It should be mandatory to retake a driving test again age 70 and every five years after that

Where somebody lives is utterly irrelevant to whether or not they are safe to be behind the wheel.

Apparently its ok for 70+ to live in HMOs
While its not ok for them to drive.

Schrodingers pensioner again

Some are, yes. My mum became noticeably less observant, and ultimately was diagnosed with macular degeneration. Even then she was unwilling to stop driving, until the doctor thankfully took her licence away. My dad seems perfectly fine still, but he is always of the mind that if they decide that licences expire at a certain age he would be fine with it, and he would be happy to be tested if required.

In a very limited way and there are lots of problems with them. My favourite one was when a bunch of them decided to circle a cul-de-sac for hours. We will see how they do in the UK where the roads are much more complicated than the grid system in American cities.

The main problem with this & other transport gimmicks is that they detract attention from doing transport stuff that is less glamorous but actually works (eg rail).

I could not agree more with that statement. We have finally managed to get my 92 year old father’s licence revoked but ultimately it was due to the fact we refused to help him fill in the DVLA form and he didn’t return it by the cut off date. He complains bitterly about it and says there should be a test because he’s perfectly able to drive!!!

However in the 12 months prior to his licence being revoked he drove through a red light because his reflexes weren’t fast enough to stop; backed into the garage door because he forgot he hadn’t opened it and got three parking tickets. One of those was where he literally abandoned the car in the middle of a thoroughfare in a car park because he thought it was a parking space. We had filled in the initial DVLA stating he had been diagnosed with mild cognitive decline providing the clinic details. Bizarrely 5 months later they sent another form asking for further details, basically where he’d been diagnosed which they’d already been told. He wanted the carer to say that whilst he had a few memory problems he’d never had a formal diagnosis! He also told carer to post it but not tell us as he knew we didn’t want him driving! Thankfully she refused and did tell us. He rang my sister asking why she thought he shouldn’t drive and reiterated the above.

In addition to this he had an eye op which affected his eyesight but still continued to drive. Both me and my sister were abroad at the time and apparently carers can’t remove keys from people deemed to have capacity despite them saying he could barely see to walk round the flat. Thankfully I was able to ring the clinic for his follow-up appointment and make the ophthalmologist aware. He carried out an eye test and he only managed the first 2 lines! It was then put in writing at my insistance as if told verbally both he and my mother would ‘forget’. It’s been horrendous and there definitely needs to be an overhaul of the system.

The major road network is covered with cameras. Lower level roads aren't.

They'll be fine up the motorways between places near to the motorway and in major towns and cities but I don't expect to see them replace driving for old people living in less populated areas in my lifetime.

Nobody will be more pleased than me to be wrong about that !

I thought… I do a longer journey once a week, but have various immediate options for getting there, all within 3 miles distance. I always sat nav the route before setting off and take the clearest route. This has included fairly urgent roadworks. I would expect it to know of something very recent, like a fallen tree but it’s good otherwise.
How else does the sat nav know of holdups on a motorway?

They have arrived! They operate as taxis in some US cities even without a human at the wheel.

I believe they map the streets in a city as part of the setup for a trial, but they still need racks of extra sensors on the roof.

Also GPS is limited. It will tell you where the road should go. It won't tell you that there's a sewer collapse overnight and the road has a hole in it.

I'd love to be wrong but I don't think there's any prospect of self driving cars outside major towns and cities any time soon.

I was under the impression they worked by GPS, but I may be wrong.

Whilst young people do cause a lot of accidents. Older people also are disproportionately represented in accident statistics. We can deal with both, we don’t need to pick one group.

Please reread what I said, I said it would be ageist to ask them to retest but on health grounds I believe they COULD get away with reports from Opticians. Medical reports.

Agree. I’m a 67 yr old female, been driving since the age of 19 including abroad. Never had an accident (touch wood 🪵). still working part time and unless something drastic happens in the next 3 years can’t see why I should have to take my test again, although I agree with an eye test.

I live in Spain and have to renew my licence every 3 years after 70. This involves a reaction time test and eye test and an assessment by a doctor . They can renew for 3 years or less.it takes about 30mins. Not hard but it weeds out those who should not drive.

