TRANSPOREG

CHALLENGES
AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR
SENIOR CITIZEN DRIVERS:
SOME POLICY OPTIONS

Jabulani Mzaliya
Disclaimer:

This discussion paper was developed for the transport family. It does not have any bearing
on the policy intentions of the Department of Transport or of government but is used as a
stimulus to raise the issues of the elderly drivers and their safety on South African roads.

First published in 2018 by

Jabulani Mzaliya
DIRECTOR
TRANSPOREG
PostNet Suite 117
Private Bag X121
Halfway House
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0829060890
Email: JMzaliya@gmail.com
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All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without written permission from the copyright holder.

ii
“In all this and in the lack of respect their families show them, there is only one thing to
blame; and that is not their old age, Socrates, but their character. For if men are sensible
and good-tempered, old age is easy to bear: if not, youth as an age is a burden.”

Cephalus to Socrates on the latter’s question of what it is like to grow old.

From Plato’s The Republic

iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1
2. VISION .................................................................................................................... 9
3. MISSION ................................................................................................................. 9
4. PRINCIPLES ........................................................................................................... 9
5. OBJECTIVES OF THE POLICY ......................................................................... 10
6. STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS ............................................................................. 10
7. A STRATEGIC IMPERATIVE ............................................................................ 14
8. MANDATES AND OTHER POLICIES .............................................................. 17
9. SCOPE OF THE POLICY .................................................................................... 19
10. URGENCY OF THE POLICY.............................................................................. 23
11. STATISTICS ......................................................................................................... 24
12. THE STATUS QUO ANALYSIS ......................................................................... 26
13. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS ............................................................... 35
14. LINKING WITH EXISTING PROGRAMMES ................................................... 36
15. THE BENEFITS OF THIS POLICY .................................................................... 37
16. POLICY OPTIONS ............................................................................................... 38
17. WAY FORWARD ................................................................................................. 58
18. BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................. 60

iv
FOREWORD

The democratization of South Africa has led to South Africa being a victim of its successes. Many
unintended consequences force her to react to the new challenges. One such challenge is the
growth of the elderly population as a result of better medicine, improved health care and a
comprehensive social security system.
This is leading to a concept of the “squaring of the population.” As the senior citizen
population grows, we are faced with a prospect of many of the elderly drivers being in the road
network at the same time as their ability to drive, through the uncontrollable process of ageing, is
reducing.
Ageing is a given natural phenomenon. We all know that we will age one day. We need to
prepare, through forward policy planning, for this eventuality. We must do so in a manner that is
not discriminatory to integrate the elderly as equals into our South African society.
In most transport jurisdictions where senior citizen drivers have been raised, there have been
robust debates about the need for appropriate policy and strategies. The draft policy document is
to encourage public discourse. The trajectory to take will be informed by a consultative process
that will involve primarily, the senior citizens, organizations of and for senior citizens.
At a secondary level, all the service providers, traffic officials, sister Government departments,
caregivers, medical practitioners, family members, younger drivers, aspirant drivers, public
transit officials etc., all must have a say in how we deal with this particular challenge of senior
citizen drivers.
We are alive to the idea that senior citizens are a broader debate. What looks to be an isolated
case on the surface, has deep roots in the manner that we, as a nation, deal with older persons
based on respect and honour that they deserve.
The debate that we wish to raise may seem premature as there are many other pressing societal
issues that we are deeply seized with. The length of time that the debate will take is a prerequisite
for a broader consensus.
There should also be a long leg for appropriate planning before the implementation of the
policy if there is a national consensus on this issue. Included in this planning, are the infrastructure
planning and budgetary planning. Above all these plannings should be psychological planning,
meaning that there should be conscientization to all drivers that the time for hanging up the cars
keys will come one day.
Ageing and senior citizenship are not the domain of only the Department of Transport (DOT).
The intention of releasing this discussion document is to invite in government, civil society and
labour. It is also to alert the private sector to the intentions of government in relation to our ageing
populations.
There is no way in which the elderly will all be removed from the road network. The DOT
and its traffic law enforcers state categorically that no age group should claim a monopoly of the
road network. We aim to facilitate the use of the road network by all qualifying users. The
processes in place for traffic law enforcement is concerned, will continue so that an impression
of a vacuum is not created.
The multi-disciplinary involvement of various stakeholders in the senior citizen debates has
taken into account that it is a social, technology, transportation, medical, health as well as a town
planning issue.
It is hoped that after the inputs of all these important stakeholders, our senior citizens will
justifiably reap the benefits of our democratic state and that they shall not continue to be confined
in their houses. Like all citizens, they have the right to mingle with others, to visit their friends,
to attend to their pursuits and be full participants in the greater South African community.
There will be an accelerated improvement of the public transport system, such that in all modes
of transport, the senior citizens feel they are accommodated. Safety, accessibility and affordability

