I wanted to write a “Sunday with the Senators” post, or at least about the upcoming Town Halls this week. But alas, I was consumed with an EIGHT HOUR course on driver safety. My insurance company will give me a discount if I pass the course since I’m over 55. The age varies based on insurance company and state, I’m told. But hey, I’m into saving money and at the outset it didn’t seem that bad. So here is what I “learned” from the course.
First off, in addition to everything they “taught” there were intermittent pop-ups where you would choose your state, and find out the state-specific requirements. You could click on as many states as you liked, and I learned that NY does NOT have a law preventing you from tailgating police, fire, or ambulance, with sirens, which I had observed many times on the FDR Drive. (I’d always wondered….you can’t do it in other states.)
The thing that was overwhelming about the course was that they repeated everything multiple times. And then they repeated them again. They told you. They put it on a slide that you read as they read it aloud to you. Then they showed you a video about it. Then they repeated it again. As you get older, you have some physical limitations. That makes sense. Whether or not these limitations impact your driving is dependent on individual circumstances. It’s a good idea to check with your doctor is you don’t know about how medications will affect you. Had they said that, they could have saved 2 hours of my life I’m never getting back. NO NO NO — they didn’t do that. They went through each and every limitation and explained it, and then said “check with your doctor.” Yes kids, things like cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy can affect your vision, they don’t need a separate slide for each.
They made a big deal about keeping both your hands on the wheel at all times. At 8 and 4, because that’s better when the air bag hits you. However, they didn’t explain how I could shift gears without moving my right hand to the stick shift. A mystery.
According to the course, I should walk around my car before I get into it and inspect it. I should put a quarter into each tire every week to check for wear. First off, we used to use pennies — is this inflation? Then, I’m supposed to check all my fluid levels, and the lights and mirrors and undertake all the maintenance I have NEVER done in my life. This is why I have a mechanic. I also don’t cut my own hair, sew my own clothes, undertake household plumbing — there’s something good to be said for the specificity of skill sets. These are not mine.
But my very favorite part of the entire presentation related to people who need to stop driving. How do you have those conversations? How do you convince the person they can no longer drive? What do you do if they won’t give up the keys. The information is necessary, but here’s the thing. As part of the conversation, you need to explain the other transportation options that people can use when they are unable to see well enough to drive, lack the physical strength or coordination to drive, or have dementia. Did they mention Uber? No. They recommended public transportation, walking, bicycling and horseback riding. Yup, read that again. You can’t see, you get confused, but hey, don’t forget your bike helmet. (I am not making this up.)
My dad married late in life and was 50 when I was born. By the time that I was in high school, his eyesight was beginning to go with night blindness being a particular problem. I don’t know if my mom had a sit-down discussion with him or if he recognized the problem on his own, but by the time that I was a junior and senior, he was letting my mom or us drive when we went out in the evening. Toward the end, he wasn’t even driving during the day. (From what I gather from those who lived closer to home, that was a little bit more of a problem than getting him to stop driving at night.)