Advocacy & Safety - Blindness

I have come to the conclusion that the government is issuing driving permits to blind folk.

No, let me change that.

Blind folk are careful.

Pete's right. I have known older Californians who kept their licenses for fear of lost mobility, but who were afraid to drive because they no longer trusted their visual acuity.

Wear bright colours, use bright lights at night, and agitate for stricter standards for motorists.

Yeah well, it was only last week that three cyclists got hit by an 82 year old driver, who wasn't charged because his age was supposedly a "mitigating factor". Of course, you won't realise that until you've been cycling through North Burleigh on a Saturday morning. Motoring primates using the wrong side of the road wouldn't be so bad if they could just make up their friggin' mind that this is where they want to be.

:mad:

You know, working in a retirement community I often find it frightening that some of our more mature citizens are still driving. It's not uncommon to see a resident using a mobility scooter or a walker to get to their car. I mean if you can't support your body with your legs how can you operate the pedals. In their defense, most of these people recognize their limitations and so drive accordingly. They don't drive at night, or far from home, and they drive slowly because their reflexes are slower. Most of the time, the residents will only give up driving when concerned relatives force them to give it up. The sad thing is this in a community where everything you want or need is available on campus. Old habits die hard.

Two years ago, death claimed one of the most ethical men I have known. After losing his right leg to diabetes-complicated traffic accident injuries, he tried hand controls, got into a minor accident, and switched to a left foot accelerator. A few years later, when he lost his remaining leg to diabetic complications, he voluntarily gave up driving out of concern for his potential victims on the road and bought a 4-wheel indoor/outdoor electric mobility scooter. He became a familiar sight in the bike lanes and residential roads of Encinitas, and I helped him adapt bicycle lighting systems to his scooter.

I hope Lido Iacocca's current automotive enterprise, "neighborhood electric vehicles," based on sophisticated golf cart technology, is as successful as his Ford Mustang and Chrysler K-Car and Minivan. It is easier and safer for us to coexist with mobility scooters and NEVs than with Ford Excursions. My utopian dream for urban planning includes a well-connected grid of traffic-calmed, relatively slow streets, where bicyclists can confidently take the lane and integrate ino traffic flow, with a coarser grid of limited-access freeways with parallel, separate-but-equal bikeways.

Originally posted by thbirks
In their defense, most of these people recognize their limitations and so drive accordingly.
The main point of my original post was not to point out the faults of our elderly drivers and their visual handicaps, even if this needs to be done. (I am sure it does, after viewing some of the replies. :eek: )

Rather, I am deeply concerned about the epidemic of blindness in drivers of all ages, even teenage drivers! I hope a cure is soon found. I would be the first to donate an eye (what a curious twist of fate: Pete Clark, killed by a teenage driver suffering from
premature blindness, becomes eye-donor to the one who ran him over!)

I hear you all. The neighborhood I live in has a lot of senior citizens. I agree. Many of them have no business driving at all- some can barely see over the wheel! My mother calls them "the invisible drivers."Sadly, lots of people that age drive that way- their reflexes are gone, their eyesight is failing, but they continue to drive. I realize they don't want to be dependent on others, but I don't want to be in traction thanks to them! I saw an elderly lady go through a stopsign near here and nearly run me down, and last summer I nearly got creamed TWICE by old people weaving all over the road. They won't surrender their licenses voluntarily.Sadly, it takes death or an accident.

I don't think it's as much being blind as it is not paying attention to what you the driver are doing. If I am in a car and I am making a right turn, and I pass a cyclist in the bike lane, does it not make sense to check to make sure he/she has not caught up to me before I make my turn? If I am in a car and I am in the left turn lane, and a cyclist is coming in the other direction, shouldn't I WAIT for him to pass me before I turn, instead of trying to turn right in front of him? I see crap like this all the time out on the road and it's not gender specific or age dependent. By the same token we cyclists need to ride defensively. I always assume that the driver cannot see me and if I have to wait a few more seconds to cross the street so that they (drivers) can make their turn so be it.

You can say "I had the right of way" all you want but if we end up putting that on your tombstone what good is that?

Assume that most drivers are idiots and act accordingly.
Great site by the way. A great forum for all cyclists. :D
Regards
-BT

Originally posted by Bigtime
I don't think it's as much being blind as it is not paying attention to what you the driver are doing.
Assume that most drivers are idiots and act accordingly.


Bingo. I'm sure this assumption is the only reason I am still alive today after years of cycling around here. However, I am still angry about the incident I described above. If someone's age is such a mitigating factor in their driving ability why are they driving at all?

Well, again, it comes down to drivers being able to f%$ up any way they like without fear of police enforcement. Drivers do not live in sufficient fear of the police, plain and simple.

Originally posted by Feldman
Drivers do not live in sufficient fear of the police, plain and simple.

Agreed.