v
will always drive the agenda for mass transportation. Technology and its ease of use and freedom
of modal choice shall be at the centre of these improvements.
I urge all our partners and fellow South Africans to enrich this worthwhile debate. Our senior citizens
cannot afford to wait.

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ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

AAA American Automobile Association

AASA Automobile Association of South Africa
ABS Advanced Braking System
AGILE Aged People Integration Mobility, Safety, Quality of Life
Enhancement through driving.
AIDS Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome
APDP Automotive Production Development Programme
BAC Blood Alcohol Concentration
BE Built Environment
BRT Bus Rapid Transit
CBO Community Based Organization
COTO Committee of Transport Officials
DAT Dementia of the Alzheimer Type
DENOSA Democratic Nurses Association of South Africa
DHS Department of Human Settlements
DoL Department of Labour
DOT Department of Transport
DSD Department of Social Development
DSR Department Of Sports and Recreation
DTI Department of Trade and Industry
EXCO Executive Committee
FAQs Frequently Asked Questions
FAR False Alarm Rates
FL and CD Freight Logistics and Corridor Development
FS Financial Services
GAO General Accounting Office
GIS Geographic Information Systems
GPS Geographic Positioning System
HFE Human Factor Ergonomics
HIV Human Immuno Virus
HPCSA Health Professionals Council Of South Africa
HRSC Human Sciences Research Council
HUD Head Up Display
HVAC Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning
IGR Intergovernmental Relations
IPIC Integrated Planning and Intersphere Co-ordination,
IQ Intelligence Quotient
IT Information Technology
ITS Intelligent Transport System
JAMA Japanese Automobile Manufacturers
JRA Johannesburg Roads Agency
MASA Medical Association of South Africa

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MBD Municipal Demarcation Board
MEC Member of the Executive Council
MFMA Municipal Financial Management Act
MIDP Motor Industry Development Programme
MIG Municipal Infrastructure Grant
MINMEC Minister and Members of the Executive Councils
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MMI Multi-media interface
MR Miss Rates
MRC Medical Research Council
MS Management Services
MSA1 Municipal Structures Act
MSA2 metropolitan statistical area
MTIS Major Transportation Investment Study
MVTC Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes.
NAASA National Automobile Association of South Africa
NEDLAC National Economic Development and Labour Council
NEV Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle
NHTS National Household Travel Survey
NIMSS National Injury Mortality Surveillance System
NLTA National Land Transport Act
NPTR National Public Transport Regulator
NUMSA National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa
ODG Office of the Director-General
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
OEM original equipment manufacturers
OTC Over-the-counter
PCOT Portfolio Committee on Transport
PIG Provincial Infrastructure Grant
PMG Parliamentary Monitoring Group
POV Privately-Owned Vehicles
PPV Positive Predictive Values
PRASA Pubic Rail Authority of South Africa
PRT perception reaction times
PT Public Transport
QDC Quality Driving Circles
RAL Roads Agency Limpopo
RTMC Road Traffic Management Corporation
SA Situational Awareness
SADC South African Development Community
SAHRC South African Human Rights commission
SANC South African Nursing Council
SANRAL South African National Roads Agency Limited
SAOPF South African Old Person’ Forum

