Memory Lanes : Seniors Refresh Driving Skills, Cut Insurance Costs With Schooling

The 21 people seated on the folding chairs in a meeting room of the Santa Monica YMCA are more likely to have grandchildren in a class than to be in one themselves.

All were 55 or older--most in their 60s, some in their 70s--and all were spending the four hours this night (and four hours another night) to give themselves a graduation present: For the next three years they get a discount of 5% to 15% on their auto insurance premiums.

“Get the big picture while driving,” an audio advised the students, many of whom were scribbling notes. “Select and reject. Read those tires--they can telegraph another driver’s intentions.”

Welcome to the Mature Driver Improvement Course, a statewide incentive program designed to refresh driving skills and rules that some may have become rusty on.

The number of mature drivers on the roads is significant:

As of June 29, 1987, the latest period for which statistics are available from the Department of Motor Vehicles, there were 5.3 million licensed drivers in Los Angeles County. Of those, about 1.1 million were 55 or older.

Most are safe drivers. The concern is that they stay that way.

She was a teen-ager returning home on the San Bernardino Freeway from a ski trip.

Just the day before, an elderly man had been stopped by a police officer on a surface street for erratic driving. His car was confiscated, and a relative was called to drive him home.

“But the next day, his son brought him back to get his car,” Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) said by phone. “While following his son, he got confused and actually made a U-turn on the freeway, putting him in the wrong direction.

“In the head-on crash that followed, the girl was killed.”

Partly as a result of this accident about a couple of years ago, the Transportation Committee headed by Katz held a series of hearings. “My feeling was that while we were doing a lot for younger drivers, we should be doing more for older drivers,” he said.

“If we had mandated a driver improvement course for seniors only, we could have been subjected to a discrimination suit. The thought instead was to encourage attendance through incentive.”

Last summer, Katz’s legislation, providing insurance cost reductions for voluntary attendance at driver improvement classes, went into effect, and the DMV approved curricula for such classes. If a couple has one car, only one of them need take the course.

Various groups offer the courses. The American Assn. of Retired Persons, according to a spokesman, sponsors “Fifty-five Alive/Mature Driving,” which he said is given whenever enough people express interest.

Private organizations also have become active, such as Amundson & Associates in Whittier, which has 14 teachers, and this month will be conducting 42 classes at 20 locations throughout the county. The students each pay $21.

“One thing we are trying to impress on everyone is that there has been a lot of change in the driving environment, especially during the last few years and especially in Los Angeles County,” Amundson said while helping Carol R. Hurley set up in Santa Monica for one of his classes. For 22 years, he had been an administrator of the Sears Roebuck traffic safety program.

“There is more traffic density now, and it will get worse,” Amundson said. “The laws are changing. People are just now having to become familiar with the new anti-gridlock law at intersections.”

And when that subject came up during the class, it provoked the most heated discussion.

“Everybody still violates it!” one student protested.

Another point at which nearly everybody had something to say came after they had filled out what amounted to a written driving test, for their use only.

“The person entering--on an interstate freeway--has the responsibility to merge with the flow of traffic, and not to stop unless the freeway traffic has stopped,” said Hurley, a business consultant in Pacific Palisades. There followed many comments on how difficult this sometimes can be.

And at the point when everyone was advised to make sure his or her car is seen--be it by use of headlights, brake lights, turn signals, horn--one man took strong exception:

“There is hardly anything as a friendly horn!” he exclaimed. “I would certainly not follow that advice.”

To which the teacher responded: “We do suggest a light tap as a means of communicating.”

The Intended Effect

It all had the intended effect--getting the seniors thinking about things that many had been doing, or not doing, out of habit for decades.

Then came a few minutes when each person in the class did a little soul-searching, a sensitive period, filling out a self-evaluation relating to the tough decision each must make on when to stop driving, and instead seek alternate transportation methods.

Some of the questions on the evaluation:

--Do intersections confuse or bother me more now than in the past?

--Do I have near misses?

--Do my reactions seem as quick today as they did five years ago?

--Do I take medications that have side effects, and do I handle the side effects well?

--Are my friends and family showing concern about my driving?

“All of us stop driving at different ages,” Amundson said in an interview. “Our limitations begin at different times in our lives. Everyone differs. In Cleveland, I once came across a 93-year-old woman who not only hadn’t reached her limitation, but she had never in her life driven, and wanted to learn. I taught her, she passed all the tests, and she was so happy to get a license with her picture on it. She said that had been a goal all her life.”

The problem, however, is usually the opposite--when to stop driving.

“The fact that you may be feeling insecure about your driving ought to be a signal to you,” Hurley told her class. “Or if people start declining to have you drive them somewhere--that is a message. But you are the one who has to decide when to stop.”

When that day comes, it isn’t all that bad, she said, if you consider: “Just the amount of your auto insurance will buy you a lot of taxi rides.”

Although most of the course dealt with safe driving habits, there was of necessity time devoted to the inevitable process of aging.

“Did you know that only 3% of a person’s vision is conical (straight ahead)?” the teacher asked. “Everything else is peripheral, and that is the part that tends to go first.”

One part of aging, she said, is reduced eye pupil size, which can mean difficulty in adjusting to lower levels of illumination--it may become harder to drive at dawn, dusk and night, or in shaded areas, or in tunnels.

“As you get older, it becomes harder to distinguish stationary objects--a row of parked cars, for instance,” Hurley said. “Reading road signs may become more difficult.

“If there is someone else in the car who can act as a navigator (as in searching for an address), accept that help.”

Arthritis was discussed, particularly if it requires adjustments such as moving the body more while making turns or backing up.

As for medication, those in the class were reminded to be aware of any side effects, such as drowsiness or dizziness and of the possible crossover effects of taking more than one medication.

“And on long trips, stop every hour,” the teacher said.”Get out and move around. Change drivers for a while if you can. Road fatigue hits more as we get older.”

No one at the class indicated any need for thinking about discontinuing driving. Mary Schroeder, 70, of Los Angeles said she drives three or four times a week, mostly to the market or other shopping places. “And since 1940, I’ve had only one accident,” she said during a break.

‘Extremely Aggressive’

On another chair was Fran Burg, 62, of Los Angeles, who was anxious to talk about the younger drivers: “I can’t stand their disregard for other people. You see too many with a finger in the air. The younger generation is extremely aggressive.”

During the sessions, just about everyone chipped in with comments. One man said that in Sweden, the headlights must be kept on at all times of day.

Everyone grinned when Hurley quoted wisdom on how to become a good driver instantly:

“Go out and buy a new $40,000 car.”