Statistics show that drivers age 55 and older make up 25 percent of the driving population, yet are involved in only 18 percent of accidents. Mature drivers have fewer and less severe accidents than younger drivers. A number of states have adopted these practices. Aging can and does affect driving skills. Age-related factors of vision, perception, reaction time, hearing, physical health, and wisdom contribute to driving skills.
Visual acuity diminishes with age.
Most of us think about glasses at about age 40. Traffic signs and road hazards get dimmer and fuzzier. We become more sensitive to bright sunlight and oncoming headlights at night. As depth perception diminishes, our ability to back the car or to parallel park is increasingly difficult. We may have trouble in judging the speed of traffic at intersections.