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age is very relevant.. along with capabilities..




My eyes are not as good as a 20 year old's, so already I dislike driving at night. But I compensate by driving a little slower at night. At some point I'll be like my dad and simply quit driving at night. If you know your capabilities, you can compensate to a point. But there comes a time when your capabilities decline to the point where you just should not be driving. It's not a personal failure, but simply a fact of life. The tricky part is, how do you determine that point? The car is a symbol of independence in this country, and giving up the car to be dependant on others to go places is very tough. Very few people will ever give that up by choice. I know that I would not want to. Without an external objective standard in place, it would probably take an incident like this to force me to give up my keys when I get to that point in my life. I think there should be a skills test starting at 70, and repeated every 5 years, and probably more frequently as you pass 80. If you are 87 and the test shows you are fully capable, more power to you. But it's a sensitive issue, and the AARP is a very powerful lobby, so I doubt we would see it any time soon.