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Senior class

Karl Herrmann, left, listens as instructor Marvin Christoph, not pictured, talks about his experiences with aggressive drivers during the AARP driver safety class at Central Grange last month. The program is a two-day class which focuses on age-related driving problems. (Liz Kishimoto / The Spokesman-Review)
Steve Christilaw Correspondent
Karl Herrmann, left, listens as instructor Marvin Christoph, not pictured, talks about his experiences with aggressive drivers during the AARP driver safety class at Central Grange last month. The program is a two-day class which focuses on age-related driving problems. (Liz Kishimoto / The Spokesman-Review)

It’s a time-honored rite of passage – much anticipated by youngsters and occasionally dreaded by parents. It’s the driver’s license, our passport to personal locomotion, our preferred mode of personal identification and the key to the open road. At age 16 we test both our knowledge of the rules of the road and our ability to pilot a motor vehicle, pay a fee and are given a plastic card that gives us permission to drive. For the rest of our lives, as long as we do not commit a major infraction, we are allowed to renew that license by passing a simple eye examination.

While the license remains the same, the vehicles we drive evolve over the years.

Which is what brings Marvin Christoph out to meet groups of senior drivers around the Inland Northwest, teaching an eight-hour driver safety class, spread out over two days, designed by the American Association of Retired Persons. Through the course he takes attendees through a frank discussion of such issues as road rage and driving distractions, and discusses things that can be done to avoid accidents.

“If you stop and think about it, a lot of things have changed since we first got our licenses,” Christoph said. “It’s good to get a refresher. We go over basic road rules and talk about some of the new things that we didn’t have when we took our driver’s tests.

“One of the things we talk about is the fact that, as we get older, our reaction times get slower and our vision and our hearing start to go. We talk about the things we can do to compensate and stay safe when we’re on the road.”

The list of new things with which drivers must deal is long.

A retirement-age driver today has seen car design go from the fin-crazed 1950s to the popularity of the behemoth Hummer, from the standard station wagon to the SUV. They’ve seen both the Volkswagen Beetle and the Ford Mustang introduced, turn into a classic and be reborn. They’ve gone from the age of chrome to the age of the crumple zone.

In their driving lifetime they have seen the advent of air bags, anti-lock brakes and the automatic transmission as standard equipment. They’ve witnessed compact and subcompact cars, cruise control and the evolution of the car stereo from AM to 8-track to cassette tape and CD. They’ve gone from the dome light to the idiot light to halogen headlight, from the advent of seat belts to the age of seat warmers and from the first days of having a dashboard clock to having On Star at your fingertips.

They’ve seen the expansion of the interstate highway system and the invention of drive-up windows. They’ve gone from a time where a dollar’s worth of gas could get you by for a week to a day when a dollar won’t buy you a half-gallon of regular unleaded.

The number of seniors driving has increased steadily over the past 25 years, according to AARP statistics. In 2003 one driver in seven was age 65 or older. By 2029, when the last of the baby boomers reaches 65, the percentage will be one in four.

Even though the audience all qualified for senior citizen status, Christoph took time to discuss the proper use of child restraints and car seats.

“I need to know about that,” Bonnie Reed said. “I’m through grandkids and on to great-grandkids. It’s good to know these things.”

The course offers practical advice, with discussions ranging from the proper way to employ anti-lock brakes (“Stomp, stay and steer,” Christoph said. “Stomp on the brakes, stay on them and keep steering. Do not pump the brakes on these new systems.”) to simple things a driver can do, just in case.

“One of the things we discussed was putting together a list of the different medications you take and carrying that with you in the car,” Evelyn Cooper said. “That made sense to me. If you’re unconscious, that can be the only way the doctors are going to know what you’re taking. In my case, I’m a diabetic, and that would be important for them to know.”

Christoph had his students compile lists of items they would like to have on their next vehicle.

A popular item on most lists was a global positioning system system.

“I want one of those,” Reed said. “It’ll save marriages! We won’t have to fight over stopping and asking for directions.”

One of the final items on Christoph’s syllabus is a frank discussion of retirement – not from work, but from driving.

“We’re all, hopefully, going to get to a time and a place where it’s just not safe for us to drive any more,” he explained. “We talk about the signs we need to recognize when that time comes.”