An article from earlier this year in the Globe and Mail highlights that quality of life for many seniors is linked to their continued ability to drive. Many boomers are growing old in suburban communities, where access to amenities often requires a car. This means that hanging on to your drivers license at all costs has become a priority in the face of what we can now see was a failure to plan around the aging population.

“As baby boomers enter a critical new stage, a powerful new constituency is about to arise, demanding solutions to problems caused inadvertently by planners and others who have helped make automobiles so central to our lives. After all, this generation of Canadians has higher expectations for mobility than any that preceded it: We grew up with easy access to the car, and we will do what ever it takes to hang on to this privilege — which some already view as a basic right. But as many seniors are already finding out to their discomfort, suburbia is no place to grow old, testing the common assumption that we all gracefully “age in place.”

Studies show that our identity and determination of self-worth is often inextricably tied to our cars. So how will seniors get around single-use, car-dependent communities when they can no longer drive? Can places where shops and other essential services are beyond walking distance be successfully retrofitted to accommodate changing needs? What systems need to be put in place to reduce the burden on physicians, who currently bear much of the responsibility for determining whether elderly patients are fit to drive? If government fails to act, will policy be shaped by insurance companies seeking to reduce their exposure? Who will bear the costs of providing seniors with alternatives to the private car?”

Read the full article here.

Locally, the Geriatric Medicine Research Unit in Halifax has been carrying out work on a particularly pernicious issue: dementia and driving. Their focus has been largely on those who continue to drive and the caregivers who act as co-pilots.  You can read more about their ongoing work here.