Very good. As a german, I'd welcome this.

However, expect heavy pushback from the German automotive industry. They are for Germany what the NRA and weapons manufacturer lobby is to the US.

This would be great. We should also require all drivers to pass small exams every ~10 years in order to assert that they are up to date with new laws and new types of infrastructure.

Everyone mentions cognitive abilities, which is also important, but really physical abilities should be tested as well.

Here in america, My 89 y.o. grandmother (at the time) used canes to get around. Got her license renewed just by a written test, no one batted an eye. The fact that she "walked" in was enough and no one saw that she would physically have to pull her leg up to push the brake pedal.

She got into quite a few fender benders after that, and 1 pretty bad accident that totalled her car. That bad accident was responsible for a huge decline in health. She cant drive any longer, but between the insurance and the burden on family to support her ailing health, it all could have been avoided if they required a doctor's signature for renewal.

I do realize that something like this takes away from feeling independent and maintaining autonomy, and i feel for that. It sucks that part of growing old is...well, growing old, but should those emotions outweigh personal and public safety?

Good Idea. It's widely accepted that cognitive capabilities can decline rapidly with old age. It simply makes no sense that a person that needs 8 tries and 10 minutes to change the station on their TV is still allowed to operate a two ton death machine without any checks in place.

The important part here is to make it so that it ONLY "catches" declined driving capabilities and is not also biased in terms of social and financial status or maybe if you're an immigrant or something.

If they would do that we would finally get a strong lobby for decent public transport!

Medical tests?? bleh. Driving is driving, health is health. All drivers should have a to retake basic driving tests at an increasing rate until by the age of 70 where it maxes out at once per 5 years or something.

I wish we could test for cognitive ability for voting access over 70.

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

There's a pretty serious concern here about the mobility and independence of the elderly... but that can't be put over and above public safety. I see either very anxious and hesitant, or completely off with the fairies and uncaring elderly drivers on a frequent basis.

They wouldn't get anywhere near a licence if they had to demonstrate their competence even once more, let alone semi-regularly.

This is quite a brilliant idea. Although we could argue that everyone of all ages should be somewhat tested every x years. The amount of people that are over confident and forget things on the road is quite scary.

Should be every two years really. Then how about every 5 years for everybody else.

I support this. Cognitive function obviously declines as you get older. And elderly people have been lucky enough to live their lives. What if an 80 year old goes out driving, is quite infirm or easily distracted, and kills a 20 year old driver? That 20 year old has the chance to live stolen from them, while the 80 year old already got to live their life.

Yes, please make it happen! There was a subreddit called /r/RentnerFahrenInDinge (pensioners driving into things) that was full of new articles of elderly people being completely clueless in traffic.

Good, I completely agree with this. Maybe once they hit 80, every year.

This sounds totally reasonable, maybe the time frame is even a little too long for people over 80. Like it or not, your body, sight, reflexes etc do change.

Good.

Normalize checking peoples cognitive abilities.

As someone who lives in a town with a high proportion of elderly people, I am not against this idea. We do need to make sure that people found no longer capable of driving safely are able to get the support they need to keep living their best life.

Frankly this is one of those things I kinda hope self-driving cars will help fix, given that we’ll just never have decent public transport.

Over 65? Here’s a test every year. Can’t drive to a high standard? Licence invalidated, go get yourself a car that drives itself, which at this point should be going for a comparable price.

Yeah this is really good. My wives grandfather is still allowed to drive, but I wouldnt go anywhere near him when hes driving.

Good. Old people will tolerate a terrifying number of medical problems before going to a doctor

Every single year!