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Google Auto drive will likely help a lot - many people I know are aware they should not be driving but don't see an alternative. Being able to buy a car that does the driving for you will be a game changer for many retirees.
Readily available on vehicles with price tags approaching $35k or more. Most of my neighbors are looking for affordable vehicles well under $25k or are driving cars over 10 years old.
Most dealers are more interested in selling models that they have in stock as opposed to some of the heavily optioned vehicles that will need to be special ordered. Even in the Tucson area, most sales people do NOT start off by talking about the safety features of the vehicle unless the customer asks about them.
You can get a 2017 Hyundai Elantra Limited with the Tech and Ultimate packages for $26,750. It has everything I mentioned above, except for the surround view. And it has a host of other features, like HID headlights, which provide much better lighting. Compare that to the Honda Civic somebody else mentioned. As for what dealers are interested in selling, I could give a rodent's rectum. I'm the customer. If they can't get what I want, I'll go somewhere else. I have absolutely no qualms about turning around and walking out if they can't sell me what I want. I've done it before and I'll do it again. As for the sales staff, they tend to be idiots. I don't ever talk to them about the features of a vehicle because by the time I get to the show room, I know more about their product than they do. Every time I buy a vehicle I wind up educating the salesman about it. The only thing I expect a salesman to do is to beat the price that's on my printout from USAA or Costco or whoever had the lowest price. And even then, he has to go to his manager like they always do.
The comparatively lower insurance company rates for senior drivers versus younger drivers is a pretty good indicator of the real safety records.
I think that's also a function of their driving less, as a group, since many of them are retired and don't have to drive to work anymore. I know our insurance rates dropped significantly when we reported our cars annual mileage as much less than before
we retired and our vehicles were driven only for pleasure ( ie, not driving to and from work).
I was surprised to hear that Arizona has a 5-year renewal period for all drivers. I know that Indiana has a 3-year renewal for those 75-85 and a 2-year renewal for those over 85.
From my parents, I know how quickly health changes happened. We also had to take the car keys away from my father. I also remember my mother trying to scratch off lottery tickets while driving on a very, very busy interstate!
Would you object to having to renew your driving license more often as you age?
Day I find I can't drive and am a danger is the day I go off a cliff. If I can see it...
Older drivers tend to drive fewer miles but.....
get into a lot more accidents per mile driven, starting around age 65, but more so after the age of 75:
The higher risks are at the younger and older ends of the driving spectrum, which is misleadingly presented in the OP's news story. That matches the research that I've seen (as stated in the source above). This isn't to say there aren't those older drivers out there who are much safer drivers than young and middle aged drivers, but it indicates an overall trendline/tendency over a large population on a per mile basis.
Several biases dubiously compound this problem.
First, most people (whether they're young, elderly or in between) sees themselves as excellent, well above average drivers, when in reality, there are plenty of below average, poor drivers. People think they're better drivers than they are because in our culture (especially in places where just about everybody drives and practical mass transit is lacking), driving is tied to independence and competence and no one likes to think they lack either.
Also, politicians/legislators who have the authority to pass reasonable rules to protect public safety are swayed by voting habits of older voters, who vote more faithfully than younger voters, and obviously by 16-17 year olds who may drive, but can't vote. And they know that if they dare pass legislation that affects older drivers, their feet are going to be held to the fire much more aggressively than if they pass laws that make licensing more complex and cumbersome for young people (which they have not been bashful about doing to younger drivers). It's easy to pass iron fisted legislation that doesn't affect people in someone's "circle".
And quite frankly, the average politician is much older than the average age of the public at large, quite often by a few decades. So not only do they have the bias that most people have (thinking, I am an "excellent" driver that's much better than most people.), they are less likely to propose or adopt legislation that's going to make driving more difficult for themselves or people that they see as their peers.
Caitlyn (the person trying to get the more restrictive legislation passed) has an uphill battle indeed.
The comparatively lower insurance company rates for senior drivers versus younger drivers is a pretty good indicator of the real safety records.
The problem here is how we define "senior drivers". Up to a certain point, they may be safer. For my insurance company (21st Century), that point is 70. After I turned 70 my rates were raised seemingly unrelated to anything in my driving record. So I called and asked about the increase. Sure enough, I was told that the rates go up after age 70, period.
Sure, the rates for the youngest drivers may still be higher than mine - I don't really know. But there is a curve with more accidents per mile driven at both ends of the age scale, as already posted in this thread by others.
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