There are going to be lots of articles in the near future about old folks driving. That's because there will be lots of old folks ... well ... driving. Eighty million Boomers moving toward sunset on Rt. 66 in Shelby Mustangs, Maserati's, Porsche 911's and F-250's. A virtual army of people who from moment to moment won't know whether they've got one foot on the gas, one foot on the brake, or one foot in their mouth. The DMV's around the country will become the new Department of Travel Prevention with all sorts of tests and restrictions and monitoring to make sure too many of them don't go headlong into a fruit stand and take out a few early produce shoppers. So, look for a whole new rash of regulations for old folks (Boomers) renewing their licenses, purchasing cars and even getting insurance.
Mind you that the number of drunk driving crashes where drivers are killed or kill others is exponentially larger than the number of seniors who do that. We think nothing of giving 16 year olds, whose frontal lobe development rivals that of my cat and whose judgment allows them to design schemes to purchase alcohol through older adults, a license to pilot what is essentially a Gasoline Propelled Bomb (GPB) at unimaginable speeds through our neighborhoods and on our roads. The funeral for the unfortunate High School Senior Killed In An Alcohol Related Incident is almost a staple for the senior year in some parts of the country.
I think I have an answer to both problems. Let's just hire people to drive both groups until they come to their senses or we tell them they never will. With Eighty Million Boomers there has to be some ingenious soul who can see the transportation enterprise potential here. Imagine a senior being picked up by the Gray Express and driven to Whole Foods Market. Or a teenager who is picked up after school in a limo filled with video games and junk food and driven home in the Teen Transport Solution. Both groups would have more fun, we would read about less carnage, and well, fruit stands would be less nervous places.
Of course, if those ideas don't work we could always train more lawyers to sue both groups.
