of these as their picture ID.
For the past decade-plus, I’ve worked heavy-highway construction projects. I’ve spent time as a flagger. As such, I have dealt with every variety of driver there is. I KNOW for fact who does and who does NOT know how to drive.
The absolute worst: elderly women. Hands down, no contest; no other group is even close. AARP be damned, I know to get out of the way when I see somebody’s granny headed my way!
I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…
T
Wow. Here you can get your driver’s license on your 16th birthday, the written test is 50 (maybe 100) multiple choice questions, and the driving test consists of four right turns and one left hand turn. (No parking required.) I actually refused to get my license at 16 because I didn’t feel like I could drive well enough.
The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they’re going to be when you kill them.
EvilBeth:
Oh shit, that sig line is hilarious.
Your children don’t represent teenage drivers as a whole. The three requirements that you mention require either a form of transportation(to get to work) or a rather large allowance. If your own children worry you so much, just don’t buy them cars or pay insurance.
Without a car, I’d have trouble getting to work, making it hard to pay insurance, car payments, and rent. Either you want to ferry your children around when they’re 22, or you’re encouraging them to marry early, as that would provide a cash flow.
I hope that your paranoia applies only to your own children, as I’m quite comfortable in my driving ability.