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Giving up our spot in the driver's seat

By SHEILA STOLL
Published November 29, 2005

To drive, or not to drive? Privilege or right? How big a part does age make in this decision, and who gets to decide?

We don't let children under 16 drive cars. We try to prevent intoxicated people from driving. But our senior population finds itself in a gray area when it comes to driving. Seniors need cars, particularly in rural areas where public transportation doesn't exist. But the truth is, we may not be the best judge of when we should turn in the keys. In too many cases that point becomes clear only after something dreadful happens (as in the case of the 93-year-old St. Petersburg man, suffering from dementia, who struck and killed a pedestrian in October).

I'm one of the lucky ones: I live in a place that is not too far from the grocery store, the drug store, the post office and other conveniences. There is some public transportation, and the weather is usually not too bad. But for many seniors, problems regarding mobility will become huge when the day comes to hang up the keys for good. Many of us will still continue to venture out, fearfully, onto the roads and highways when it would be better if we took the bus - but there is no bus. And "the car" is our last bastion of independence.

We all know people still driving whom we worry about when they get behind the wheel. But it is also true that some of those I worry about are a generation or two younger than I.

For whatever reasons, a lot of younger people are annoyed by us, especially by the way we drive. When I'm being honked at and flipped off by some kid in a pickup, I wonder what he thinks my alternatives are. It's more likely he doesn't think about me as a driver or in any other way.

There are clear indicators that as we get older our reaction time becomes slower, our vision less acute and our joints less agile. But not all of us get to the "no more driving" point at a particular age. And just because we don't drive the way the kids in pickups do, doesn't mean that Big Brother should take away our keys.

I was at a luncheon some time ago, and a woman came in using a walker. She was almost completely bent over. The subject of driving came up from other retirees at our table and she chimed in with, "I only drive in my neighborhood."

Drive? I thought. You drive? In her bent condition and with her inability to turn her body, I was alarmed by the mental picture of this gnomelike woman behind the wheel of anything.

In our increasingly mobile society, not being able or allowed to drive is like being told to just sit down and die. And the question of when are you're too old to drive, doesn't offer any easy answers. Many of us no longer live near our children, who might provide transportation. They might do it to keep us from driving because they love us and don't want us to crash and kill ourselves or others. But we moved to the Sunbelt. We're on our own. Maybe we should insist that senior transportation should be part of every community's infrastructure. It's in the interest of communities to keep these tragedies from happening.

- Write to Sheila Stoll, c/o Seniority, the St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731.

[Last modified November 23, 2005, 14:16:22]