Seniors and Driving

There are websites operated by your provincial or state governments these days that will let you practice for your driving tests, until you can meet or beat the 80% correct score required for a passing grade, but that's not what may cause you to fail to qualify to continue driving. 

This year for the first time, I turned 80, requiring me to pass a medical at my family doctor's ( cost: $150.00) to prove I'm healthy enough to play in the traffic like I always have. It had a few surprises I hadn't anticipated, like checking my eyesight, which usually is the responsibility of Dr. Debbie and her team at West Vancouver Optometry. And checking my balancing ability on one foot, and walking a line, like the cops do when checking your sobriety. I passed all that, but I'm not sure by how much. Before leaving, while putting my shirt back on, I asked the good doctor, "What percentage of us fail this test, and what is the main cause of the failure?" He replied: "The main cause of the failure is not being able to answer the memory test portion of it, and between 20% and 30% fail the test." 

So you not only need to review your driving skills and road signs recognition, but you also need to be able to remember what day and date today is, and perhaps the name of the leader of your province or state or country's government, or maybe what you had for breakfast yesterday. Tricky little questions designed to discover if you're suffering from dementia or memory loss. I have to wonder, though, why your family doctor wouldn't be aware of those kinds of problems already if you had them. So there's parts of that test which didn't seem all that logical to me. But it isn't supposed to be logical - it's supposed to get us old farts out of the gridlock and off the freeways that we've spent a lifetime paying for with our taxes. As Jim, my favorite Kawasaki bike mechanic used to say, "Ray, nobody promised you life would be fair, and if they did, then they were lying to you." I still miss him and his homespun advice.