"compulsory age-appropriate retesting every 3 years once a driver turns 70" - Petition

[Drago]

That'd mean less cars on the road. Shame.

 

[Flying Dodo]

FEWER!

 

[Drago]

Strictly speaking, 'fewer', as being in the middle of a sentence it doesn't need a capital letter.

 

[oldwheels]

Re the eyesight thing. I thought opticians were obliged to inform DVLA of any failures to meet the driving standards. This I suppose depends on those being tested telling the truth about their licence status. Certainly I have to declare that my eyesight is up to standard on my 3 year licence application. It is and I am aiming for a cataract op to make sure it stays that way. I am well over the biblical span but IMO am perfectly capable still and would give up if I thought I was not. Mind you where I live I would be as well as dead anyway if that happened since I live at the top of a steep hill which I can cycle up unemcumbered but with shopping it would be a different matter. Testing would not be a simple matter and would entail much more expense and inconvenience than you townies would have. Retesting as routine is a kneejerk option not given much thought as to the practicality.

 

[Slick]

I was all for signing it until I read your post and it made me change my mind. I still firmly believe and have always believed something should be done. My wife used to work for a well known optician and regularly she would tell me about older customers with very poor eyesight such that she would ask how they were getting home. The response was nearly always "im driving dear".

Can there really be that many people whose eyesight is so bad they can't drive? Most bad driving is crass stupidity, ignorance or downright murderous agression and even "failure to see" is more likely "failure to look" or "did see but don't actually give a f.@*"

I still think a large portion of the problem stems from poor eye sight. I was telling a work colleague about my wife finally getting an explanation on how in certain conditions, she would lose the road. I was very unsympathetic as I could see it was right there. Anyway, she was told she had the beginning of cataracts, to which my colleague told me he suffered for years and one particular corner on his drive home from work, the glare would blind him so he just shut his eyes rather than admit there was an issue. I thought, ffs, I've got to share a road with these people. What I can tell you, my wife now takes the bus to work.