Yes it's a pain in the arse but; I believe annual medical testing does assist in preventing road trauma - I know it assists in funding my doctor's pension fund.

I am also aware that there are many that utilise "friendly" doctors to pass medical exams when in fact they shouldn't be on the road. I am similarly baffled how they can use private driving instructors that for a fee will pass a monkey in a driving test.

Don't get me started on how some people get a mobility impaired parking permit - I see them all the time at local sports club, they can play golf/tennis/cycle but utilising mobility impaired parking spaces.

Both my Parents stopped driving of their own accord, Grandparents as well. All stopped driving at night a few years earlier.

 

All the older people we know have stopped driving because they feel it's all to difficult.

 

Even then they were all, for the last few years only driving to the shops & doctor etc, very local driving & at the quiet time of day, 10am to 2pm.

 

A friend lives in an area of Sydney with no public transport, she is looking at selling & moving to an area with public transport, due to her licence issues at 80 years.

Effectively she will have to pay tens of thousands of dollars in stamp duty to avoid driving!

 

Other half has stopped driving a few years ago even though she still has a licence. Actually she can drive a motorcycle as it was transferred from German licence, she never has! She won't even ride her push bike any more. 

 

But she still will walk across roads within 20 metres of traffic lights. Let alone >20m.

 

 

 

P.S. Speaking of trying to get across the road. A few decades ago driving in Collaroy, Sydney, the car in front of me fairly suddenly stopped, also the cars in the other two lanes. 

 

The driver got out of his car, ran around the front, he dropped down to the ground. 

 

He raised up appearing with a baby in his arms looking around for the parent. 

 

Turned out the baby crawled out of the house & was making its way across 6 lanes to the "beach!"

 

 

P.P.S. One of our neighbours who we knew very well & since 1989 when we bought into our block of Units, she lived in the block of Units next door & also owned a Unit in our block. 

 

For years she had been using a mobility scooter. She rolled it a few times, in her 90ies. Her Toy Poodle was running for its life in tow at the stretched end of the leash (We helped out with a bit of personal care for her).

It's such an irrelevant content test that has so little meaning for
motor driving. Maths, number memory, and the like - goodness
knows how a poor education or 10 years sitting on one's hands
and going slow has relevance.

The link to a human benchmark on the first post has a few tests that
I believe are to be soon incorporated into a new testing programme
that Gov is working on at this moment.

What brings this matter to my attention is news that one of my
friends has had his licence cancelled by some medical person
that has no idea of the mechanics and skills of driving but is
a goo MD. Just an opinion has caused untold grief for my friend.

He's always been extremely slow in mannerisms and I have to
say, barely educated at all. His marbles have always rolled slowly.

Bloody sucks.

My test comes up soon - I will be taking the opportunity to watch
carefully and god help the doc if there's any trouble.

B

As a matter of interest the University of Newcastle (England) did research some years ago into mandated maximum driving age. Without going into the massive data these research projects create, the summary result was that taking driver's licenses off old people at a specific age found that as pedestrians they were more likely to die earlier by being hit by a car.

When the University did that research the only jurisdiction in the world that had an upper limit for driving was New South Wales in Australia. No other country in the world thought mandating a maximum driving age was necessary.

In QLD once you reach the age of 75 you have to have a medical certificate which is nona bad thing i think.

What scares me is the sight of a vehicle with large van attached driving into a drive through site or free camp where they don't have to reverse or manouvre, mum gets out and opens the van up puts the step out etc, the driver gets out hanging onto the drivers door for dear life and hand over hand or using a frame makes his way down the side of car and van around to the door and disappears inside.
They repeat the process in the morning and rive off! How on earth when you can't walk unaided can you respond to an emergency when driving!

Where I am the Age-related driving test has become much simpler over recent years.

One used to have to pass an orientation and balance test. Not now. Observation of walking ability seems to be it.

Also, there were various questions about all sorts of things not connected with driving.

The test by the nurse used to take thirty minutes. Now only ten.

The Doctor bit has gotten longer though by about five minutes.

There used to be medical questionaire that had forty or so items. The nurse now asks about ten of those.

 

I used to have a MR licence at Commercial level. Had to pay $150 for the test.

Now just LR at private (reduced by doc due to my age - 74) so now bulk billed.

I want one.

I know we all can relate to some story about an older person doing something wrong when driving and then use that as an argument for older age driving restrictions. Any data will tell you that for each older aged 'incident' there are 20 or more young driver 'incidents'. For a host of reasons this will always be the case. You can watch TV news and if someone drives into a shop, house or building and they are not 'old',  the age is not raised, however if the person driving was over 70 then it will be highlighted in the news. Thus  making it look like only old people do this sort of thing. Every night you can see results of stolen cars being crashed by teenagers. I understand that all those non licensed drivers are not in the crash data when comparing young licensed drivers and old drivers simply because they do not have a license. 

You can't use data from car accidents that are based on injury as older people are more likely to suffer due to their physical being. Many agencies around the world have researched this topic for decades and none have found any grounds for a mandated age limit.  America had the first mass driving population and after 120 years no state has a mandatory age to stop people driving. I think that tells the story.

It's the irrelevant questions that are asked by untrained nurses or the like
that irkes me. A bloke could well be assessed as unfit to drive because he
never went to high school and is hopeless at english and maths, and speaks
with a slow drawl.

If there's going to be a test, then it needs to be standardized/regulated and
scored and then be passed to the authorities as is done now (In Qld). when
the examiner is satisfied.

Personally I reckon that everyone should be tested for physical attributes like
scene comprehension, reflexes etc as part of their initial licence tests.

I have seen it happen - an elderly bloke that surfs with me was once failed
by a nurse over not being able to pass an ads question, and one other
comprehension question and couldn't spell TABLES backwards.

Yet he is a very good longboard surfer, and rides with me in the Club outings.

When he's in a hurry, only a few will keep up with him.
ps: he is quite safe from the wollopers with the 60 - 100 riders around him.

Brodie

What a marathon effort this post was. 

Drag n drop a function long forgotten on this site?

 

Who recognises the silver bike?