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Old 02-18-2016, 07:58 PM
 
8,238 posts, read 6,528,589 times
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Yet cognitive abilities can diminish in one's 80's and beyond, and abilities to absorb data quickly and react quickly can diminish.
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Old 02-18-2016, 09:56 PM
 
Location: Hollywood and Vine
2,074 posts, read 2,001,030 times
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I am SURE I don't need to bring up my 95 year old neighbor again .. That car DID come back and they gave them someone else's covered spot lol - until someone else moves in the building who's car is supposed to go into that covered space. I FINALLY saw her daughter drive the thing and has to practically load her mom in with a lift. If the mom isnt with her she drives her own car. So she did end up getting her way ... again . 2 covered spaced and a garage .

Just glad I am out of that .
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Old 02-19-2016, 06:39 AM
 
2,649 posts, read 1,828,429 times
Reputation: 3106
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheShadow View Post
That reminds me that when my MIL gave us her car after giving up the keys we noticed big scrapes on both the front AND rear bumpers. We asked how they happened and she just said "I don't know". She wasn't even AWARE she had hit something somewhere.
A friend seems to be a good driver, the sad thing is her eyesight. Macular degeneration? Stopped riding with her, because of this. She could sure handle the car; finally her kids sold the car. They kept disabling it and she would get a mechanic to fix it......................ahhh...........
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Old 02-19-2016, 07:25 AM
 
105,674 posts, read 107,628,943 times
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we had a woman going 10 miles an hour down a single lane main ave drag . she had to be in her 80's . there was a pile up behind her for a 1/2 mile trying to get around her ..
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Old 02-19-2016, 10:21 AM
 
130 posts, read 133,723 times
Reputation: 540
As far as I'm concerned, if you don't like my driving, you can just stay off of the sidewalks! Dang nabbit!

And what about young people today? Why can't they be like we were? You know, perfect in every way. Why, some of them needs their heads examined. Dang whippersnappers!

Harrumph!

Wonder what this key does.....aaaagh, I just got the dreaded "blue screen". This new fangled technology is for the birds. Speaking of birds, I gotta send a text, anyone seen my carrier pigeon? He was here just a few minutes ago.
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Old 02-19-2016, 01:44 PM
 
51,573 posts, read 25,482,936 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jukesgrrl View Post
The older people get, the less likely the are to adapt to new ways of doing things, even when they didn't exhibit this reluctance when they were younger. Also, the first thing an elder forgets is the thing learned most recently and they become confused when faced with choices. So even if you carefully teach them something they are likely to forget it the next day. My mother had a computer on her job in the mid-1980s. I doubt anyone would think those dinosaurs were easier to use than today's computers. That computer didn't even have a mouse or Windows.

Yet by about age 75 (and she's nearly 90 now) she could barely Google information. She can read or send simple E-mails but forget about attachments, filing her E-mail, or simple editing tasks. If she wants something printed, she insists I do it for her. She says she's "afraid" she's going to break the printer. Could you actually do that without a hammer? I'm not even asking her to put paper in it, just hit the "print" button. My mother also insists on having a newspaper delivered every day; she refuses to access one on any of the three computers we have in the house, even though I have put direct links on the control panels.

My mother lives with me; two of my relatives and two of my friends are also caring for elderly mothers. So I see a lot of elderly people day to day. Every one of them has a reluctance to make decisions. Offer to take any one of them out to lunch, they'll jump at the chance. Ask them where they want to go, they cannot answer. Even if you give them some choices and tell them to pick one, they can't decide. Forget about expecting them to get dressed and ready in any normal amount of time, even when they are physically quite able. Choosing an outfit requires decisions.

Well, so does driving, even though many elders refuse to acknowledge that. Behind the wheel they easily become overloaded and the result is scrambled thinking and nervousness. Having a GPS or other helpful technology in the car would just be another distraction they could not deal with, let alone learn to use. Not one of the people I see this behavior in has been diagnosed with any form of dementia, but they all exhibit fearfulness and vulnerability when faced with choices or multi-tasking. Needless to say, they shouldn't be driving. Yet I know many people older than my mother who refuse to relinquish their keys. Mom's best friend is 92 and drives every day in Pennsylvania, come rain or snow. It's terrifying to think about.
How many reports have we read about seniors stomping on the gas instead of the brake and mowing down people on the sidewalk.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen elderly drivers parked on a freeway entrance instead of merging into traffic.

We've all see it. It gets worse with age and there is no system to weed out those with diminished cognitive capacity.

Pointing out that those young whipper snappers are a danger with their texting does not change the fact that older drivers are an ever increasing risk on road.

Young man in our neighborhood was just killed by an 82 y/o woman who pulled out without looking. She is so sad.