viii
StatsSA Statistics South Africa
SUV Sports Utility Vehicle
TAFTA The Association For The Aged
TAs Transport Authorities
TAZ Transport Area Zone
TDA Transport Data Act
TDM Travel Demand Management
TP&ER Transport Policy and Economic Regulation
TRAII Transport Regulation Accident and Incident Investigation
TRB Transportation Research Board
UCT University of Cape Town
UFOV Useful Field of View
USA United States Of America
VMS Variable Message Sign

ix
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

We have raised the complex nature of the transport enterprise, which requires careful
planning. We argue about the converging discourses which would require closer
cooperation and a multi-focused approach on the policy of senior citizen drivers.
We have elevated this convergence to the technological arena where we suggest that
technology should be able to solve the structural (mechanical), vehicle modifications as
well as the information systems to bring about successful implementation of the policy
proposal on senior citizen drivers in our road network.
The policy discussion document is aimed at addressing the demographic revolution
which sees the growth of senior citizen drivers in our road network. Longer and more
fulfilling lifestyles cause the growth as opposed to the previous generations.
We admit, upfront, that the policy proposal will not solve all the problems in one go. It
will not be a silver bullet for all the challenges the elderly face on the road network. It is
aimed at changing the culture against the abuse of the senior citizen drivers in our road
network.
Such a change of culture will not be achieved overnight. The policy discussion document
is presaged on the five noble principles of fairness, protection, equality, accessibility and
partnerships. We add to these a new area of intergenerational connectivity and inclusivity
which has hitherto been ignored in most intellectual discourses.
The objectives of the policy discussion document are to encourage family members, to
persuade civil engineers, to alert traffic officers, to forewarn treasury authorities, to
introduce gerontological discourses and to facilitate easier use of the road network by the
elderly drivers.
The suggested policy, on its own, may not achieve its total objectives but it shall kickstart
this crucial debate. The policy does not wish to let the younger drivers off the hook but
argues that if the elderly drivers are properly catered for in our road network, there shall be
all-round benefits for all road users.
The policy objectives cannot be achieved without the full involvement of all the
stakeholders. These range from the understanding of this challenge by all South Africans.
The key stakeholders would be, among others, the organizations for and of the elderly,
political and social activists, motor vehicle manufacturers, the medical and health fraternity,
government departments, traffic officials, licensing officials and the soon to be established
National Public Transport Regulator (NPTR).
We are adamant that the introduction of such a policy is driven by the strategic
imperative of accepting mobility and transport that supports it as a 21st-century reality. In
the absence of early warning systems and a lack of proper identification mechanism of the
elderly drivers on the road, there is no need for a discriminatory and unconstitutional
targeted approach.
As the elderly grow older, they are also saddled with new responsibilities, such as
grandparenting. The policy will assist all stakeholders and service providers in the senior
citizens’ sector to plan with the certainty of policy rather than the confusion that is
engendered by its absence and the obfuscation around it.
There should be a consideration for the access of the elderly throughout the built
environment. The main aim of the policy is to create “a better life for all” as all government
programmes enjoin all departments of state to pursue.
We have highlighted the need for accurate data and statistics as they are crucial for
proper planning and policy-making. We raise other issues as part of our status quo analysis,
such as the time of day where most accidents happen; the types of roads which most senior
citizen drivers use; the changing geographical landscape which presents new challenges to
the familiar surroundings the elderly drivers are used to the new traffic signs which are
confusing the elderly drivers, the role that should be played by the physicians, new

x
environmental issues, cognitive degeneration, the telltale signs to warn the family members
and other issues.
There will be enormous benefits when the policy is implemented. At the top will be the
integration of the senior citizens within their communities. If there are fewer vehicles on
the road, there will be all round savings on the energy (fuel) demand as well as savings from
reduced traffic delays and congestions.
We argue that the successful implementation of this policy will occur only when local
government drives it. Cooperation and information sharing among local municipalities is
crucial. There should be clear lines of responsibility among the three spheres of government
to avoid confusion.
Finally, the document raise some of the policy options for consideration and these range
from road and vision testing; age limitation; car-pooling and share-riding; mobility and
ability matrices; driving times limitations; vehicle modification and new technologies;
accelerated license renewals; travel demand management; intergovernmental relations;
counseling; re-education and retraining; reporting by third parties such as family members
and doctors; “lights-on” policy; shopmobility; and voluntarism among others. We have also
raised other policy considerations from a nontransport perceptive, but whose consideration
will assist in strengthening this policy.

xi
1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Before we start…….

