Re: Too old to drive?

You are right about the parking costs of course and that does really annoy me but I'm not sure we will need to go into Town for much longer. It appears that the high street is disappearing. I have never liked using public transport of any kind and would much rather drive but it is becoming more and more difficult now that we are over the population tipping point.

Re: Too old to drive?

But only females. Yellow or pink Fiat 500's are only designed for nail technicians and tanning salon managers.

Re: Too old to drive?

85 year 0ld drives a Rolls Royce through the window of a hair dressing salon
no one was injured.

80 year old knocks down a no parking sign sign comes down and kills old man out for his daily walk,


Old man drives a new automatic car into a house a few doors down from us, nobody injured, the driver dies a few weeks later from shock.


Yes more stringent test's should be carried out on seniors IMO from seventy onwards.

Re: Too old to drive?

In my view anybody on the road who drives without due care and attention is potentially dangerous driver. This applies to cyclists and motorised grass cutters also. Age is sometimes a factor but not always the case.

Drivers who believe they are the best drivers on the road are actually the worst motorists because they take risks. Tailgating, cutting people off, red light jumping, going too fast (or too slow in the case of really old people driving little boxy cars or small Indian women driving dark green Nissans) all contribute to dangerous tactics on the road. How many times have you followed an old person who drives at 20 mph all of the time and in the bloody left hand lane behaving like a cyclist? You seriously wonder what they are going to do next!

Additionally, now we are seeing as many people from overseas (i.e. immigrants) driving also, they should definitely take a UK driving test before they are allowed to drive on our roads. It's fine in India or Somalia where you only need to drive 50 yards in either direction to pass a test, but here we have roundabouts and other frightening obstacles to negotiate.

Furthermore, how many people do you see not "weighing up" the road? This includes those who sit rigidly staring up at the traffic lights in front of them without looking across at the opposite ones ready for them to change. They don't think or look ahead. On the other side of the coin, taxi drivers take some chances but I'd much rather be following a taxi than an old person on the road. At least you know they have their head screwed on.

Going back to older people and whether should they drive after a certain age, I think it's fine as long as they are still astute and competent enough to operate a vehicle safely. The best drivers are those who actually have some common sense about them.

Re: Too old to drive?

A great post Floydy, particularly the bit about being aware of your surroundings, roadcraft I believe it is called. Driving any vehicle is as much about the space around the vehicle as the vehicle itself. I watch people trying to park outside my house and although I will admit to not getting it right every single time, some drivers just go backwards and forwards without getting any closer to the pavement. I counted one person who did it 18 times.

This person was young so nothing to do with age.

Personally, I think the problem with driving when we get older is that our confidence goes as well as our eyesight and our hearing.

Re: Too old to drive?

As I have mentioned before, when I was over in my home island a few years ago, my mother, who was in her 80s, insisted on driving me to the garden centre where we were meeting my aunt for lunch. Against my better judgement I permitted her to do so instead of using my hire car. To cut a long story short when parking it at the garden centre in a very small space, which I told her was big enough, she took out the two cars on either side, and ended up at right angles to the fence. An incredible feat even for my mother! I grabbed the car keys and shouted, 'ENOUGH'! I got out of the car and said to the assembled gobsmacked crowd, 'She is bl**dy well not driving again!' A voice from the car said, 'R I didn't bring you up to speak like that!' She was lucky I didn't murder her.

She did drive again for a little while, her car insurance cost a fortune as one would expect. In the end my siblings and I asked her doctor to tell the car licencing authority she wasn't fit to drive, before she killed or maimed someone. This was done, our mother never forgave us until her dying day for removing her car.

Re: Too old to drive?

I'm wondering if this was a woman, Longdogs? I say this because they are notorious for being hopeless at parking. And I am not being sexist here, it's a fact.

My wife has lived in our house almost thirty years and still has about twenty attempts of reversing her car into our drive from the road. Why is this sooooooo difficult?

Re: Too old to drive?

^^ I rest my case!

Re: Too old to drive?

In Spain when you are 70 you have to take a medical and test every five years

Re: Too old to drive?

Floydy says - Going back to older people and whether should they drive after a certain age, I think it's fine as long as they are still astute and competent enough to operate a vehicle safely. The best drivers are those who actually have some common sense about them.

And Dongles says -
Personally, I think the problem with driving when we get older is that our confidence goes.


I completely agree with both these statements.

I don't think it is always an age thing at all.
There are incompetent drivers of any age. Most aggressive, road hogs are not old people for a start. As Meg said, 85% of accidents are caused by young people.

I think drivers should be considered on capability, not age, although I agree with Julie about some sort of eyesight test, perhaps along with relexes could be mandatory, like the old emergency stops type thing.