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I've got to agree about the grocery thing. I hurry through the store, because the last thing I want to be doing with my life is spending half of it in Wal-Mart, but granny Smith and her husband feel the need to take up the whole aisle, and they stop right in the place that makes it incredibly hard to get past them.

Yeah well your right that old people can be cool but down here I have seen and heard of to many accicents related to eldery people. Such as driving through a crowd of people in the arrivals section at Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale or driving through a crowd a bank!

It is the great "out".

   That's funny!  That means I'll be able to grope young women on the backside, and get away with it!   

Seriously though, the point is valid. It is a frequent subject of discussion on talk radio shows, and most callers to such shows agree that seniors need to be tested, and if they simply cannot handle driving due to poor vision, or other health problems, they should not be driving.

I've got an idea:  Why not test everyone, at five year intervals?   Then no one could say they are being discriminated against.

Enigma.

Many state inspections already test for things like tail lights.

But, I agree.  Why test the car if the driver is not worthy?

Actually, he can be stopped.  It's called impeding traffic.  And most highways have a MINIMUM speed limit of 45 mph.  Below that you'd better have your flashers on and whatever is causing you to go that slow had better of started to occur after you entered the highway (i.e. "I don't want anything to fall out of the back of the pickup" is not valid, whereas inclining a steep hill that your vehicle doesn't have the power for is valid).

While I'm at it get out of my way at the smurfing grocery stores.Old people drive me smurfing insane at times!

Quoted for emphasis.
When I'm pulling a 500 kilo loaded flat-top, [b[get the smurf out of my way.[/b] At least you can stop for an old lady in the middle of an aisle: it's the kids that I've nearly nailed on many an occasion.

In 40 years you will ALL have changed your opinion about this.

nope, in 40 years if I can't drive well enough, then take my license away. I will not become a danger to myself and others. In order to ensure that I can get rides places, I will ensure that I am damn nice to my kids, whenever I have them.

My grandfather is 83 years old and is a perfectly good driver. However, I think there should be some kind of second driving test once people pass a certain that they must complete in order to keep their license. Some of the seniors really are dangerous sitting behind the wheel of a car.

Your father is not 83.

Who said anything about father?

Man, old people can be cool tho homey.

While the original post is obviously a charitable description of my Mother, I have to agree with fanothaft as well.

I was at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, Ontario a couple of years ago. The aeroplanes are super-cool. I love old aeroplanes, especially from the 1930's and 40's. I like the way they look. I like the way they smell. I love the sound of the big, low rpm, highly supercharged engines. I am a hot-rodder as well. At that time the museum was letting a local vintage auto club store some of their cars in the hanger. Classic aeroplanes and muscle cars in the same room - the museum was lots of fun for me.

The best part of the whole trip was talking to a fellow who worked at the museum who had served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1950's. Even though the Lancaster bomber was undergoing scheduled maintenance and closed to the public this fellow asked if I wanted to look inside and let me climb up and look around in the cockpit. I got to poke my nose into the guts of a partially disassembled Rolls Royce Merlin. If you are a hot-rodder you will appreciate how cool that was. If it wasn't for some friendly and helpful "old people" I would not have got the chance to see some pretty cool stuff  and have some interesting conversations that day.

I love my cars; however, I'll adapt. There's no need to selfishly endanger the lives of others just so I can retain a bit of pride.

No doubt, this generation of elderly people were once young like us. Yet, when they were young, there were not a lot of elderly people driving cars.  Cars were more expensive, one could easily get around with out a car, and cars were not a right of passage. Most of our great  grandparents probably never drove, or never drove much. 

The past 2 generations of elderly people are really pioneering a new era of dangerous driving that has yet to be explored.  When many of us get older we will probably have different opinions on elderly driving. Unlike our grandparents, we've been able to look at modern busy driving through younger eyes.