Originally Posted by lws
There is a larger picture issue involved -- when you get old and can't drive any longer, you become a virtual prisoner in your own home. A small proportion of Americans live in communities that are well-served by public transportation, and a 68 year-old man is unlikely to be able to walk or bicycle very far.
True. My father, who just turned 70 in June, decided on his own about 3 years ago that he didn't have the ability to drive safely any more. He either has my mother drive or calls me or my sister when he needs something. He was always a very conscientious driver (never a ticket or an accident in over 50 years of driving), so when he couldn't, to his own high standard, be safe any more, he quit driving all together. Unfortunately, many people at his age won't make such a decision as he did because they either don't have any way to get around if they don't drive or just don't want to rely on someone else.