Transport is taken for granted but it is a complex challenge which requires careful planning
at an infrastructural and usage levels, the provision of the necessary personnel to monitor
the movement of traffic as well as the provision of the necessary budgets. However, all
these cannot be undertaken without the enunciation of a clear policy about why, how and
when they can be achieved.
There are independent processes involved in transport. The malfunction of one process
can scupper the system. Solutions can be suggested, but there should be a careful
consideration that one solution does not lead to problems in another area of the road
network administration. For example, road widening can be a solution to congestion, but
during construction, logjams and congestion result, which present their own set of problems
and challenges.
Once a particular road has been widened, drivers are “invited” to speed, which in turn
causes more traffic accidents. Once a road has been improved, it will attract more users,
which also presents its own set of problems. In the development of this policy suggestion,
we are alive to these complexities.
Segmentation of the driving population or road users in any scientific fashion is a
challenge that most transport authorities and jurisdictions are constantly debating. The task
we are about to undertake is not scientific.
Debates are robust when it comes to the compartmentalization of road users, with the
underlying tones that the compartmentalization is to benefit one set of users against the
others.
Human behaviour is currently a led cause of road fatalities as per the road accident
statistics from 2015 to date. During the 2016/17 festive period, human factor contributed
75.5% on fatalities.
The policy discussion document deals with human beings whose attitudes, approaches
and behaviours cannot be guaranteed with the context of personality that includes character,
morality, conscience, social intelligence, education and emotions amongst others.
For the policy to work, we must advise on the mistake of treating senior drivers as if
they were still in their forties and fifties when they are well into their seventies and eighties.
In the same way, there is much sense in not treating teenage drivers as if they are in their
thirties and forties. Government must devise policies and strategies that respond to each of
these age groups.
From 2015, the Department has established provincial and National Youth Structures to
deal with the ever-increasing road accidents with the youth contributing the highest number
of road fatalities. The Youth structures are informed by an international Structure called
“YOURS”.
These elderly drivers compete with many others on the road network. In the 2015/2016
financial year, there were about 11 818 34 registered vehicles in South Africa, which is 22
vehicles per 100 people.
There are about 168 000 km of urban roads; 366 872 km of non-urban. 2400 of these
roads are tolled. The total length of proclaimed roads in South Africa is 535 000 km. 1 These
figures should take into account that some roads are still unproclaimed.
Any policy development on the road network has to consider the growing number of
accidents on the road. Policies should primarily aim at reducing these accidents. As a

