Getting Old - New Driving Licence regulations

[ng4xjs]

Probably off on a tangent with this one. For the best part of 30 years in total I have had parked away in the garage an XJS of some description. Indeed my last variant being a 94 AJ16 I had had, loved and maintained for the best part of 14 years. With the realisation of getting a tad older and lying on my back on a cold concrete floor for maintenance and repair combined with the long drive down to family in the Algarve (yes, usually drive all the way just for the enjoyment (but flew last week)) seeming less inviting with a 2.5 days comfortable drive compared to a 2.5 hour flight opted for a much newer car and being a 2006 X150 was purchased. I did pay over the odds but for a meticulously maintained low mileage variant thought it all worth while. I now have as my daily driver, and for me a relatively new vehicle which I enjoy to the full.

My issue is that I just this month needed to renew my driving licence because I've reached the tender age of 70. I'm okay with that but insulted that I've had my legal ability to drive heavier vehicles, mini-buses and mobile homes (although in recent years have had cause) taken away. Sorry, but I don't get the logic. I can drive my X150 or any other car at any speed I want (obviously only talking Germany and Autobahn) but I can't drive my Motorhome on holiday or my local Age Concern group for their Sunday Roast (without a medical). Absurd.

I learnt to drive when there were none of the current driving aids available and just wonder how new drivers would relate. Yes I'm sure my reactions are slower than back when I started driving, but compensated for by life's skills and experiences. Probably like you all I see poor driving on a daily basis, much of which potentially dangerous but usually in much younger drivers. It's not the age of the driver we should be concerned with here but their skill behind the wheel. Sorry.

Nick

[PaulGover]

Nick,

I think you (and I, a bit older) are privileged boomers. In this case, we had the licence to drive vehicle categories automatically included that younger drivers have to apply for separately (and perhaps pass more tests, I'm not sure) - it's generally called "grandfather rights". When I got my first license (55 years ago) there were far fewer road users, and everything (cars, trucks) was smaller, lighter and slower, so the energy involved in a collision was less and the likely injuries less severe - though of course seat belts were an optional extra.

I think it's moot whether oldsters in general are now less safe at the wheel of something bigger than a car, but one of the known problems is people who continue to drive even though their abilities (sight, hearing etc,) are becoming impaired by age. A more logical approach would be to require a retest (or some suitable evaluation) say every 3 years past the age of 70, but I guess that would cost too much.

The current situation is basically self-certification, and that's definitely less than optimal. A cousin of mine (probably late 70's, I forget) only stopped driving when his daughter took the keys out of his hand one day, and forced him to get the doctor to evaluate his fitness to drive. She took the action after it became apparent the strange routes he took were because he would only turn left! His sight turned out to be severely defective. He didn't get the keys back, though he was sure he still perfectly capable.

[BrianG]

Nick,
If you really need to drive larger vehicles surely getting a medical is not that onerous to get the grandfather rights put back on your licence?

Paul,
I quite agree about poor eyesight of many older (and some not so old drivers) and think that at least an eyesight test ought to be added when turning 70 and possibly at every subsequent three yearly licence renewal. I'm 77 and have been wearing contact lenses for years after becoming concerned about using varifocal lenses, especially at road junctions, due to the parallax distortion that can "hide" objects if you glance through the wrong area of these lenses. One benefit of contact lens wearing is that the monthly supply contact gives me an inclusive eye test every 6 months (I get 6/6 vision with my lenses and can read the bottom line on the eye chart). I asked my optician just how effective is the legal "number plate test" for determining decent eyesight; legally you need get 6/12 on the eye chart as a minimum, but that's the 5th line up from the bottom and it's quite large. He felt that the number plate test was bordering on dangerous.

[JimMann]

Hi Folks, quite agree with most of the points here, but I thought that if you applied in the "old fashioned" method to replace / renew your licence at 70, that is by completing the paper form and returning it to DVSA, you could maintain your grandfather rights. Certainly that's what a friend of mine did and he still has all of his classes of vehicle. However, if you do / did the online option, then your grandfather options are removed.

Often when out and about for a coffee / lunch, I watch folks hobbling across the car parks and am utterly dismayed when I see them climb into the driver's seat of their car. Some folks struggle to coordinate placing one foot in front of the other, yet continue to drive. My neighbour, who is sharp as a tack mind you, is still driving a Honda Jazz at age 94, but is now thinking that she will not be renewing her licence next time, but that removes her independence.

My plan is to keep driving as long as I consider myself fit enough as this is not just my passion, but my hobby from which I take a great deal of pleasure.

Jim Mann

[poprivet]

Regarding variofocal lenses, I've used for a few years, and can recommend, Zeiss DriveSafe lenses.

Not cheap, but what price comfort and safety. Since having them, I have no problem with the transition between distance and close vision either when driving or reading etc. Night time glare is also vastly better.

https://www.zeiss.co.uk/vision-care/nee ... enses.html

Another gamechanger was to have single vision glasses made to focus purely for computer work. Just measure the distance that you are comfortable sitting from the screen and let your optician do the rest.

[PaulGover]

FWIW I use bog-standard varifocals for driving. I got the optician to lower the transition between distant and intermediate vision by a millimetre when I had a new pair, as with the first ones I had to tilt my head slightly forward to get a good view of the road, but it was only slight. I find they work perfectly for driving. Never noticed any parallax issues, but of course that may be down to prescriptions. The problem I get at junctions (and elsewhere) is that my neck isn't as flexible as it once was, and craning to see round the vast B posts in my X350 is a real pain - much less a problem in the XJS.