No reason for Illinois to stand alone

If you’re among 50 people in a room and everyone but you is doing something one way, it’s only appropriate to wonder whether it’s you or they who are doing it right.

It’s possible you are the only one who knows how to do it right, but the odds tell you you should at least consider why you’re all alone.

When it comes to requiring that drivers as young as 75 take an on-the-road test get a driver’s license renewal, Illinois is decidedly alone.

Or was.

For the past few years, while the world paused for the COVID-19 pandemic, the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office temporarily adjusted the the time clock to 79 years instead of 75 — to limit the number of people coming to crowded state facilities. Especially older people who showed greater susceptibility to the ravages of the contagion.

That became an important test of whether it is truly necessary to do what no other state requires of its 75-year-olds.

Even if that requirement is softened, Illinois will still have strict safety rules in place for older drivers. Drivers older than 79 would still have to take a test to renew their licenses, those 81 to 86 would still have to renew their licenses every two years and those older than 87 would have to do so annually.

Are there bad drivers between the ages of 75 and 79 on the road? Sure. But aging doesn’t necessarily mean your driving skills go out the window. The National Council on Aging reports, citing a 2021 study, “Today’s older Americans are healthier overall and living independently for longer.”

Statistics bear that out.

Using statistics from the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office and the Department of Transportation, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias points out that drivers older than 75 are involved in fewer crashes than almost any other age group. The truth is, age affects our reflexes, hearing, vision and ability to think quickly differently from person to person. Determining a one-size-fits-all policy on when people should be road tested is difficult to nail down.

Daily Herald Transportation writer Marni Pyke on Monday published a column that offered the thoughts of several seniors.

John Billis, 75, of Prairie View says he hasn’t gotten a parking ticket or a moving violation in about 50 years. And because of that clean driving record, “I shouldn’t have to take a test because of my age,” he said. “I’m not worried about taking a test. I can drive just about everything.

“It’s discriminatory,” he said. “It’s totally wrong.”

Older drivers tend to be less constricted by a work week and can run errands during the day. AARP Associate State Director Jeff Scott said older drivers also tend to avoid risky weather and take shorter trips. “We believe age itself does not cause car crashes,” he said.

Older drivers tend to appreciate their limitations and have a lot of experience under their belts. Eighteen-year-olds tend to have neither, and that’s probably why they experience more crashes than drivers of any other age.

As average lifespan continues its steady ascent, age seems a lot more arbitrary in many things. Illinois in 1958 required drivers to take a road test at 69 years old. Average lifespan, it should be noted, was 69 years. In 1990 the testing requirement was moved back to 75 years old. Average lifespan then was 75 years.

Today, being required to take a road test simply because you hit 69 seems preposterous. With the current requirement set at 79, it should be unsurprising that 79 is the average lifespan these days. It’s important that whatever comes next takes into account the notion that people continue to live longer. So the rules should have some elasticity.

Next year, Democratic state Rep. Joyce Mason of Gurnee intends to introduce legislation that eliminating road tests for seniors to put Illinois on even footing with the remaining 49 states.

Data collected in the last couple of years clearly supports the softening of age restriction from 75 to 79 years. But in the event Illinois is actually in the right to stand alone in its requirement of some required testing, it’s important that the focus remains on the statistics as time goes on. It would be difficult to put the genie back in the bottle if Illinois were to stop mandatory road tests, but if it were to ease its foot off the gas slowly the numbers will tell us whether it’s a sound decision.