1
South Africa Survey 2017. Institute For Race Relations.

1
category of non-natural deaths, transport accidents account for 1.3%% as a proportion of
total deaths. This means in 2014, 5926 people died in transport accidents. The numbers are
themselves contested.2
In the development of this policy discussion document, there are strategies and
implementation imperatives that shall arise to benefit all age groups.
If the scene of injury analyses injuries, the road network accounts for the majority of
deaths. Added to the deaths should be the deaths of the senior citizen drivers not because
they are drivers, but because they belong to the other categories of road users, such as
passengers and pedestrians.
According to the Organization Of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Report, Ageing and Transport, there is anecdotal evidence that the elderly drivers are “not
risky”, but they are “at risk.”
The difference between the two is that senior citizens drivers tend to be safer, but their
frailty and age-related declines of functionality and cognitive abilities and physical
strengths make them vulnerable to personal injury or death in a crash.
Convergence has to take into consideration the following:
In the first instance of partnering, policy formulations in a world of converging
discourses, discourses are gravitating towards the same complexities. In developing this
policy proposal, we were not unmindful of the incorporation of all those areas that had not
traditionally belonged to transport.
In the traditional transport policy arena, society as interested and affected parties, labour
and implementing agencies at the coalface of policy decisions and the elite groups, for and
by whom, policies were generated, are falling into one zone of convergence.
The policy proposal seeks to bring business, government and civil society together as
equal partners and as a triumvirate of implementation. With the triumvirate in place, it will
be the DOT’s decision whether this document should serve in National Economic
Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) process.
The second of these convergences is the scholarly and academic disciplines.
Traditionally, transport policy analyses were about roads, civil engineering, bridges,
vehicles, enforcement and drivers.
Philosophy, psychiatry, geriatrics, geography, economics, medicine, sociology and
others which were far divorced from transport, have made their intrusion and are now
welcome additions. The disciplines or sub-disciplines make the field of transportation
relevant to the 21st-century life and exciting, but equally accommodating.
Of importance in the evolution of this policy, the proposal is the Study of Aging3 and
how it should be related to transportation. Human rights are part of the argument that makes
its intrusion into this policy as it relates to the rights of the senior citizens to drive if they
can do so. Like all rights, it is accompanied by responsibilities.
The third of these convergences is around a multi-focused approach to address
challenges of the elderly drivers. Knitted into the policy proposal are the non-transport
benefits of the policy, such as those that pertain to the social security system, housing,
public health and the need for accurate information.
Regarding information, suggestions for statistics and the parameters of these are
suggested throughout this paper. Arguments and studies around elderly drivers cannot be
longitudinal. They must be flexible enough to deal with the concerns of other drivers in the
policy continuum of formulation, implementation and review.

2
Ibid.
3
For the purposes of this document the theoretical aspects of Ageing are not be discussed, but the
interested people are directed among others to Best, B. Mechanisms Of Ageing at
www.bebest.com/lifeext/aging.html
2
 The last of these convergences resides in the technological arena. As it pertains to
transport, we provide a combination of mechanical, fuel and information technologies as
some of the solutions that should be looked into in addressing the mobility needs of the
senior citizens and senior citizen drivers in particular.
These technologies should be garnered to achieve improvements in road construction
and vehicle design. The question of information and communication is a key element, as
these sit side-by-side with transportation. It is impossible to have seamless transportation
systems without reliable communication strategies to back them up.
The rest of this document will be a combination of the roles of the academic arguments
spanning as many academic disciplines. To give effect to the policy proposal the interface
between business labour and government, the integration of transport into the health and
the social security systems, the optimization of technologies for both vehicle design and
communication purposes, shall be highlighted.

1.2 A Demographic Revolution

As the number of the elderly population grows because they are living longer, many elderly
drivers are continuing with their driving even when their ability to do so is getting
diminished.
Longer life is a function of improved medicine, long-term post-retirement planning and
the growing number of senior citizens in the social security net, meaning that they take care
of their lives better than they counterparts did in the past.
The Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964 turned 65 or thereabouts in 2010. The
lived better lives and looked after their health better than their previous generations. They
added to the ageing drivers on our road network. Policy should be made now to
accommodate them.
The Baby Boomers’ lives was characterized by fun-loving. This fun was mediated and
continued to be mediated through the independence provided by motor vehicles and some
or other form of mobility. They were often referred to as the automobile generation with
their lives predicated on “automobility.”
More of them are driving themselves in the road network. Their presence on the road
alerts policy-makers to reverse the old myths about the old people dying peacefully and
silently as a matter of a human life cycle.
The document may be a policy response too early, considering that the demographic
numbers of the elderly in South Africa are low compared to other transport jurisdictions.
South Africa, like many other countries of a similar size and economy, is facing a
demographic revolution.
The neglect of the discourse on gerontology and ageing in South Africa has been
occasioned by the short focus on the elderly only when the Minister of Finance announces
a raise in their social grants and pensions.
There is one academic department concerned with ageing. The Albertina and Walter
Sisulu Institute of Ageing in Africa (IAA). It was established at the University of Cape
Town in April 2001. The institute incorporates the University’s Division of Geriatric
Medicine, the Neurosciences, Neuropsychology, Old Age Psychiatry and a Gerontology
Programme.
There are new areas of study that can be explored, such as gerontology, ergonomics and
ergonomics engineering, automotive sociology and many others. The new disciplines will
shift the transport discourse beyond the ordinary which has been dominated by Transport
Economics, emphasizing Supply Chains and Logistics limited to a few universities and
technikons.
Transport studies have always emphasized roads, cars and trains, aeroplanes and ships
and bridges. They have never concerned themselves with people in transport. The policy
should support the initiative of the RTMC in collaboration with the Tshwane University on
the NQF 6 Qualification on Traffic Law Enforcement.
3
 The timing has to be perfect but avoid political point scoring. The domination of the
senior citizen driving by elderly White males can be turned around to reflect the present.
Resistance from this “loss of power” is expected.
Many post-1994 policy changes have faced similar resistance. There were unnecessary
racialized disagreements with the introduction of the new bar-coded ID, with the new
licensing system for firearms, with the new drivers’ licenses, with land distribution, with
new labour laws.
There are so many vested interests in the old order, even when the suggested policy
changes are for the good of the new nations. Disagreements need engagement between
opposing groups. Engagement should not be avoided for fear of rejection. Rejection is part
of the discourse in a democracy.
The interaction that should be borne in mind when discussing this policy paper is the
interaction between two “revolutions”. The demographic revolution should not lose sight
of the democratic revolution. One should not be achieved and sustained at the expense of
the other.

