One common question that usually prevails among senior drivers is, “When is the best time to stop driving?” One of the harshest realities associated with aging is that it might not be safe to drive on the road anymore, however, regularly monitoring your driving abilities is an important part to assess your driving ability and then make a decision.
Being an old driver does not always mean that you should stop driving. In America, one in every six drivers is of 65 years of age or older. Still, being a senior driver, it is important that you comply with a certain set of criterion.
1. Assessing your Driving Ability
Many senior drivers don't want to give up driving practices just because you are not efficient enough to drive due to aging. Your perspective is right at its place, but protecting others from your car while driving is also an important factor that you should consider.
To ensure that you can still drive as per the requirements of the traffic laws, it is important to assess your ability to drive on a regular basis. Since as a person ages with time, he or she develops certain health issues that can affect driving. Some of the major health problems that could threaten the ability of senior drivers to drive behind the wheel involves alzheimer disease, dementia, poor vision and hearing.
Including all the above-mentioned health problems, any other condition that needs medications that can impair the ability of senior drivers, so do have a thorough check of your body and then correctly assess your driving ability.
2. Safe Driving Tips
Being a senior driver if your condition allows continuing driving, you should learn some tips to increase the safety of yourself as well as others at the same time. Some of the prominent safety tips for you are mentioned below;
- Drive Only in Familiar Areas
With age, your ability to recognize different things also significantly changes. You might not be able to remember different roads properly. So one important tip for you is to drive only in those areas with that you are familiar with. This issue is quite common with people having dementia. Since it can be sometimes difficult for you to read road signs while driving due to bad weather. So if you are driving in a known area you will already have all the safety measures in place.
- Use Car Safety Technology for Help
In recent years, technology has played a vital role to help senior drivers in different ways. Warning system, parking assistant, blind spot detection, night vision assistant are some important driving technologies that have been introduced, and are specially helpful for the senior drivers.
Keeping in mind the driving issues that are commonly faced by senior drivers, Lanmodo introduced its color night vision assistant. This device not only helps you to identify different objects at night by offering 1080P image, but also provides you with a better driving experience through its attractive color display. The Lanmodo Vast Pro will provide you with a wider road angle view along with further night vision distance, so that you can drive ahead without hesitation and more safely.
- Drive slowly
Another important tip for senior drivers is that they should consider driving slowly. When you become old, your reactions and reflexes become slower, due to which you might not be able to react quickly in case of any danger. For this purpose, it is highly recommended that you should drive slowly.
With increasing age, you may also experience problems with interpreting different things while driving such as safety signs, traffic signals, and the directions of traffic policemen. You might lose your ability to appropriately divide your concentration while driving. So if you are driving slowly, all these problems will be effectively minimized.
3. Stop signs for senior drivers
There can be a number of signs for the senior drivers that can urge them to stop driving. Some of the important signs that must be considered by the senior drivers include;
- Stopping your car where there is no stoppage sign or stopping at a green light.
- Traffic signals making you confused.
- Driving your car at red lights.
- Engaging in accidents
- Damaging other cars while parking your vehicle.
- Suddenly getting lost while driving and then calling a member of the family for assistance.
- Hearing complaints from acquaintances or friends that are concerned about your driving.
So being a senior driver, it is the utmost responsibility of a person to evaluate his/her driving skills on a regular basis. If you think you are no longer able to drive, then it is high time to leave driving for the sake of other people!
