WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Should We Retest Licensed Drivers Periodically?

0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:07.560
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:10.320
<v Speaker 1>Lauren Bogelbomb here with a classic episode of the podcast

0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:13.920
<v Speaker 1>for you. In this one, we explore the somewhat touchy

0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:19.119
<v Speaker 1>subject of driver competency and safety. Experts agree that in general,

0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:23.279
<v Speaker 1>more experienced drivers are safer drivers, but that doesn't mean

0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:29.160
<v Speaker 1>we should never retest after someone gets their license. Hey

0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.640
<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, laurenvogel Bomb here. If you drive a car,

0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:35.720
<v Speaker 1>or sometimes take cabs or lifts, or have ever been

0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.240
<v Speaker 1>around cars, you've likely had at least a few frustrating,

0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:43.560
<v Speaker 1>more scary experiences with really bad drivers, you know, erratic

0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:47.160
<v Speaker 1>merging or U turns, or casual disrespect for stop signs,

0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:51.920
<v Speaker 1>speed limits or pedestrian right of way, or perhaps not disrespect,

0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:55.240
<v Speaker 1>but ignorance of In a twenty eleven study conducted by

0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:58.360
<v Speaker 1>GMAC Insurance, nearly one in five drivers weren't able to

0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.160
<v Speaker 1>pass a written test of basic driver knowledge, the sort

0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:04.880
<v Speaker 1>that licensed applicants take. But even though most people passed,

0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.399
<v Speaker 1>there were some glaring gaps in critical areas. Eighty five

0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:10.960
<v Speaker 1>percent of those tested, for example, couldn't name the correct

0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:13.480
<v Speaker 1>thing to do when approaching a yellow traffic light, and

0:01:13.520 --> 0:01:15.640
<v Speaker 1>only one in four knew how to calculate the safe

0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:18.640
<v Speaker 1>distance for following a vehicle. See the article version of

0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:20.440
<v Speaker 1>this story at HowStuffWorks dot com if you want to

0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:25.960
<v Speaker 1>quiz yourself. Requiring experienced motorists to regularly demonstrate their competence

0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:28.920
<v Speaker 1>isn't something that's ever been conducted on a widespread basis

0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:31.759
<v Speaker 1>in the US, where some states didn't even require novice

0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:34.160
<v Speaker 1>drivers to pass a road test until the nineteen fifties,

0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:38.119
<v Speaker 1>Only one state, Illinois, has a law mandating road skills

0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.080
<v Speaker 1>tests for licensed renewals, and that's only for motorists who

0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.280
<v Speaker 1>have reached age seventy five. New Hampshire once had a

0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:47.520
<v Speaker 1>similar age related testing requirement, but repealed it in twenty eleven.

0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:51.480
<v Speaker 1>Pennsylvania randomly selects a small sample of the states forty

0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.400
<v Speaker 1>five and older drivers and requires them to undergo additional

0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.360
<v Speaker 1>medical and vision exams. Based on those results, they might

0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.360
<v Speaker 1>have to take a driving test as well. Only a

0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:04.000
<v Speaker 1>handful of other states Iowa, Missouri, Michigan, and California allow

0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.520
<v Speaker 1>officials to selectively require road tests for license holders whom

0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.919
<v Speaker 1>they have reason to believe might be unsafe. We spoke

0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.520
<v Speaker 1>via email with Andrea Henry, director of Strategic Communications and

0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:19.240
<v Speaker 1>Policy for the Iowa Department of Transportation. She explained that

0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.360
<v Speaker 1>in her state, quote, drivers with valid licenses may be

0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.560
<v Speaker 1>asked to demonstrate their driving ability prior to renewal due

0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:28.959
<v Speaker 1>to changes in their health. This includes physical and mobility conditions,

0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:33.440
<v Speaker 1>as well as produced vision and cognitive issues. Wild data

0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:36.760
<v Speaker 1>on how many retests are conducted wasn't available. Most of

0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:40.000
<v Speaker 1>those drivers end up getting renewals anyway, though many have

0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.120
<v Speaker 1>restricted privileges such as a lower personal speed limit or

0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:49.320
<v Speaker 1>daytime driving only. One obvious problem with regularly retesting experienced drivers,

0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:51.639
<v Speaker 1>who numbered around two hundred and ten million in two

0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:53.800
<v Speaker 1>thousand and nine, the most recent year for which Federal

0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:56.920
<v Speaker 1>Highway Administration data was available, is that they'd have to

0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.600
<v Speaker 1>get in line with all of those first time applicants.

0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.720
<v Speaker 1>That would create even longer lines of testing stations that

0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.960
<v Speaker 1>already have their hands full coping with nervous adolescents struggling

0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:09.000
<v Speaker 1>to perform complex maneuvers like the dreaded reverse two point

0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:12.680
<v Speaker 1>turnabout without hitting those little yellow cones. A lot of

0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.200
<v Speaker 1>those youthful license applicants end up coming back for retests themselves.