1.3 The Working Aged

As people live longer, employers are looking to senior citizens as a major group in the
labour pool because of their experience. They are a small fraction regarding numbers of the
workforce. They prefer to work part-time. They are already pensioned, their salaries are
lower than other age groups.
The elderly who work need transportation. Statistics which will indicate the numbers of
the elderly who are still employed and their median incomes are crucial. This could be done
either as a stand-alone collection, or it should be added to future National Household Travel
Surveys (NHTS).
Linked to the statistics of the median incomes is an understanding of how many elderly
live in poverty. Poverty is related to being old and having no fixed income.
Within the well-being of the senior citizens, there should be some measures put in place
to reassure the working aged that there are no pressures to push them off the employment
table, to make space for the younger generations.
The Department of Labour (DoL) should consider assisting the aged through some ring-
fencing of their employment, however temporary it may be.
The working-aged continue to work because they fear that they will outlive their assets
and that they want to continue living their independent lives. They want to deal with the
trauma theory of retirement where the loss of a job, or being unemployed, is a degrading
experience.
The underplayed factor in the senior citizen workers wanting to return to work has been
the rising costs of healthcare. This issue is raised despite the earlier assertions that improved
medical care has led to their longevity.
Medical care has improved, it comes at a cost that many senior citizens who had not
prepared for it cannot afford it. Poverty is dire for those who did not save for later life, who
now rely on the benevolence of their children and relatives.
The implications for income adequacy have a direct impact on how the senior citizens
live their lives. Their reliance on cheaper forms of transportation, either their own or state
provided, should be part of this policy document.
There is pressure on the State to close the gaps caused by the brain drain and skills flight
as a result of globalization among other things. One solution to plug the gap includes re-
recruiting the retired personnel back into service. Re-recruiting will require the State to
address the mobility needs of the senior citizens who are so re-recruited.
If the State takes this route, it should not be seen out of the context of the responsibility
of the state to those senior citizens to find road network conditions and public transport
facilities which accommodate them.

4
 In this analysis of the working aged, it should include those senior citizens who continue
to work on their own or family businesses, including at the higher end of the employment
spectrum, such as the CEOs and company directors whose experience is needed to continue
running the family businesses.
The working aged include those senior citizens who take up temporary employment to
supplement their meagre incomes. Others are self-employed. They need to move from one
place to another.

