Tips for Aging Drivers

 

Awareness

As the Baby Boomer population ages, Statistics Canada predicts by 2026, nearly 5 million Canadians - more than 20% of all drivers, will be 65 or older.

As we age, we experience changes in our:

  • Vision
  • Reaction time
  • Flexibility
  • Physical fitness

These changes can influence our driving ability. The trick is to learn how to compensate for them.

Assess your fitness to drive

If you can accurately assess your fitness to drive, you can adjust your driving habits to stay safe on the roads.

Do you:

  • Signal and shoulder check to the side every time you lane change?
  • Find it difficult to decide when to join traffic in a busy highway?
  • Notice your eyes take longer to recover from glare at night?
  • Stay informed of changes in driving and highway regulations?

Self-assessment

These tools can help you assess your fitness to drive:

Upgrade your skills

Upgrade your driving skills and knowledge to extend the number of years you can spend safely behind the wheel by:

Safe Driving Tips

Driving abilities generally begin to change at age 55, but drivers have wildly differing skills regardless of age. Stay safe on the roads with these driving tips.

Planning

  • Drive on streets or routes you know.
  • Take routes that avoid risky areas such as left-turn intersections and merge lanes.
  • Drive during daylight hours - avoid driving a dusk and dawn.
  • Choose well-lit routes if you must drive at night.
  • Postpone driving or use alternative transportation in bad weather such as fog, heavy rain, or snow.
  • Limit your trip to places that are close to home or are easy to get to.
  • Break frequently. For longer trips, plan to take breaks every 11/2 to 2 hours.

General driving tips

  • Look ahead
    Scan the traffic conditions 1 to 2 blocks ahead in cities so you have time to react.
  • Get the big picture
    Look for vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists entering the road from curbs and driveways. Be ready for the unexpected.
  • Intersections
    Look to the sides of the road as well as directly ahead for pedestrians and other vehicles when approaching intersections
  • Blind spots
    Check your blind spot over your right or left shoulder prior to signaling and a second time before lane changing, turning, or merging.
  • Keep checking
    Know what is around and behind you. Use rearview and outside mirrors often and frequently check your speed.
  • Following distance
    Leave a big space between you and the vehicle ahead. If you are driving at higher speeds or in bad weather, leave at least 4 car lengths (i.e. 4 seconds) between you and the vehicle ahead.To determine the following distance:

    • Pick out a marker near the road ahead like a tree, a sign or pole.
    • When the vehicle ahead of you passes the marker, begin counting - 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004.
    • If your vehicle arrives at the object before you have completed the 4 second count, you are following too closely.
  • Space cushion
    Maintain enough space to the sides and behind of you. If a vehicle is following you too closely, slow down and encourage the driver to pass.
  • Make sure others see you
    In fog, rain, snow or darkness, having your headlights on will illuminate your taillights. Remember, whenever you turn on your windshield wipers, you need to turn on your headlights too.
  • Parking
    To avoid backing, pull straight through 2 stalls (where legal) so you are parked with the nose of your vehicle facing out.
  • Parking lots
    Drive in the travel lanes only - never drive across parking spaces.

Medications

Many medications can interfere with a driver's ability by making one drowsy or less attentive. This includes prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs. It is important that you:

  • Understand the physical effects of any medication before driving.
  • Discuss your medication and its effects with your doctor and/or pharmacist.
  • Ask questions. If you take more than one type of medication, ask whether the combination produces side effects that could interfere with your driving.
  • If a medication makes you feel sleepy or confused, don't drive.

Eye-opening facts

90% of the decisions we make while driving are based on information gathered through our eyes. Yet there is no getting around the fact that at age 40, our vision begins to change. Sometimes these changes occur so gradually it is easy to overlook the affects of aging1.

Some Interesting eye facts2

Light

The amount of light you need to drive nearly doubles every 13 years. To see clearly, a 60-year-old requires 10 times as much light as a teenager. To help you adjust:

  • Plan to drive during daylight hours - avoid driving at dusk or dawn.
  • Have proper glasses for day and night driving.
  • Give your eyes a few minutes to adjust to the dark before you drive at night.
  • Try to only drive on well-lit streets.
  • Consider not driving at night - try taking alternate forms of transportation.

