The European Union wants elderly people (70+) to undergo medical tests from now on to prove that they are still capable of driving a car every five years. However, the proposal has been met with a lot of criticism.

  • Mininux@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Honestly seeing how people drive ~10 years after getting their licence I think we need a kind of test every 10 years, not necessarily because of declining cognitive capacity but just generally forgetting about safety

    although it would be pretty expensive to check absolutely everyone

    • Kleinbonum@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      not necessarily because of declining cognitive capacity but just generally forgetting about safety

      And because rules, regulations and the reality of traffic changes.

      There’s this new move to make roads where bicycles are granted priority more prevalent, but the specific rules of how it works are completely unknown to most people who got their license more than 10 years ago. Same for reserved car sharing parking spots. Same for some rules around electric vehicles, etc. etc.

      It would just be good to make sure people who are operating a vehicle are current on the rules of actually driving a car - rather than relying on “that’s how I learned it, back in the day!”

    • Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I agree with this except im too cynical to believe people just forget about safety. People learn to pass the test and then drive how ever the hell they like. Granted alot of people are safe but i see far too many people just completely disregarding anyone else on the road and their only goal is to get to the front of the line as fast as possible and screw everone else.

      They can retake their test, they will drive safely and carefully that one day and then go right back to being selfish idiots.

      I would maybe go as far as to say thst there is a requirement to have a black box installed in all cars that gets switched off/removed after a number of years of safe driving. And if you drive badly or unsafely then your insurance goes up every year until you prove you are safe.

      Maybe it goes up by x amount £100 or like 10% or 20% a year until you stop driving badly but remains at the price it was when you start driving safe for 3 years before dropping back down to the price it would be without the increases you incurred. That would stop people from trying to cheat the system.

      It may be extreme but if you are driving safely you have nothing to worry about.

      Of course we would have to nail down exactly what counts as unsafe driving so it wasnt overly/unjustly critical.

      I mean… maybe its a bad idea. But again. If its not you then you needn’t be worried.

      • brainrein@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Here in Germany your insurance fee goes down every year you don’t cause an accident. But if you cause an accident it will go up again.