1.4 The Absence of Gerontological Discourses

When it pertains directly to driving and the senior citizens, the debate does not feature at
all. It only arises when an isolated incident or accident of a senior citizen driver who has
done a wrong thing in the road network.
The elderly drivers are used as scapegoats for other challenges of the transportation
system, such as delays, randomly changing lanes, pull risky manoeuvres: or there is
congestion because of an accident caused by an older model car mostly driven by a senior
citizen.
If the old model vehicle inadvertently gets stuck on the road – with old model vehicles
being related to the senior citizen drivers, the elderly driver is harassed by younger drivers
who are always in a hurry.
Building on their sense of exceptionalism, there is a wrong perception from younger
drivers that the elderly drivers have the whole day to themselves, while they, the younger
drivers, are always in a hurry.
The speed with which the elderly drivers drive is purely for caution. Younger drivers
consider it as reason enough for them (i.e. the senior citizen drivers) to be out of the road
network.
A study conducted by a British insurance company on congestion returned results which
showed that nearly 2/3rds of the 300 drivers polled believe that elderly drivers cannot cope
with modern day road conditions. As many as 49% believe that their slow and erratic
driving causes accidents.
The study was a scapegoat tactic to deal with congestion and to lay the foundation for a
congestion pricing policy. This was attested to by the insurance company itself when it
stated that:

“The impact of congestion in the UK economy regarding lost time, fuel costs, and general
stress runs to billions yet we continue to drive our cars and driver further than the rest of
Europe.”

A perusal of the Arrive Alive website, a wealth of information on transportation statistics

in South Africa (particularly the road mode), does not have much information about the
statistics on senior citizen drivers. It is hoped that once the ownership of this organization,
Arrive Alive has been sorted out, Government will have the power to direct its operations.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) has studied transport mortality rates through its
National Injury Mortality Surveillance System (NIMSS). However, the study is inadequate
to locate the debate within the seriousness it deserves.
In cooperation with these institutions, synergies between the DOT and the Medical
Research Council (MRC) to arrive at statistics and data that will permit decision-making,
are crucial.
South Africa is a developing country and has to evolve its policies along this
developmental state trajectory. There is a truth in the notion that there are parts of South
Africa which have developed world status, most notably in the urban areas and cities.
The evolution of imaginative and aspirational policies even if the beneficiaries of those
policies are few, speaks to the notion of no one being left behind.

5
 Mega- and macro-policies have been developed over the 24-year period of democracy.
There is nothing much that is going to change development-oriented policies, except for
the acceleration of implementation. We need to engage in other policies to deal with any
section of our population that is marginalised, wittingly or unwittingly.

1.5 High Mortality of Young Drivers

This demographic revolution is taking place when the younger populations are facing to
the greater extent than their elderly counterpart, debilitating infections and diseases such as
HIV/AIDs pandemics and other preventable diseases.
The notion that developing countries have a youthful population is likely to be negated
by the elderly who live longer. Population figures are growing in favour of the older
generations, in both absolute and relative terms. Future policy decisions have to
accommodate this demographic reality.
The need for a policy response should not be reactionary. It should recognize these
demographic shifts in the ages and the challenges and opportunities for our ageing
population.
The mortality rate of senior citizen drivers is not comparable to the younger drivers. The
elderly drivers drive shorter distances than other drivers. Their population figures are lower
than other age groups. There is enough reason for concern about the number of accidents
and incidents they cause in the road network.

1.6 No-Zero Sum Game

The greater portion of the document raises issues of challenges for the senior citizen drivers.
The aim is not to dismiss the presence of the senior citizen drivers in the road network. It
is to acknowledge that, if properly addressed, all senior citizens can have a welcome
presence in the road network.
This cooperation from the senior citizen drivers has to start from their acceptance that if
one of them is not fit to be on the road network, then it is in his or her benefit to be taken
out of the road system. If this is done voluntarily, all the better.
From those who think they own the road because they are “younger” drivers, there
should be acceptance of the same fate. The idea of acceptance of fate (of not being able to
drive one day) is derived from the Dr Mary Davies’s Study of Positive Ageing.
The acceptance of the inevitable (the inevitability that one day we will all have to stop
driving) can be argued on the avoidance-promotion spectrum. It is not always easy for the
elderly to accept that they may have to forego their possessions, including vehicles.
They may recognize their advanced ages, but fight to keep doing things that they used
to do at their prime age, such as driving. To them, any deprivation is seen as taking
advantage of their old age to deny them what they rightly deserve.
Instead of accepting their ageing process, the elderly deny it; instead of being
empowered, they are disempowered. Instead of accepting their individuality, they are
stereotyped. Instead of physical activity, they adopt sedentary lifestyles.
When they are expected to be in a social contract, they opt for social withdrawal. They
are psychologically stressed instead of developing coping skills. Instead of them valuing
their experience and knowledge, they overvalue paid work.
We should concede that the elderly people are stubborn, precisely because they think
that their concerns are not considered.

