Can We Talk 2

Safe Driving for Experienced Drivers

         Just finished my 8 hour online safe driving course, which might save me a little on my insurance bill. It is for anyone over 50. The point they drive home is that everything changes: we change/get older, the roadways change, vehicles change, laws change. The driver needs to be more alert and flexible than ever before.

         There are actually recommended exercises and stretches to keep ankles, feet, shoulders and neck moving properly for driving, parking, and backing up. Vision and hearing are two common areas that people tend to ignore as they age and continue driving. We know that our reaction times slow down, but many of us don't want to adjust our driving habits to accommodate this delay in reaction time. Going to the doctor and checking our vision and hearing is a way of taking care of ourselves and keeping us in the driver's seat.

         After age 75, a collision is more likely to be fatal than we are in our 50's. Our bones are brittle and we might have other health problems.

         It is not a free course, so I'm hoping the insurance deduction will be greater than the expense. At any rate, I feel better about brushing up on laws and other vehicles on the roadways, like scooters, ATV's, bikes, motorcycles. Driving is one of our ways of feeling independent and self-reliant. It's hard to give up the keys, but they make a good case for how it might be cheaper to pay for the taxi instead of all those taxes and insurances.