Posted by In 2017 ITV made a very interesting documentary series called “100-year-old driving school” It was about, not surprisingly, drivers who were around the 100-year-old mark and followed their driving escapades both on their own and with professional driving examiners.
There were some really quite frightening moments, and some of those pensioners still driving quite obviously shouldn’t have been. On the other hand, there were some very capable old drivers. In fact, several of the examiners said that they’d be more than happy travelling in cars driven by some of the old people.
The interesting thing is that most of them had never taken or passed a test in their lives. This is because the driving test only became law on the 1st of June 1935. Imagine having started driving when there were just 2.5 million vehicles on the roads of Britain with about half of those being private cars. By this time, horses and carriages had all but disappeared from city streets, although there were still plenty in rural areas.
The traditional 20mph speed limit was abolished in 1930 because it was universally flouted and it was hard to secure a conviction anyway because there was no real evidence available so claims and counter-claims were rife.
The 1930 Road Traffic Act that axed the speed limit did, however, make some contribution to road safety by making third-party insurance for motorists compulsory. It also introduced the Highway Code and gave local authorities the power to regulate traffic by one-way streets, roundabouts, road signs and traffic lights, originally known
as ‘traffic control robots’.
A new Road Traffic Act was made law in 1934 and the speed limit was reintroduced but changed to 30mph and limited to built-up areas. It was also when the driving test became law. Previously anyone over 17 could just hop in a car and drive it!
My mother still drives at 81 years old. Her eyesight is still good even without glasses, and thank goodness she has the sense to realise that she is slower than she used to be. She doesn’t drive as far from home as she used to, but because she lives in a very rural area, really needs her car. Until recently, she also used to ride a moped.
I rang her a couple of winters ago to see that she was ok because there had been a fairly heavy snowfall where she lives. She said that she was fine but a bit cross. I asked why and was horrified to hear that it was because she’d been unable to get the car off the drive because of the snow in the lane, so had been forced to take the moped to get to work! Yes, she still does a couple of jobs.
So, should old people be allowed to drive? Of course, they should, because they often rely on their cars. But, I absolutely think that anyone over 65 should take a regular test to make sure that, not only they are still able to demonstrate their ability to drive, but also to make sure that they are up to date with any changes to the law, and to the cars that they are driving.
Cars have changed dramatically and continue to do so since the older generation took up driving. I’ve got into cars that I have to spend a good few minutes trying to work out how to even start them. Then there are things like electronic parking brakes, anti-rollback systems, automatic lights, and SatNavs with automatic lane departure systems, automatic collision avoidance and so on.
Also, there are a multitude of new road signs that have crept in, many to satisfy European standards, and then there is, of course, the issue that there are now close to 40 million vehicles on UK roads, of which about 30 million are cars. That’s a staggering increase from when older drivers started driving.
The next time you are “stuck” behind an older, probably slower driver. spare a thought, and remember that with any luck you will be an old driver at some point, and everything will have moved on again, although quite possibly, the number of cars on the road will have diminished.