Driving too slow can impeed traffic, backing everything up.
And like I said, my grandfather NEVER drove slowly. My other grandmother, the one who did give up her keys, didn’t either-we always said she had a lead foot.
As a bit of anecdotal evidence, here’s a sad story from down here in Florida; trust me, we know from bad older drivers, down here. Everyone has a Crazy Eldster story. That being said, all drivers are crazy in Florida. Except for me, of course.
My first car and the car I currently drive were vehicles removed from family members who could no longer drive safely. My grandfather was getting senile and was ill, but hell if you could take the keys from him. The last straw was when he attempted to make my parents’ house a drive through. They took his keys and that was that. Of course, it then fell on my parents to do all the chauffeuring and such, but that was okay.
Most recently they had to take the car away from my aunt. She’s strong as an ox, but dementia is sucking her dry. The State of Wisconsin revoked her license based on a doctors statement. Of course, they didn’t take the car. My mom and dad bought it from her (she has no recall - my dad is a thief according to her) and I bought it from them.
Now my dad is getting bad off (he’s 71 and ill). Luckily he realizes it and lets my mom drive. However, it took him driving into the garage door to realize it.
I believe that whenever we renew our license we need to be road tested. I believe there should be restrictions placed on people after x number of careless driving citations - akin to the drunk plates we have here in Minnesota. I know that may not stop people from driving, but if the cars were then confiscated and sold at auction - hell, that would pay for the increased employees and such.
Oh, and I wanted to add: Many MANY counties offer transportation for elderly/disabled. Even in rural areas. You just have to contact your local elderly agency.
So ok here’s a for instance for you.
Going to work this afternoon I came up behind a slow driver. He must have been doing 55 in a 65.
I was driving 65 and passed even though there was a SUV coming up behind me .
The SUV passed both of us but not until after she laid on the horn. Then she swerved into the right lane and took an exit .
Now if you believe the op it was the slow drivers fault . Right???
BTW
The slow driver had grey hair so he must have been old.
Oh!! So do I. 
BTW2
The SUV driver was talking on her cell phone.
Partly, yes. The proximate cause, however, was the SUV driver’s overly aggressive driving, and had there been an accident, I think the SUV driver would have been given the citation.
Yeah, especially for driving while distracted by the cell phone, which in some places is now illegal. Of course, we don’t know for sure whether the SUV person would have behaved the same way had the driver in front of you been driving a little faster. No excuse for it, though.
No, that’s not what the OP said at all.
Elderly drivers don’t get into accidents every time they go out on the road. Neither do drunks, teenagers, or cell phone drivers. Most of the time, they get lucky, but that doesn’t disprove the fact that they’re more dangerous than the average driver.
My 91 year old great grandmother still drives. One day at my aunts house she said this
“Some times I fall asleep when I drive and I wake up on the side of the road”
I guarantee she isn’t the only one like her.
Not sure how, but they need to regulate it better.
accordian to statistics at the link i posted earlier, it’s because they drive slowly through red lights, stop signs, and pedestrians.
It was a trick question.
The slow driver was in no way at fault.
The minumum speed on Iowa freeways is 40 mph.
The SUV driver was completely at fault if an accident had happened.
Is there any way to get her to surrender her keys?
You’re grouping an awful lot of people into a catagory. I’m sure you can’t prove the dangerous statement.
I’ve seen some pretty stupid drivers in my 40 years driving and most wern’t elderly.
I’m sure I can, subject to some qualifications about the exact age range once I find the cite again. I’ve looked it up before, and elderly drivers are involved in as many accidents per mile as inexperienced young drivers; both groups are more dangerous than average.
I’ve seen some pretty stupid drivers too, and most of them weren’t drunk. Does that mean drunk drivers aren’t dangerous?
My wife was notorious for turning around and yelling at the kids who were usually misbehaving in the back seat. When she did so she usually swerved.
Does that mean we should ban kids from riding in the back seat?
Its all relative.
Sure some oldsters shouldn’t be driving. But most are good drivers.
Sure some drunks get into accidents. But most get there safely.
Sure some mothers drive unsafely. But most get there safely.
Lets just provide a mental test for each and every driver each and every time they drive.
That way if you are pissed off at your boss and are ** likely to **drive erratically creating a hazard your car won’t start. There are any number of reasons why people drive badly.
All I’m saying is you are grouping a large number of folks into a group and calling them bad drivers because of a momentary lapse in judgement by a few.
It means drivers shouldn’t turn around while driving. If you can think of a practical way to enforce that, then I’m all ears, but obviously banning kids from riding in the back seat doesn’t fit the bill (where else are they going to sit?).
So, do you think drunk driving should be legal?
Obviously, that would be impractical. Let’s focus on the practical ways we can keep bad drivers off the road.
No, I’m calling them bad drivers because the statistics show that, as a group, they are. If these are just momentary lapses in judgment, why is this particular group so much more likely to have them than others?
The fact is, people aren’t born knowing how to drive, so it makes sense that teenagers would be worse drivers than average. It’s also a fact that people’s mental facilities tend to deteriorate as they reach old age, so it also makes sense that elderly drivers would be worse than average. It’s not just random chance that teenagers and elderly drivers tend to get in more accidents per mile than other drivers.
Cites:
So, perhaps not as dangerous as inexperienced young drivers, but still quite dangerous.
I got my Arizona driver’s license when I was 17. It doesn’t expire until I’m 65 years old. Anyone who’s ever been to Arizona knows that this kind of thinking really causes problems, but the deeply conservative retired population of the state, combined with the similarly conservative young population of its only truly major city, Phoenix, means that this probably will never change. (IIRC the only county that Kerry won was Pima, home of the University of Arizona.) Arizona lives off its old people, and doesn’t want to do wrong by them. I’m sure it’s not the only state like this. I get the impression from my uncle, a Utah man with a Nevada license, that Nevada hands out licenses to retirees like candy (personal incorporation plays a factor in this, of course).
I’ve never heard of this. Are you talking about special license plates for DUI convicts? I bet the ACLU loves that one: cops can identify previous offenders, who are statistically more likely to commit an infraction, and then they can pull them over and throw them in jail for a tag that expired two days ago or a taillight that’s dimmed by 5%.
Wrong. The slow driver helped to create a situation which served to flip a switch in the SUV driver’s head. The slow driver is not at fault, but it’s clear that the particular situation would not have happened were it not for said individual driving slowly.
Here’s an analogy. You’re in LA and you cut off a truck driver. The driver follows you, takes your exit, waits for you to stop and then shoots you dead. Who’s at fault? The shooter. Is it your fault morally? No. But would the murder have been less likely if you hadn’t cut off the driver? Probably. Note here that I am applying NO FAULT to the slow driver or the off-cutter: I’m just trying to apply a pragmatic view to the situation, and my conclusion is that it’s in everyone’s best interests for drivers to avoid driving slowly and cutting off truck drivers.
Perhaps you’ll be happier here. That message board seems more suited to your tastes.
To get to the question stated in the title:
No, I would not support rules like “people over xx age can’t drive”.
Yes, I support testing of high-risk populations, including the young, convicts and the elderly. Why this only seems to happen with young people, I can’t figure.