When it comes to driving as you age, we have good news and bad news.

Let’s start with the bad news first. AAA reports that:

• 50 percent of the middle-aged population and 80 percent of people in their 70s suffer from arthritis (crippling inflammation of the joints), which makes turning, flexing and twisting painful.
• Weaker muscles, reduced flexibility and limited range of motion restrict senior drivers’ ability to grip and turn the steering wheel, press the accelerator or brake, or reach to open doors and windows.
• More than 75 percent of drivers age 65 or older report using one or more medications, but less than one-third acknowledged awareness of the potential impact of the medications on driving performance.
• Per mile traveled, fatal crash rates increase beginning at age 75 and rise sharply after age 80. This is mainly due to increased risk of injury and medical complications rather than an increased tendency to get into crashes.
• Since older drivers are more fragile, their fatality rate is 17 times higher than that of 25- to 64-year-olds.
• In 2009, 33 million licensed drivers were over age 65 — a 20 percent increase from 1999. And by the year 2030, 70 million Americans in the US will be over age 65 — and 85 to 90 percent of them will be licensed to drive.

Now the good news!

Many car makers are responding to an aging population by offering new features that might keep you on the road more comfortably and longer. Just remember to find a car that fits your frame, needs, and budget. Here are a few features to consider:

• Forward auto-breaking: this is designed to take over and automatically apply the brakes to help avoid or lessen a crash if the driver is not responding quickly enough.
• Blind spot/lane departure warning: in the former, cameras or sensors keep an eye on the area alongside the vehicle and will alert the driver to the presence of other cars he or she might not otherwise be able to locate. The latter keeps an electric eye on lane markers and sounds an alert if the vehicle is inadvertently drifting across them.
• Adaptive cruise control: just like the old cruise control, but with the added feature to enable a car to maintain both a set speed and safe distance from the car ahead, slowing down and speeding up automatically as necessary.
• Adaptive headlamps: high-intensity headlamps that pivot in conjunction with the car’s steering angle to more effectively light the way through curves.
• Automatic day/night mirrors: auto-dimming rear view and side mirrors that can help minimize glare while driving after dark.
• Extendable sun visors: a simple feature that helps prevent glare from the sun, and can assist with an otherwise slow recovery from excessive brightness.
• GPS navigation system: one big advantage is that GPS devices don’t rely on a data connection to plot a route. Good quality GPS units have better onscreen directions, especially at tricky interchanges, and they have more precise voice directions.
• Self-parking system: automatically steers the vehicle into a suitably-sized parallel parking space (some systems also work with perpendicular spaces) — all the driver has to do is modulate the brake pedal and shift gears.
• Parking aids: starting later in 2018, rear backup cameras will be required in most new vehicles, and they’re an important safety feature for drivers of all abilities. Be sure the display is large enough to be sufficiently legible and the image won’t get washed out in bright sunlight.
• Digital speedometer display: a growing number of models now offer a head-up display that projects the vehicle’s speed (and sometimes other information) onto the windshield in the driver’s line of sight.
• Heated steering wheel and seats: helps those suffering from arthritis pain and stiffness. For everyone else, this remains a decadent winter-climate option.

If you want to continue driving as long as possible, there are many great options to help you do so safely, as outlined above. So, don’t fret — go for a drive!

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