I just finished the rant about the whole plastic bag tax and I am in a mood to write so I have decided to do another rant on something that has been on my mind a lot recently. Seniors behind the wheel.
Let me paint a typical story for you. I get in my car, start it up, and pull out of my driveway. I get out onto Hillsborough road and am driving along just fine at 60km/h which is the speed limit up until past the Petrocan. I’m listening to my music and enjoying the drive. As I go along, I start to see a car down the road in front of me and the car is getting closer. I let go of the gas and let the car start to slow down as I get closer. Eventually, I am directly behind the driver of the vehicle in front of me. I notice that the speed limit is still 60 but now I am driving between 30-40km/h. Eventually, we come down the hill towards the bridge so the speed limit is reduced to 50, and the vehicle in front of me is now driving about 30km/h. At this point, I’m very frustrated to say the least. I wasn’t in a hurry, but you can clearly see the long lineup of cars behind me and we’re all stuck behind this one driver who seems to think the speed limit is 30. I’m heading over to the power centre on Trinity so as I get closer to the bridge, I make a decision that if the car goes straight, I’ll go through town. If it turns onto the bridge, I’ll go through Riverview and take the highway. In other words, whatever direction that car goes, I will not be following. I finally come to the bridge and the car is choosing to go through Riverview so I take the passing lane and get ready to cross the bridge. As I am turning, I pass the car and look through the window to see the driver. Behind the wheel is frail grey haired man who can barely see over the steering wheel. I shake my head and say to myself, “Yup. I knew it was a senior”.
I knew it was a senior because the described scenario is one that I encounter pretty much daily in this city. Everytime I turn around and am stuck behind someone who is driving WAY to slow, as soon as I have the opportunity to pass them, I do, and about 95% of the time, it’s a senior driving the car. I have seen consistently seniors who ignore stop signs, drive on the wrong side of the road, drive up the wrong side of an exit. I saw one driving on the wrong side of Wheeler once. The biggest issue is always speed though. They never seem to understand the concept of driving the speed limit. It drives me crazy. Sometimes I wonder if the reason they all drive 30 is that they think the speed limit is 30 MILES PER HOUR (since it was that YEARS ago) and see the 30 on the speedometer and assume that’s what they should drive at. Who knows.
I heard somewhere that there are no statistics that indicate that accidents are caused by seniors driving their cars the way they do. I actually can believe this 100%. I believe it because I think that it’s impossible to measure the stats because the older folks do not directly cause the accidents, but are an indirect cause of them. If a senior runs a stop sign and you slam on your brakes, and the guy behind you rear ends you, it’s his fault. The senior isn’t involved in the accident. If someone is stuck behind a guy driving 20km/h and gets so mad that he does an illegal pass and hits someone in the oncoming lane, it’s his fault, not the slow driver. It’s those kind of situations that come up and don’t show the full picture.
I am not by my nature an angry or rage filled person, but for some reason, getting stuck behind one of these folks brings out the worst in me. Not sure where that comes from but it is there and I am sure that I am not alone.
Do I have a solution? Nope. If you did a mandatory re-testing at a certain age, people would say that discrimination. Perhaps all drivers regardless of age should be re-tested after they have been driving for X amount of years and then re-test every 5-10 years or something like that. I don’t have a solution. I just know that it is very frustrating to get on the road and always end up stuck behind some senior who has no clue what he/she is doing.
I know I know. It’s not ALL of them right? I’m sure there are seniors out there who are perfectly good drivers. It just seems that they are never driving on the road I am on.
When the time comes and I start to get up in age, I’ll definitely remember these days and being driven crazy by slow drivers. I’ll either drive the speed limit, or get someone else to do it for me. Hell, maybe by then I can just get teleported to where I want to go 🙂
If you’re wondering where the headline comes from, check out this episode of South Park which tackles the issue I’m describing here. They pretty much nail it exactly how I feel.
