Sunday, February 26, 2006
The number of older drivers has increased by 27 percent in a decade.
By BILL GLAUBER
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
MILWAUKEE -- Lola Pfeifer's ride is a 1998 Oldsmobile Bravada sport utility vehicle, 190 horses beneath the hood and 4,000 pounds of motoring muscle on the road.
Pfeifer is 85, a great-grandmother, a veteran road warrior who recalls the days of 17-cent-a-gallon gas yet still confidently goes with the modern traffic flow on Milwaukee's streets.
"I don't think I irritate younger drivers," she says. "I keep within the speed limits. If I'm going too slowly, the younger drivers will pass me by."
With every left turn taken and stop sign negotiated, Pfeifer displays her independence and embodies a new era on the American road -- the age of the senior driver.
Americans are living longer and driving longer, wedded to their cars in a mobile, fast-paced society. Just like teens yearning for a set of wheels, seniors also crave the independence that comes with driving to the store, the bank or the doctor's office.
The days of "Driving Miss Daisy" have been replaced by "Miss Daisy" driving an SUV.
Statistics
There were some 19.8 million licensed drivers 70 and over in the United States in 2003 -- a 27-percent increase in a decade, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Older drivers constituted about 10 percent of all licensed drivers.
In Wisconsin, about 14 percent of the state's 4 million licensed drivers are 65 and older.
Old age isn't a barrier to driving, but determining just how old is too old to remain safely behind the wheel combines a complex set of medical and personal issues. It's a deft balancing act between senior independence and road safety, between understanding, how, say, diabetes or dementia can affect a driver's ability.
Per mile driven, only teens have higher rates of fatal crashes than drivers 75 and older, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
"Nobody wants to stop driving," says Jennifer Enright-Ford, a registered nurse consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. "And my generation will be worse. Those boomers won't want to give up their cars."
Dementia can become a major factor for older drivers, especially those 85 and over. The disease affects a driver's ability "to make timely decisions behind the wheel," Enright-Ford says. There have been cases of drivers losing their way and showing up in another state.
Some are safe
Of course, seniors can be safe on the roads.
That is embodied by Pfeifer, who uses her vast experience and caution to navigate the roadways. Pfeifer said her only accident was a fender bender ... back in the 1930s. As a teenager, she learned to drive on a stick shift and even drove a Model A Ford truck that featured manually operated windshield wipers.
She wears sensible shoes and slacks, carries a pocketbook and lunch box (a gift from a granddaughter) and goes out for a two-mile drive from home to church. She pops open the SUV's automatic locks, climbs into the raised driver's seat and, without skipping a beat, hits the starter.
Over the years, Pfeifer has made allowances to age. She no longer drives at night and doesn't use the interstates, but still manages 75-mile trips along back roads.
"As you get older, it takes a little longer for your eyes to focus," she says. "I suppose my hearing isn't quite as good either. I take my time. When I come to corners, I make sure there is no traffic when I cross the street."
She aims for spaces that don't require parallel parking, preferring to drive in and drive out.
"You do get slower," she says. "I know that for a fact. Even on the open roads, I still stay within the speed limit."
Similar situation
Others match Pfeifer's experience.
Jeanne Hare, 81, and her companion, William Steed, 79, have been driving a combined 110 years. She lives in Mequon, Wis., sits on a cushion to peer over the steering wheel of her 1993 Honda Accord, tools around local roads during the day but wouldn't think about driving at night.
"I just want to drive," she says. "And I'm not afraid of the traffic. I'm afraid of people who are driving fast, who pull in front of you or stop on your bumper, or those people who roll through the stop signs."
Steed lives in West Allis, Wis., sits behind the wheel of a 1998 Cadillac Seville, hits the interstates, drives at night, and loves the open road -- a trait probably left over from his parents, who worked in vaudeville.
Steed says older drivers get a bad rap.
"When a senior citizen has an accident, it's a big deal. All of a sudden seniors can't drive anymore," he says.
Hare supports tougher licensing of senior drivers, and says she would gladly go in for extra vision and written testing.
"I would hope I have brains enough to know when I shouldn't drive," she says.
Steed, though, says seniors should not be subject to tougher licensing.
"I'm going to drive as long as I possibly can," he says. "Once you stop driving, you might as well bury me."