Surrendering the keys

How do you know it’s time to hang up the car keys for good? Is it when you hit 80? When you’ve had a stroke? When your kids sit you down and say, “You need to call it quits”? 

Turns out it could be any or none of the above.

“One thing about aging is we all do it differently, so there’s a lot of heterogeneity within the older population in their driving abilities,” says Michelle Porter, director of the Centre on Aging at the University of Manitoba and a contributor to Candrive, described as a “risk stratification tool to screen for medical fitness to drive in older adults.” 

While Porter says there are some unsafe older drivers, the “vast majority” are safe, a point repeated to varying degrees by the Canadian Automobile Association, the Government of Canada and others. “Age in and of itself is not necessarily a good predictor of how someone drives,” she says.

Cars are a key part of life for many of us. Driving represents independence, self-esteem, a means for social contact. At the same time, a 70-year-old is not a 30-year-old, and aging drivers need to ensure they don’t become menaces on the road.

Physical and mental decline 

Aging typically brings declines in vision, concentration, flexibility and other physical and mental capacities, potentially creating driving hazards. Reaction time, particularly in stressful situations, can take longer. Medications can cause drowsiness and other problems.

While Porter agrees that reaction time and other facilities can be compromised, reduced concentration is not universal and does not begin at a set age. What’s more, she says many older drivers “self-regulate,” for example, by turning off the radio or avoiding conversation with passengers to reduce the danger of distraction. 

In other cases, senior drivers may stick to neighbourhoods they know to prevent the distraction of new sights. 

Avoidance tactics can work in other circumstances. 

Because the structure of our eyes changes as we age, it takes a 55-year-old eight times longer to recover from glare than a 16-year-old, according to the Canadian Automobile Association Québec. Driving at night, in tunnels and even on shady streets can become a challenge, and reducing or avoiding such situations may be the simplest solution, especially if you suffer from glaucoma or other conditions. 

Older drivers are also more likely to be involved in multi-vehicle collisions at left-hand turns, a reduced ability to accurately assess the speed of oncoming traffic often cited as one explanation. All-way stop signs can be another challenge for aging drivers. 

Reviewing the rules of the road may help drivers cope with such situations. For instance, the first vehicle arriving at a four-way intersection has the right of way. If two vehicles arrive at the same time side-by-side, the one on the right goes first. Of course, such rules depend on everyone abiding by them, so eye contact with other drivers is a must.

Dementia and strokes

Porter says that a diagnosis of dementia doesn’t automatically mean you will lose your licence. At the same time, cognitive impairment may result in a driver thinking he or she is better on the road than is the case.

A clinical assessment can help determine if someone with dementia is a safe driver.

Porter also recommends the Driving & Dementia Roadmap from the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. It includes sections for drivers, their families and friends and health care professionals and features self-assessment tools (“Do other drivers honk at you?” “Have you ever gotten lost while driving?”), advice on dealing with the emotion of surrendering your keys and other topics.

Unlike a diagnosis of mild dementia, a stroke means the immediate loss of your licence until you’ve been cleared by your health-care team and your provincial or territorial transportation department. About one in three people who have had a stroke can drive again, according to the Government of Alberta, although stroke victims in that and other jurisdictions may need to take a driving or other test. 

Renewing your driver’s licence

Most, but not all, provinces and territories require older drivers to undergo some kind of testing, but the regulations are all over the map. 

In Quebec, for example, once you turn 75, you must disclose your state of health using the province’s self-declaration of medical information form. Nova Scotia requires anyone 64 or older to renew their licence annually, including submission of a Driver’s Medical Examination Report after age 64. In Manitoba, there are no special licensing requirements for seniors.

Licensing rules or not, Porter reminds us of the inevitable reality: “We probably all need to plan for the day that we don’t have a driver’s licence. We should be incorporating that into our retirement planning — that we won’t be driving to our own funeral, as the joke goes.”

Online resources

• Senior Drivers
• Driving & Dementia Roadmap
• We Need to Talk … Family Conversations with Older Drivers
• Safety Tips for the Older Driver
• Driving Safely While Aging Gracefully

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