How old is too old to drive?

We hear it frequently, the baby boomers are coming, the baby boomers are coming.   The “baby boom years” are typically associated with births between 1946 and 1964, and there were approximately 79 million of them born between those years.

Of those baby boomers, those born in 1946 will hit 65 this year and over the course of the next ten years, there could be 49 million drivers over the age of 70 driving on our roadways.

The freedom driving brings and more importantly, the sense of independence, is important to our older more mature drivers.  I know as my wife’s grandfather is going through this right now.   He lives on his own, he is not in assisted living and the ability to drive allows him not to have to live in an assisted living or retirement center.   Like a lot of his peers, he and his generation made the ultimate sacrifice to keep their freedom.   It is a difficult issue, is 90 too old to drive?   Is 80? 70?

More states are passing legislation which mandates testing on an annual basis and many states have programs where an individual can take a driver safety course or  mature driving course, for insurance discounts (auto insurance also increases after a certain age) and continuing education for drivers.   DefensiveDriving.com’s online driver safety program is one of the few that does not require a computer, our course can be taken with a phone and a DVD/VCR player, in consideration that our older citizens might not be as comfortable with some of the latest technology.

The debate related to mature drivers and mature driving is only going to expand as the baby boomers retire and as we debate whether the generation which grew up with the auto industry should continue to drive vs. incidents like those outlined in the clip below by Good Morning America.