Clarity

The eye's ability to focus slows with age. A teenager takes roughly 2 second to focus from near to far, yet a 40-year-old glancing from the speedometer to the road ahead takes 3 or more seconds. To improve visibility:

  • Ensure eye glasses are clean and are a current prescription.
  • Keep windows, mirrors, head and taillights clean.
  • Properly adjust the brightness of dashboard lights.
  • Choose a vehicle with large, easy to read displays and controls.

Glare

Our sensitivity to glare increases as we age since our eye lenses grow thicker, our pupils shrink, and our eye muscles loose elasticity. At age 55, it takes 8 times longer to recover from glare than at age 16. To help reduce glare:

  • Keep windows clean inside and out.
  • Avoid looking at headlights of oncoming vehicles.
  • Look briefly to the white line on the right edge of the road when an oncoming vehicle has its bright lights on.
  • Set the rearview mirror to the "night" setting to reduce glare from vehicles behind you

Colour sensitivity

Colours, especially red, become less bright and harder to see as we age. Some aging drivers take twice as long as younger drivers to notice brake lights. To help with contrast:

  • Wear good quality sunglasses in bright sunlight.
  • Tinted lenses and sunglasses distort colours and limit your vision at night.
  • Tinted windows and windshields distort colours and limit your visibility.

Field of view

With age our peripheral vision narrows causing tunnel vision, which makes it harder to detect objects located or approaching from the left and right. As well, depth perception lessens, affecting our ability to determine how fast other vehicles are coming towards us. To compensate:

  • Consider eye-glass frames that don't block side vision.
  • Get the big picture - look for vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles, children and animals approaching from the side.
  • Keep your eyes moving - frequently check both rearview and side-view mirrors and always signal and shoulder check before lane changing.
  • Increase the distance from the vehicle in front of you to allow more time to react, brake, and stop.

1 (a) "Driver Tips for Older Adults."  SUNY State College of Optometry. 1999-2005. 3 Aug. 2005
   (b) "Driving Tips for Seniors" 3 Aug. 2005.
   (c) "Tips for older drivers." Nursing.  32(4):74 Apr. 2002.  3 Aug. 2005.  
   (d) "Safety Tips for the Older Driver."  Canada Safety Council. 2004 31 July 2005. 
2 (a) How to Help an Older Driver. Washington: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. 2001: 6.
   (b) Haaf, Wendy.  "How to Keep Driving Safely."  Good Times.  June 2005: 15-16, 18-21

Normal changes

As we age our bodies undergo certain natural changes, but it doesn't have to mean giving up an active lifestyle.

For aging drivers, it is an opportune time to recognize the normal physical affects of aging that concern driving performance - and it is a chance to adjust driving habits to stay safe on the road.

In particular:

Hearing

Along with age there can be gradual reductions in hearing. A few things you can do to minimize background noise while driving include:

  • Listening carefully for sirens and horns.
  • Leaving your window open a crack (weather permitting) to help you hear warning signals more clearly.
  • Keeping your radio low or off.
  • Limiting conversations with passengers to only what is necessary.
  • Placing the heater/air conditioner blower on low.
  • Scanning attentively to reinforce your hearing. Look well ahead for flashing lights of emergency vehicles or railroad crossings. Check mirrors for emergency vehicles approaching from behind.

Decision making

As we age, our ability to process information and make decisions slows down. Here are some ways to overcome the natural tendency to take more time to react:

  • Leave more space between you and the vehicle ahead to allow yourself more time to react.
  • Avoid left turns by making a series of 3 right turns.
  • Keep your mind sharp - exercise your brainpower with puzzles and problem-solving activities.
  • Take less confusing routes instead of high-speed roadways.
  • Choose the best time to drive for you. Avoid rush hour when driving is stressful.

Physical strength and flexibility

Driving is a physical activity:

  • It takes muscle strength in your arms and legs to accelerate, brake and steer.
  • Flexibility is required to check to the rear when backing or to turn your head from side-to-side when lane changing.