They are nowhere near unless you only drive in a big town or city, see my post above.

Driverless cars soon

Negates drivers

They’ve been promised since the late 60s & still haven’t arrived.

It will and I had hoped they would be here for me but they won't.

As long as they continue to work by reading road signs, they are a non-starter outside big cities.

Current cars show how bad it is. My own regularly tells me we're in a 40 when we're in a 60 because we've just passed a side road and it got a glimpse of a 40 sign on it. Worse, it regularly tells me I'm in a 60 when I'm in a 40 because the 40 sign is old, dirty, or got a bush growing in front of it.

I’m sure driverless cars will make this a non-issue in a couple of decades anyway

What Wales has done with the 20mph is astounding & the collision stats (& insurance premiums) seem to be showing its success. It’s very impressive, not least given the criticism needed to be faced down.

Re the current Starmer/Burnham government, they do deserve credit for actually having a road safety strategy - it beggars belief that their predecessors didn’t have one given how many people die & are injured on the roads.

The strategy includes consulting both on further training for young drivers & mandatory eyesight tests for the over 70s. They are also investigating cognitive testing too. I don’t know what progress has been made (I should have thought to check this earlier but there’s a lot in the strategy & its hard to keep track of this type of stuff).

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-of-lives-to-be-saved-under-bold-new-road-safety-strategy

I do. Especially older men. It’s hard for anyone to accept that their faculties are declining and they’re not able to do what they used to do anymore, but IME, it’s older men that struggle with this the most. I have many vivid memories of my grandad, in his 80s, driving over pavements, not stopping in time at zebra crossings, causing pedestrians to dive back to the pavement. There were SO many near misses, and every time it was “well he shouldn’t be riding a bike on the road”, “she should’ve seen me coming”. Basically he believed he was a great driver and it was always the other person’s fault. My dad begged him to stop driving but he refused to listen. Ironically my dad is now not far from his age and is exactly the same. There’s “nothing wrong” with his driving apparently and he doesn’t consider himself old like other old people so, of course, why would there be any issues with his driving? It’s always the other person’s fault, or the council need to fix the road, or that was a stupid place to put a lamp post blah blah. He’s never going to admit his age is making him a dangerous driver! Because that would be admitting he’s old, vulnerable, and not in control anymore and that’s not something he, or many other older people are ever going to do because they’re too proud. So no, I don’t believe you can trust older people to decide for themselves. It’s an extremely loaded decision. I don’t think they should need to sit a full driving test though, but I do believe some sort of ‘road safe’ test should be developed for over 70s that they need to pass every few years. Basically a scaled down driving test that focuses on safety and reaction times etc

Lots of people work but are unable to drive due to disabilities or other medical issues. The problem with elderly drivers is that collision reports are showing that a number are continuing to drive despite having such issues. The article linked upthread was about one such case where the Scottish equivalent of a coroner examined the system to catch these drivers, found it inadequate and asked the government to change it. This still hasn’t happened.

Driving isn’t a right - you need a licence and you can’t get one if you haven’t the required level of physical or mental fitness. This is an age group with a higher risk of developing conditions such as dementia, cataracts etc. & if we can’t rely on individuals to act responsibly then the state has to step in. Yes, it’s a shame for the rest of that group who do act responsibly, but this isn’t unusual re driving: if a sizeable minority don’t behave, then everyone else’s freedoms are limited.

I read fairly recently a local case with an elderly driver. The defendant received quite a short ban, but the press report said that he was intending to stop driving. It would have been better for him if he had had to face this earlier. It would definitely have been better for his victim. The cognitive dissonance in that case was astounding - so much evidence of good character yet this was also someone who has now committed the equivalent of GBH when judged by the victim’s injuries.

Yes I grew up in the country thanks I know what it’s like.

I tried to get a cab / uber in a small Dorset town a few months ago on a Sunday morning to get to the station as I fancied going home early. Nope. It was simply not possible. I was utterly trapped. You can’t even throw money at the issue.

And of course - once you reach 65 this test would be every 5 years with mandatory eye sight test every 2 years.