RENEWAL LICENSING OF OLDER DRIVERS

The growing population of older drivers and the increasing use of motor vehicles by this segment of the population, along with their demonstrated increase in risk per mile traveled, combine to identify license renewal of elderly drivers as an area of growing interest and concern. While our society is sensitive to any taint of discrimination against the elderly, and there is clear evidence that deficiencies attributable to aging do not neatly correspond to chronological age for any given individual, the increased probability that deficiencies of some sort will occur with age places states under pressure to develop and implement some kind of special procedures for monitoring the performance of older drivers. Although there are no clear-cut indications for procedures that should be applied to all elderly applicants as opposed to younger ones, it appears that vision testing of all applicants should be expanded to include visual acuity under reduced illumination and dynamic visual acuity. In the case of applicants beyond a specified age (e.g., 70 or 75), the major modification should be to increase the frequency of renewal to at least every 2 years. In addition, greater use should be made of license restrictions so that the norm for older drivers would be a graduated driving reduction program. There will still be some instances in which the license will need to be discontinued abruptly as a result of precipitous changes in ability. It is also recommended that states create an advisory board for licensing of elderly drivers. This board would be charged with establishing and updating guidelines for the state licensing authority in the licensing of elderly applicants both before and after the age at which frequency of renewal increases. It would also work with licensing and other relevant groups to develop innovative alternatives to driving that may be considered by individual applicants. What the alternatives would be would depend not only on the circumstances of the individual applicant but also on the resources available in the community and the state.