Evidence shows physical activity can lessen some of the impact of conditions such as arthritis and osteoporosis. Stay active by walking, gardening, golfing, etc. to help improve muscular strength and range of motion along with joint flexibility.

Note: Use an extra-wide rearview and side-view mirror to help with range of motion and to decrease blind spots.

Schedule regular check-ups and eye exams

To ensure your safety on the road, manage your physical changes with regular medical exams.

Be sure to:

  • Get an eye exam once a year.
  • Have your doctor check your muscle strength, joint flexibility, reaction time and decision-making skills so you can recognize any changes which could effect your driving.

Choices

Most aging drivers are aware of their changing abilities and adapt accordingly. Knowing your limits and making sure you have a comfortable fit will add a margin of safety to your driving.

The key to staying safe and limiting driving risks is self-awareness.

Know your limits

Have you made the choice to regulate your on driving by:

  • Not driving at night, dusk or dawn; or in rain, fog, sleet or snow?
  • Avoiding rush hour?
  • Planning routes that avoid risky areas such as highway ramps and left turns?
  • Not driving when you are tired and stressed?

Have you considered vehicle features that make driving easier?

  • Power steering, power breaks and an automatic transmission.
  • Wide-angle rear view and side-view mirrors.
  • Large dashboard displays.
  • Raised driver seat functions for better visibility.
  • Pedal extensions.
  • Powered windows and seats.
  • Tilt steering that maintains a safe distance (10 in. or 25 cm) between your chest and the steering wheel air bag.
  • Non-reflective interior surfaces and self-dimming mirrors to reduce glare.

To drive or not to drive...that is the question

Depending on where you live, there are often many ways of getting around town without having to use your own vehicle. Ideally, the transition from driver to passenger will happen gradually, allowing for time to practice and adjust to new mobility options. Prior to limiting your driving, think about a Transportation Plan to sketch out ways you can remain engaged in life's activities.

Consider making a transportation plan by checking out the alternative forms of transportation in your community.  Use your local phone book to make a list of names and numbers of alternative ride options. This way, you can control your own mobility choices to maintain your independence, and safety.

Transportation plan

Alternate transportation options include:

  • Family, friends and neighbours - who are willing to give rides, with the days and times they are available.
  • Taxi cabs and personalized driver services.
  • Shuttle services - that offer door-to-door shuttle services for older passengers.
  • Buses, trains or subways - map out which one to take to get to a specific place and test it out with a friend or relative.
  • Rural transportation - although public transportation may be limited, look to a network of volunteer drivers and consider giving small gifts or tokens of appreciation.

Activities

  • Shopping from home websites - explore options for ordering groceries and medicines to be delivered at home.
  • Planned social activities - when making a transportation plan, don't forget to plan social outings with friends, do volunteer work, or go to a play!

Savings

You might be pleasantly surprised when calculating the cost of these mobility choices. Don't forget to include the money you will save in decreased costs of owning, insuring and maintaining your vehicle.

Calculate your costs using the Transportation Cost worksheet.

Passing on the keys

A driver's age is not a good judge of driving ability. Driving performance is what matters.

Here are some signs at any age it is time to pass on the keys:

  • Having a series of minor collisions or near misses.
  • Having wandering thoughts or being unable to concentrate.
  • Not able to read ordinary road signs.
  • Having other drivers honk at your frequently.
  • Being spoken to about your driving by police, family, and friends.

Remember, with a good transportation plan, retiring from driving does not mean retiring from life!

Additional resources

The AMA offers the following resources to help ensure aging driving mobility for as long as it is safely possible:

Booklets*
Online
  • Roadwise Review
    Assess your driving fitness in the privacy of your own home through computerized scenarios which check reaction time, visibility, flexibility and more.
Resources for Family and Friends
Courses
  • Drivers 55 Plus
    An educational series of classroom seminars designed to update aging drivers on rules of the road and keep them driving as long as safely possible.
  • Brush Up Lessons
    A 1 hour coaching session with a driving instructor to refresh your driving skills.
  • AMA Driver Education
    Offers courses for all ages and driving abilities.

*Available at any AMA centre.