0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.720
<v Speaker 1>As of twenty eleven, in California, for example, forty two

0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.679
<v Speaker 1>point seven percent of applicants flunked the knowledge test, while

0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:25.440
<v Speaker 1>thirty two percent bombed out on the skills test. The

0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:28.240
<v Speaker 1>worst knowledge test performance was in Missouri, with a sixty

0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:31.040
<v Speaker 1>one point four percent failure rate, while mains would be

0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.280
<v Speaker 1>motorists did the worst in driving skills, with forty percent

0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.040
<v Speaker 1>not making the grade, and the US generally has driving

0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:40.040
<v Speaker 1>tests that are a lot easier than the ones used

0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:42.400
<v Speaker 1>by the rest of the world. In the Canadian province

0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.160
<v Speaker 1>of British Columbia, for example, would be drivers have to

0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:48.120
<v Speaker 1>undergo forty five minutes of testing on several different types

0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:51.440
<v Speaker 1>of road, and also must verbally describe what specific road

0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.520
<v Speaker 1>hazards are immediately beside their vehicles, one block ahead and

0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:58.760
<v Speaker 1>also behind them to test their awareness. There isn't a

0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:00.920
<v Speaker 1>lot of evidence that additional test testing over the years

0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:05.120
<v Speaker 1>necessarily would improve safety on the roads, As the Insurance

0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:09.080
<v Speaker 1>Institute for Highway Safety explains, studies have yielded conflicting results

0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:11.880
<v Speaker 1>on the question of whether age restrictions reduced the rate

0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.040
<v Speaker 1>of crashes. In Illinois, they did, but in New Hampshire

0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.200
<v Speaker 1>they didn't. The rate of injury causing crashes per one

0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:21.880
<v Speaker 1>hundred million miles driven actually is highest among teenage drivers,

0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:24.839
<v Speaker 1>and then decreases and levels out for decades before starting

0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:28.120
<v Speaker 1>to rise again slightly among people in their seventies and eighties.

0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:30.400
<v Speaker 1>That's not the pattern that you would see if many

0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:34.000
<v Speaker 1>people saw their driving skills or knowledge deteriorate significantly in

0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:38.200
<v Speaker 1>middle age. We also spoke via email with Jake Nelson,

0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:43.560
<v Speaker 1>Triple a's director of traffic safety advocacy and research. He said, retesting,

0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:45.560
<v Speaker 1>where if you fail the test you lose the license,

0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:48.120
<v Speaker 1>has been shown to have zero safety impact on the

0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:51.240
<v Speaker 1>drivers involved, and it has been shown to reduce mobility

0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:53.960
<v Speaker 1>by way of drivers voluntarily giving up their licenses due

0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:56.240
<v Speaker 1>to fear of getting them taken away, rather than any

0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.920
<v Speaker 1>legitimate concerns about their driving. There's no justification through DEA

0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.520
<v Speaker 1>data and research for testing or screening at a certain

0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:07.600
<v Speaker 1>age one. Gary Biller, president of the National Motorists Association,

0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:11.120
<v Speaker 1>which is a nationwide advocacy group, is similarly skeptical about

0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:15.000
<v Speaker 1>the value of retesting experienced drivers, he said via email.

0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.600
<v Speaker 1>Safety statistics consistently show that the accident rates of drivers

0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:20.919
<v Speaker 1>seventy years of age and older are not much different

0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:23.120
<v Speaker 1>than those in the thirty five to sixty nine year

0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:26.360
<v Speaker 1>age group. By contrast, drivers younger than thirty five are

0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.440
<v Speaker 1>at the highest risk of accident. That indicates a couple

0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:31.920
<v Speaker 1>of things. What is that experience behind the wheel is

0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.560
<v Speaker 1>one of the most important factors for safe driving? Another

0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.280
<v Speaker 1>is it state requirements for the renewal of driver's licenses

0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:41.279
<v Speaker 1>are reasonable. Those requirements vary state by state, but generally

0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.200
<v Speaker 1>include more frequent re licensing and vision tests once driver

0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.320
<v Speaker 1>reaches sixty five, seventy or seventy five years of age.

0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.840
<v Speaker 1>But Biller does think there could be value in allowing

0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:55.800
<v Speaker 1>officials the option of re examining certain potentially problematic drivers.

0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.720
<v Speaker 1>He said there should be an objective process through which

0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.240
<v Speaker 1>the life licensing agency could be petitioned to do an

0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.680
<v Speaker 1>evaluation of a given license holder based on firsthand knowledge

0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:08.799
<v Speaker 1>of family members, a law enforcement agency, or the courts.

0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:11.760
<v Speaker 1>In fairness, there should also be an appeal process for

0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:13.600
<v Speaker 1>the person who is in jeopardy of losing his or

0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:17.039
<v Speaker 1>her license or having it restricted. That approach might offer

0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:20.520
<v Speaker 1>some protection against the most clearly impaired potentially dangerous drivers

0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.320
<v Speaker 1>out there, but as for the drivers who violate the

0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:25.160
<v Speaker 1>rules because they think they can get away with it,

0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:27.359
<v Speaker 1>You're probably just going to have to continue to be

0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:34.919
<v Speaker 1>wary of them. Today's episode is based on the article

0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:38.640
<v Speaker 1>should licensed drivers be tested periodically? On how stuffworks dot com?

0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:41.480
<v Speaker 1>Written by Patrick J. Kiger. Brain Stuff is production of

0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.160
<v Speaker 1>iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is

0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:47.479
<v Speaker 1>produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,

0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.839
<v Speaker 1>visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:51.919
<v Speaker 1>to your favorite shows.