Does age matter?

We are a society obsessed by age.   When you are growing up, you want to be older.   When you are a kid, you want to be older so you can drive.   When you are a teen, you want to be an adult so adults will treat you like one, so you can move out, vote or have your own money.   When you are an adult, you wish you were younger and had the youth.  You wish you had the figure or the freedom younger people have.   Sometimes when you are older, you want to be younger so you can drive as well.

Perception is reality for some and recently a study conducted by Allstate Insurance revealed that seven in ten Americans feel seniors are poor drivers.

With the Baby Boomer generation hitting their golden ages, there are more and more elderly drivers on the road, so does this really mean the roads are going to be more dangerous as there are more poorer drivers out there?

No it does not.   For one, the older, more mature driver is typically going to take less risk and travel at a lower speed than their younger counterpart.   Maybe because we are all in such a hurry to get from point a to point b, when we are behind a slower driver, we feel they are a poorer driver compared to us because they are somehow keeping us from our destination.

Apparently insurers have the same perception as well, as typically insurance premiums rise over time with the age of the driver.   When we first start driving, our insurance premiums are high and when get toward the golden years as a driver, our premiums go back up again.

Older drivers do have an advantage over their younger counterparts.   In a number of states, legislatures have passed legislation which requires the insurance company provide a discount for those individuals who have completed a mature driving course or a mature driver improvement course.

DefensiveDriving.com has been in the online driver safety business since 1999 and with over 2 million drivers certified, we know how to develop an interactive, quality and educational online experience specializing in driver safety.   Given this expertise and experience in developing online driver safety courses, we are now adding a series of driver safety course which are especially designed for older, more mature drivers.

These state approved defensive driving programs qualify the individual who completes them for a discount for their auto insurance premium.

For more information, go here for New Jersey or here for Tennessee.   DefensiveDriving.com is also developing these courses for Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, Ohio, Kentucky, Florida, just to name a few.

I welcome your feedback and it is hoped we are making better drivers for individuals of all ages.