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STEPHEN NOHLGRENThe new requirement for 80-and-older drivers is reasonable, agree several lining up to fulfill it. It affects more than 700,000.
PINELLAS PARK - Wisconsin let Leona M. Brown start driving 67 years ago, when she turned 15.
"I sent in $3 in the mail and got my driver's license. I learned to drive in a Model A Ford and have been driving ever since."
These days, things aren't so simple.
Accompanied by her husband, Brown spent an hour in a government office recently, answering questions and waiting in line so she could renew her license and keep driving.
She used to renew by mail.
In fact, she last showed up at a license office in person 18 years ago, an absence illustrated by the vital statistics on her current license.
It lists her height as 5 feet, though she has shrunk to 4 feet 8. Her photo shows a woman with brown, wavy hair, nothing like her current white.
Now that Brown is approaching 84, however, the state of Florida has limited her choices, even though her driving record is spotless. She doesn't have to go to the driver's license office, but she does have to go somewhere.
A law that took effect Jan. 1 requires people aged 80 and up to undergo a vision test before they can renew their driver's license.
It affects more than 700,000 people. They must either take the vision test at a driver's license office or see a health care provider.
Brown, a Largo resident, didn't mind putting her eyesight on trial. She sees just fine.
But why single out age 80, she wondered? Why not 70, or 55 for that matter?
"I think it ought to be applied equal for everybody," she said. "No matter what their age."
Similar questions have occupied the Legislature for years. As a group, older drivers get in fewer wrecks than, say, teenagers. Older drivers often take extra precautions and limit their time on the road.
On the other hand, age-related frailty can quickly transform an otherwise responsible citizen into a roadway menace.
Horace Potter of St. Petersburg, who at 81 was having his vision checked at an office on 62nd Avenue N, acknowledged that things can change for older drivers.
"I'm surprised they don't make you do it every year," he said. "We all come to a point where we shouldn't be driving but none of us wants to admit it."
The vision-testing requirement passed the Legislature with the blessing of AARP, which secured a quid pro quo: A task force to study alternate means of transportation for people who surrender their licenses.
All of which brought Leona and Thomas Brown to the blue plastic chairs and fluorescent lighting of the Division of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles office on 62nd Avenue N.
Both retirees, the Browns met at a Clearwater restaurant that had a dance floor. He took her for a spin, asked her out and they have been married for 20 years. Now 87, he usually drives their 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis (44,000 miles on the odometer).
He renewed his license three years ago, so he'll turn 90 before he has to take the vision test.
Like his wife, he needs glasses only for reading.
The DHMV office in Pinellas Park is one of the state's busiest. Hundreds of people a day file through to take road tests, renew licenses and get identification cards.
At times last week, they lined up 12 deep just to take a number and wait in a small anteroom. A half-dozen smokers waited their turn on concrete benches outside.
When Leona Brown's number was called, she shifted from the anteroom to a larger central area that held three more lines.
After about 15 minutes she reached the front of Line 3 and was called to the counter. There she peered into a small box and, on command, read off the letters in the bottom row.
At first, she left off the last letter. Prompted by the examiner to try again, she reeled off the letters with ease.
After answering some questions and paying her $16 - $15, plus a donation to fight blindness in Florida - Brown headed for another bank of chairs.
She waited to have a new license picture taken, this time with the white hair.
Her husband, out in the anteroom, monitored her progress through a glass door. After the flash went off and she received her new license, she spotted him watching her, and curtsied.
On their way out he joked about celebrating with lobster and champagne.
People 80 and older who need to renew their drivers' licenses will receive a notice in the mail that lists the closest offices of the Division of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Vision tests there are free.
The renewal costs $15 and is good for six years.
People also can have their vision tested by qualified private doctors, then renew by mail.
Renewal notices include instructions on how to do this.