Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest!!!!

[CMH]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

They should also retest drivers under 25 over and over - because they tend to be terrible drivers too.

It's like sports: they get better with experience.

If you ask me, I think teenagers should be learning how to drive well before they come close to getting a permit.

I'm not saying you throw your 9-year-old into the highway, but there are ways to teach kids about driving in school. Maybe they already do this, but I know I was never given instruction on how to drive until I went and bought a book to do it and hired a driving instructor. And even then, I was not great. I didn't really learn how to drive until I worked for Enterprise and was driving every day, all day as part of my job.

[matt8204]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

I guess it's a good idea simply because of the fact that the eldery don't have the same reflexes that they used to for the most part. You need to think fast and make snap decisions on the road, especially in tight spots. However, let's be careful how we discriminate. Stupidity and irresponsible behavior knows no age limit.

I also heard something on the radio this morning that I don't particularly agree with; New Jersey's legislature is apparently mulling a law that would make it illegal to use your radio dial while driving. We may be taking this a bit too far. I'm all for putting a stop to distracted driving, but where do you draw the limit on what people can do? Are you going to ban talking in a car also? I mean, just about any kind of behavior could constitute distracted driving if you think about it. We're going down a slippery slope here.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

Different rules for different states.......

I know in IL and IN, if you are under 18, you can only have one passenger in your car. That law is rarely enforced though, unless it is a really slow day and cops are bored.

The problem with bad young drivers is this...... A good number of them come from non driving families and really are the 1st in their family to drive. The only driving training they ever had was drivers ED and joy riding with their friends.

So if you come from a single family home and your mom don't drive, you working and buy a car, you really don't know how to drive. Driver's ED ONLY teaches you enough to pass the road test.

It takes a parent or another adult to teach you how to drive for months.

I know for me......hell I taught myself. My mom didn't drive, my older sisters didn't drive and my dad didn't teach me because he believed everybody should learn stuff on their own.

So sure enough when I got my car, my driving wasn't all that great LOL. But the more I drove, the more I got use to judging things and within a few months I was cruising like a pro.

Decade and some years later.....I consider myself a driving king.

Now far as changing the radio law goes.......I can see the reason behind that. On older cars the radio dial is very low and I have seen many people have to literal bend to the side and look down to change the station.

It is really a problem for women or anybody with short arms really. Hell I remember when I was teaching my neice how to drive, I had to teach her to turn the radio, heater and AC on by feel and not by looking at it.

Because she was literally taking her eyes off the road and looking down at what she was pressing.

[PBlast]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

... The hell?


EDIT: Oh, you mean cell phone use while driving.

A little late on the reply haha, but yeah I meant while driving.

[Brandwin]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

I think this is great. My grandfather is 84 years old and still drives. I've rode with him (been a little while) and he is a very safe driver, but I just fear one day something could happen to himself or someone else.

Come to think of it though... if he got retested, I'm sure he would pass, plus he had eye surgey and his vision is probably better than mine.

I also think you should have to be 18 to be able to get your drivers license/

[fishepa]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

I've been saying for YEARS that the elderly should have to be re-tested for retaining their drivers licenses. Good move.

[AUChase]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

Thanks to my family's hobbies, I've been pulling car haulers behind full sized trucks since I was 14, lol.
Driving isn't much of an issue on my dads side of the family.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

Hmmmm being 18 is not going to solve the problem, since where I live you got a lot of sophmores in High School that are 18 LOL. If anything, 2 months of drivers ed should be mandatory in EVERY state.

In Indiana, my part of it anyway, there is no drivers ed at all. You just go straight to traffic school for 2 weeks and thats it. But yet they wonder why there are so many teen accidents here.............

In Chicago, growing up, we had to go to drivers ed for 2 1/2 months, then to traffic school for 5 weeks, then take the road test. So really you had to pass 3 tests to get a license.

You had to pass drivers ed, had to pass traffic school and you had to pass the road test.

[Buckeyes_Doc]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

It's a start, though every MA driver should have to be retested every 5 years, not just old people. That state is a disaster.

Agreed. I would add Rhode Island, Conn, and NY to that list also. Driving here in New England is terrible!

In all seriousness I do think old people should be retested or people who have been in a certain amount of accidents or have tickets within a certain amount of time.

[ehh]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

In Indiana, my part of it anyway, there is no drivers ed at all. You just go straight to traffic school for 2 weeks and thats it. But yet they wonder why there are so many teen accidents here.............

Jesus, that's for real? How the heck does the state get away with that?!

[elgreazy1]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

I love this state.

[Antec]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

Jesus, that's for real? How the heck does the state get away with that?!

What is traffic school?

And what is driver's ed like for your towns/cities? All driver's ed. was here was 10 1.5 hour sessions where we watched a movie or 2 each session about car accidents and stuff and a small lecture from the teacher. It was pretty lame and did not prepare me for driving. We also had like 5 or 10 45 minute driving sessions with the instructor that was basically driving around the neighborhood and never on a highway.

I've always driven fine but I highly doubt that my Grandma will pass the driver's test again since we live in Mass.

[ehh]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

And what is driver's ed like for your towns/cities?

It was a long time ago so CT may have changed it's requirements but for me it was 15 one-hour classes (by and large a joke but did learn some things) and 10 hours of road time with an instructor. Then a written test followed by the road test at the DMV.

My parent's taught me most of the stuff I needed to learn, not the driver's ed instructor.

[slickdtc]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

Driver's Education is pretty useless. I mean, they give you all the rules and signs and all that stuff, but until you get in the car, you don't know what it's like. I aced Driver's Ed, but I had never been behind the wheel until my driving tests (a few drives, then a final drive). Until I got completely comfortable with everything, all that knowledge was useless. Not to mention the nerves and the pressure some driver's instructors put on you.

[legendkiller5]

Re: Finally I feel like I live in a smart state! Mass. to make elderly drivers retest

Um...I'm pretty sure when I turned 15, I took a test and got my permit, then when I was 16, got behind a wheel of a car, got a 92 on the test, and received my license. I didn't have to take driver's ed, or anything.