So is his family.
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Old 02-19-2016, 02:11 PM
 
Location: Central IL
20,726 posts, read 16,187,292 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AlaskaErik View Post
I'm talking about people in their 50's, 60's and even 70's. The earlier you adapt, the better off you are when you are older. I've been using a computer for over 30 years now. When I'm 75 I don't anticipate having any problems trying to google something or printing. Same goes for technology in vehicles. I have no problems letting the adaptive cruise control do all the braking and accelerating when I'm in heavy traffic. It makes driving through the LA basin much less taxing. All I have to do is aim the car. Everything else is taken care of. I think a lot of it is in people's minds. I embrace new technology and ideas. Too many people simply refuse to adapt.
Well of COURSE you're still googling because you've already googled for going on 20 years! But..there will be things...do you Twitter? Instagram? Snapchat? Ohhhh...those aren't important? hahah

That doesn't affect driving ability directly so it's a bit off-topic but at SOME point everyone becomes a bit more introspective and less interested in learning about technology that doesn't offer THEM any clear benefits.
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Old 02-19-2016, 05:22 PM
 
Location: Cochise County, AZ
1,399 posts, read 1,241,399 times
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Would it be so bad to be required to take a driving test after age 70? Driving is a privilege not a right.
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Old 02-20-2016, 11:47 AM
 
Location: SW Florida
14,799 posts, read 11,938,114 times
Reputation: 24504
Quote:
Originally Posted by GotHereQuickAsICould View Post
This is purely anecdotal, but many older drivers do not report fender benders to their insurance companies. The reason given are that they are afraid their rates will go up and they'd rather just pay the repair expense and be done with it.

Younger drivers may not be in a financial position to do the same.

Many of our older neighbors have run into the edge of their garages, backed into their mailboxes, etc. and never involved their insurance companies. One family friend knocked down the corner of her daughter's carport.

Also, many older drivers drive older cars. If they drop the collision, there is no reason to report such mishaps. Whereas drivers of newer cars often have collision coverage.

So it may be that the stats are skewed a bit.
Maybe it depends on the location, but I can assure you that I have seen numerous younger drivers involved in , mainly minor accidents who choose not to report those accidents to their insurance companies, for fear that the insurance companies will cancel their insurance or increase their rates beyond what they can afford. In those cases, they will either settle directly with the other involved drivers for a cash amount, they may flee the scene as it's very hard to prove who did what where when at a later time, and especially if they are short of the cash needed for repairs and the car is driveable, they will continue to drive the damaged car without getting it fixed.
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Old 02-20-2016, 06:59 PM
 
Location: Southwest Washington State
30,585 posts, read 24,913,792 times
Reputation: 50788
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jukesgrrl View Post
The older people get, the less likely the are to adapt to new ways of doing things, even when they didn't exhibit this reluctance when they were younger. Also, the first thing an elder forgets is the thing learned most recently and they become confused when faced with choices. So even if you carefully teach them something they are likely to forget it the next day. My mother had a computer on her job in the mid-1980s. I doubt anyone would think those dinosaurs were easier to use than today's computers. That computer didn't even have a mouse or Windows.

Yet by about age 75 (and she's nearly 90 now) she could barely Google information. She can read or send simple E-mails but forget about attachments, filing her E-mail, or simple editing tasks. If she wants something printed, she insists I do it for her. She says she's "afraid" she's going to break the printer. Could you actually do that without a hammer? I'm not even asking her to put paper in it, just hit the "print" button. My mother also insists on having a newspaper delivered every day; she refuses to access one on any of the three computers we have in the house, even though I have put direct links on the control panels.

My mother lives with me; two of my relatives and two of my friends are also caring for elderly mothers. So I see a lot of elderly people day to day. Every one of them has a reluctance to make decisions. Offer to take any one of them out to lunch, they'll jump at the chance. Ask them where they want to go, they cannot answer. Even if you give them some choices and tell them to pick one, they can't decide. Forget about expecting them to get dressed and ready in any normal amount of time, even when they are physically quite able. Choosing an outfit requires decisions.

Well, so does driving, even though many elders refuse to acknowledge that. Behind the wheel they easily become overloaded and the result is scrambled thinking and nervousness. Having a GPS or other helpful technology in the car would just be another distraction they could not deal with, let alone learn to use. Not one of the people I see this behavior in has been diagnosed with any form of dementia, but they all exhibit fearfulness and vulnerability when faced with choices or multi-tasking. Needless to say, they shouldn't be driving. Yet I know many people older than my mother who refuse to relinquish their keys. Mom's best friend is 92 and drives every day in Pennsylvania, come rain or snow. It's terrifying to think about.
I agree with you. I come at this from experience with my elderly mother. I had a slightly different experience with her decision making though. We noticed that she refused to make a decision about something from a menu. She was happy sharing something or ordering what one of us ordered. My sis put it down to not being able to comprehend, but it might have been an inability to come to a decision. After all, most menus are pretty information dense.

What I noted about her driving was her slowness to react. She could not use her blinker, because she could barely negotiate the turn. She also pulled into intersections to wait for a light change, which scared me to death! And if she became rattled or upset, I don't think she had good control of her car. But, challenging her on her driving was so fraught that we didn't. It took a crisis to get her off the road. I mentally apologize to her fellow citizens and friends every so often, and give thanks for her safety. We should have taken action sooner.

Some of us retain our ability to drive, and some of us don't. But I personally see more carelessness on the road from younger folks than I do from elder folks.

In terms of elders and computers, I think it is so much more than simply learning new things. I remember learning how to use a dumb terminal in the 1980s and having a hard time. For me it was not intuitive. After I learned, and made a bunch of mistakes, I learned how to think about doing things. Very elderly people often have not had the exposure to computers that they would need to learn how to use them properly. They don't know how to think about using them. I saw this with my mom and her inability to use one or to master a mobile phone. Her mind simply did not understand how to think about the way they interface with the user. She had no basis for understanding.

Most of the very elderly, who have had no exposure to computers, are probably no longer with us though. I know people who are older than I who use computers very well. In the next 20 years or so, almost all of us will have had this experience, no matter their age.
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