Commentary

Licensing policies for mature drivers

As the baby boomer population enters retirement, the number of mature drivers is increasing. New licensing policies will be needed nationwide to ensure that licensing agencies can conduct fair, accurate, cost-effective assessments.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety recently hosted a workshop on licensing policies for mature drivers and formulated a list of recommendations for policy providers.

"Licensing agencies throughout North America are not sufficiently prepared to handle the enormous growth in older drivers," Foundation president and CEO J. Peter Kissinger said. "New and innovative licensing policies and practices will be needed to identify potential at-risk drivers."

A host of recommendations surfaced during the two-day workshop. Among the most popular was the idea of basing licensing on functional and mental fitness rather than age.

Currently, states have differing policies on testing older drivers. Some states (for example, Illinois) mandate that drivers aged 87 or above must report in person to the DMV to renew their license every year. Other states allow licensed drivers of any age to renew online or by mail.

In Colorado, online renewal is only available for drivers up to the age of 66 (though all drivers older than 21 can renew by mail every other license renewal period). The only other difference in the process is a new eyesight requirement when renewing by mail. A driver under 66 must attest that he or she has had an eye exam within the last three years. A driver over 66 must have had an eye exam within the last six months, and must submit a signed statement from an optometrist or opthalmologist as proof. This Colorado law will go into effect on August 6, 2008.

The workshop also recommended the development of empirically defensible guidelines on medical and functional fitness to drive—for example, medical guidelines for testing drivers in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease—and the establishment of state medical advisory boards to review cases and policies. No such guidelines currently exist.

Specific knowledge gaps and research needs were identified in relation to mature drivers and their mobility. "The workshop will be invaluable to AAA in its advocacy efforts to ensure lifelong safe mobility for all drivers," said Kathleen Marvaso, AAA Vice President of Public Affairs.

"It identified numerous lapses in our understanding of key issues," Kissinger said.

The Foundation is preparing a report that will include in-depth background papers and a consensus-based set of criteria that could be used in the development of licensing policies. The report will be released later this year—look for a follow-up article in a future issue of EnCompass.