When life exceeds safe driving expectancy: implications for gerontology and geriatrics education

Research findings suggest that life expectancy exceeds safe driving expectancy after age 70 by about 6 years for men and 10 years for women; yet few people plan for a time when driving is no longer possible. Transportation planning should be considered along with financial, legal, health care, and housing issues during preretirement in the range of advice gerontologists and geriatricians provide to older adults and their families. The message is that we all should be planning for our nondriving years. Myriad issues of potential concern exist for gerontologists and geriatricians from the screening and assessment of functional impairments that may affect critical driving skills, to licensing and renewal and the monitoring of driver safety, to driving restriction and cessation, and to the introduction of senior friendly community mobility options. Transportation, after all, is critical for connecting us to goods and services as well as to employment, volunteering, and civic engagement opportunities. This theme issue brings together representatives from the research community, licensing authority, allied health profession of occupational therapy, and community transit. All have important messages for gerontology and geriatrics education.