Before the renewal of the driver's license, old people have to attend a class held at a near driving school for old people. If only the old people attend the class, regardless of the degree of understanding, a sheet of certificate is given. When the old people go to the license center of the police and submit the certificate and old driver's license, the driver's license is renewed.
Japanese Edition
Renewal of Driver's License
Because I had heard "The dementia inspection begins from this year," I was afraid of attendance to this class. But I was able to escape from the inspection by the difference of a month. The dementia inspection began on June 1 of this year but I needed to attend the class on the end of April.The contents of the class were as follows;
- Driving on the test course in the driving school.
- Measurement of the operator's response quickness and accuracy used a simple car simulator.
- Eyes examination with a special instrument like a pair of binoculars.
- Education using the DVD which explains about the senior citizen's typical bad driving.
Driving: I followed the instructor's instructions, and drove a car. He commented on my driving that "You have characteristics of old people"; your neck rotations at the right and left confirmation were too little, and your confirmation of road signs were uncertain.
Mesurement of response and eyes inspection: In the most of items, my ability was graded average of the common old people or better than the average.
(the old people's "average" is equal to the young people's "below the average.")
But I often overlooked signs on the periphery of screen. And the recovery speed of my eyesight, when the light screen changed suddenly to dark, was abnormally slow. I was graded "the worst" as the old people.
DVD: As the summary of the class, this DVD was good.
The car driving, response measurement, eyes inspection, and the DVD pointed out the causes which I had been vaguely feeling the decrease of my driving ability.
After returning home: I looked back at my daily life. I found that I was consuming most of my time with walking, and watching TV and computer screens, and reading newspaper. Driving was only one hour per a week at the most. This life must narrow my field of view. When walking, I watch at my feet carefully not to stumble and fall down. I cannot move my neck. When watching a screen, I do not move my neck and eyes almost. I only gaze at the narrow newspaper or screen. I pay no attention to the wide periphery of them. So I have to try to move my neck and eyes everyday to widen my field of view.At the same time, I have to improve the speed of my judgment when my field of view has become wide. The quickest and easiest way to improve those abilities is to drive on the street frequently. But I cannot do so, because I do not know whether the frequent driving will reduce or increase the probability of the traffic accident generally.To tell the truth, I want to stop driving. But I live in a town which has the poor public transportation system. If I stop driving, I will be isolated from the world. So the development of the old people-friendly public transportation system or the vehicle is desirable. At least the development of a high grade car simulator is desirable to train the old frequently. I hope that the software will be provided at free on the internet, and the equipment will be sold at cost.
uploaded June 9, 2009