Yes, we're an aging society in Canada as elsewhere in the developed Western world. Although seniors pack senior residences and long-term care facilities, finding it difficult to perform once-ordinary tasks of self-care, we are reluctant to surrender our agency in the use and ownership of the single most important element of independence; our vehicles.

In Ontario, drivers, before renewing their motor vehicle licenses as their 80th birthday approaches are informed that they must attend a regularly-scheduled group session with others identified as being in their date-of-birth cohort to listen to a lecture on driving and the responsibilities inherent with the active use of a vehicle, and to be assessed through a number of tests; eyesight and cognitive function primarily, before being given a clean bill of slate and permitted to proceed with their driver's renewal.


When my husband attended the session he was notified by the Motor Vehicle Licensing body that he would be expected to be part of yesterday morning, he saw around him fifteen to twenty others, men and women, who were determined to continue driving as he was and for obvious reasons. He is in good health, has no difficulty in any of the areas of concern to authorities; physically active, mentally alert, eyesight barely changed since his 40s, in contrast to many there who were visibly infirm.

This would be the first of presumably many such sessions, taking place every two years after age 80 that Ontario drivers must accustom themselves to. Some of those present at the session my husband attended had been through the process before. Those present were encouraged to sit at small tables in groups, to while the time through the lengthy hour-and-a-half process after the introductory lecture, by speaking to one another. Some did communicate genially, others were loathe to communicate with one another, and simply did not.

There was the eyesight test, administered singly by the lone motor license employee in charge of the session. And there were two simple cognitive tests designed by specialists in Alzheimer's and dementia, to determine the state of an individual's mental capabilities, and to weed out any whose capacity might be seen to be failing. Obviously, there was no test for reactive capability.

One test asked the participants to draw a clock face and have it  read ten to eleven, while the other presented a number of lines of capital letters, where all the "H" letters were to be identified and crossed out. The culmination of the session was a brief personal interview when each of those present was given an envelope not to be opened, but to be presented upon applying for license renewal.

Each of those present, despite some people appearing frail and having obvious mobility constraints, were informed they had passed, and would be enabled to renew their motor vehicle operator's license. In the event, however, that a pass was not achieved, the individual had the option to retake the test on another occasion. And as well a number of other options exist to give the opportunity to the individual to make every effort to obtain a pass.

Interestingly, the lecturer-tester, had been trained and on the job for just a year. During that time, she informed her audience, she had seen one 108-year-old Ontario driver who passed the test. And during that year, she had been exposed to about ten drivers over age 100 who had also passed the test and all consequently, were active drivers, presumably. And her experience reflected just one small part of Ontario....