In today's episode, we are gonna talk about drive-in for the over seventies. So the first question that they wanted to know is, why do people over the age of 70 have to renew their driving license?

So what happens at the moment is 90 days before your 70th birthday, you are gonna get a form in the post, and the form is called a D four six P. And what happens is, this is the form that you fill in and you also go online to do this as well, but it's the both the form and the online bit that you can use to renew your license at 70. What it is, it's a self-assessment really, of your health, and it asks you questions like, has your health deteriorated? Because we all know as we get older, we are not as young as we used to be. Yeah,

And I was thinking that while you were talking. So in my other role outside of driving confidence, I work in a cancer care setting, and this is a big issue all the time for a lot of our patients it's important to report whatever your age. It's not just about waiting until you are 70 and over. If you have a change in your health condition, you may well need to report it.

it. Exactly. And when you, people don't realise this, when you sign to have your license, when you passed your test, part of the declaration is that you will notify the D V L A if your health changes. And that's what you need to do. And I know a lot of people rely on their driving to help them in life in general. But this is about a self-assessment, because everybody wants to keep safe on the road and this is what this is about. And I know through my experience that people don't realize that their health has changed, especially eyesight.

Yeah. And remembering this is part of a community agreement, almost you are relying on other drivers to self-assess themselves correctly and they are relying on you to self-assess yourself correctly so that we can all be safe on the road.

Exactly. And you, you know, you've gotta be truthful. Yeah. You know, we don't want anybody to be involved in crashes. That could have been, prevented

definitely Okay. So the next question that they asked you was, why is it that over seventies don't automatically have to retake a driving test?

So the first thing is you've already passed your test. You know you've passed your driving test to the standard on that day, and yes, you may well have picked up some bad habits, but this is when you get to 70. We don't want to take your driving license away or have a retest. What we want to do is to make sure you are still fit and healthy. To be able to drive basically one of the stipulations is about your eyesight. And can you read a number plate from the required distance? And the distance is 20.5 meters, so say 20 meters away. And that's the number plate that you should be able to read with glasses, contact lenses, or without, from that required distance.

Okay. So yes, we're not talking about if you need glasses that it's a problem. The point is, is that how are your glasses, are your contact lenses the correct strength to enable you to see that

Yes.

Okay. Lovely. So the other question that they asked was, why can drive-in become more difficult as people get older? So obviously we've already touched on that a little bit with the eyesight, but what are the other things that tend to affect drive-in as people get older?

We also might notice that our hearings changed.

Yep.

You know, we don't notice that it's changed until, we don't hear those sirens. We don't hear people bebb in their horns. So again, you know, do you need a hearing aid?

Yeah. And this is important, isn't it? Because it's been able to hear your car, hear other vehicles, hear emergency vehicles, your sense of hearing is really important to the overall picture of what's happening on the road around you.

Exactly, and that's what we want to do. You know, we want to be check in, I'm gonna say this again, that you are safe to drive and you are safe for others as well.

Yep. Got it.

So, another, how do I phrase this without, as we get older our reaction times slow. Yeah. Or they slow, get slower than what we used to. But because it's a gradual process, we don't notice that. and what this means is we just get used to it. I'm not doing anything different to what I've always done. Yes, but in actual fact, you are, your 25 year old self would act far quicker than your 65 year old self.

And I suppose one of the clues, there might be more little incidents happening where perhaps Something ha unsettling happened that maybe wouldn't have done if you had reacted a little bit quicker previously.

Yeah. And I think it's, um, look, one of the classic ones is harsh breaking, isn't it? Yeah. You know, you see something happening and. Oh yeah, I've harsh brake there. You feel it a little bit more. So that's one of the classic ones for our reaction times.

Yes. Look out for those little clues. If driving's feeling more stressful, if you're having. More things like you say, harsh breaking or annoying other road users for one reason or another. Then just start to take notice of that and see whether there's any tactics or strategies that you can use to improve that.

Thank you for listening. Find out about the different ways that you can work with us on our website, www.confidentdrivers.co.uk, and begin to transform the way you feel about driving.