A local seniors advocate is welcoming changes to driving tests for people with medical conditions who have been referred to ICBC’s RoadSafetyBC by their doctors.
Beginning in March 2018, the driver fitness program will do away with in-office computer assessments and will allow people to use their own cars for driving tests.
Bruce Bird, former chair of the North Fraser Chapter of CARP, a retired persons’ group, said meetings with local seniors identified a number of concerns with the DriveABLE program, which is being replaced with a new enhanced road assessment (ERA).
He said the new program will reduce stress for seniors while also improving road safety.
“Some people had trouble with it because they don’t use computers and they were intimidated by the test, and it really didn’t prove anything,” Bird said, adding that it makes sense for people to use their own cars rather than a supplied vehicle because it’s the one they need to be able to operate.
“That is a big improvement, they were using DriveABLE cars, cars they were not familiar with,” Bird told The Tri-City News.
Although the new driving test will be longer — 90 minutes, up from 75 — and include a vehicle orientation, it will be free to take and the longer time will give the examiner more opportunities to test driver fitness.
It is being hailed by both the Counsel of Senior Citizens Organizations of BC (COSCO), which collaborated with RoadSafetyBC on the new driver fitness program, and by Isobel Mackenzie, the BC Seniors Advocate.
“The enhanced road assessment puts the focus more sharply on whether someone’s still safe to drive their vehicle, and it’s conducted in a way that’s more accessible and will improve safety,” said the minister of public safety and solicitor general, Mike Farnworth, who is also the MLA for Port Coquitlam. “The new process is the result of consulting experts and looking at many options, including what other jurisdictions are doing, so drivers can be confident that others around them are qualified to be at the wheel.”
Among the benefits cited is more information for drivers about the assessment process, including how to prepare, feedback during the assessment and a post-trip review.
Bird says the test now more closely mirrors the test new drivers take, creating less stigma and worry.
But he still doesn’t think it’s fair that drivers over 80 have to take a medical exam every two years, which is costly and assumes that older drivers are bad drivers, when he claims most have clean records and only drive in daylight and good weather.
“If they have a bad record, they should be treated accordingly but a lot of seniors have spotless records.”
Bird is up for his third medical exam in February, as he’s turning 84, and even if he is required to take the new enhanced road assessment, he isn’t concerned because he’s confident he’ll pass. “It wouldn’t bother me [but] it does bother a lot of people,” he said.