1.7 Monitoring and Evaluation

The concern in the monitoring traffic accident prevention on the South African road
network has been focused on the youthfulness of the population. The growing number of
6
young drivers entering the network through increased work opportunities, higher salaries
and new job categorizations has allowed them to access funding to purchase motor vehicles
far quicker and easier than their previous generations.
We should expand the focus because even if policy considerations were to adequately
make the younger drivers aware of the challenges and opportunities of the road network.
Other categories of drivers should also be aware of them.
Monitoring tools for senior citizen drivers cannot be developed easily, except to subject
them to the monitoring tools that already exist for all road users. For the draft policy to
work, the monitoring has got to be assisted by the vigilance of the relatives of the senior
citizens.
Where the senior citizens are in residences and retirement homes and residence
administrators must assume this role of monitoring and evaluation whether the senior
citizen drivers are still competent to drive on their own or not. All senior citizen residences
and retirement villages should have alternative transport systems to encourage senior
citizens to intermingle with one another.
Relatives must be advised that if they decide for their citizens to hang up the keys,
relations between them and their senior citizens will be affected. It is always a difficult
exercise to take independence away from people.
The vehicle of the senior citizen driver can be disabled through the disconnection of the
battery or leaving the lights on overnight.
There can be a downside to this if the senior citizen driver has access to the Automobile
Association (AA) and auto assist phones, some of which are provided by vehicle dealers as
part of their after-sales care and packages.
This will require even stronger measures such as eliminating total access to the vehicle.
Denying is a better option than to risk certain problems that the senior citizen drivers may
face in the road network

1.8 The Diversionary Concentration

There has been anecdotal evidence of the number of crashes that were caused by minibus
taxis and the negative attitudes towards taxi drivers. One taxi crash, accidental or in
violation, is always one crash or accident too many. The volumes of passengers transported
by mini-bus taxis per day, the number of accidents and violations can be scientifically
proven to be insignificant.
This point is mentioned purely to locate the senior citizen drivers as a topical issue in its
own right. Locating it does not mean that there should be no parallel solutions to other
challenges and opportunities in the road network.
Other road transport issues, such as the bus system, road congestion, axle loads and
others, have been dominating the transport space and national discourse. There has been
less concern with the growing number of the elderly drivers in the road network and the
challenges and opportunities that they face in the overall transportation system.
This policy paper seeks to sensitize the South African traffic authorities to the realities
the elderly drivers face in the road network and proposes solutions. Policy options should
be developed to accommodate the senior citizens in the transportation network.
Not all the elderly qualify to be in the road network as drivers of their vehicles because
of their advanced age and the metabolic effects.

1.9 Government’s Duty To Protect Citizens

Government has a specific duty to protect its citizens including protecting them from
themselves. There is an attendant need to protect pedestrians and other users impacted by
elderly drivers who are not fit to drive anymore.

7
 Included in the protection of pedestrians other senior citizen pedestrians. If a driver is a
danger to others in the road network, whether they are pedestrians or drivers, then that
driver must not be allowed to be on the road.
Their families have neglected the elderly as values of nucleated families change. Unlike
other age groups, the elderly are vulnerable. They suffer abuse, neglect, destitution,
disability and homelessness suffer at the hands of others. These vulnerabilities replay
themselves in the transportation sector as well.
If an elderly driver is involved in an incident or accident the abuse against him or her is
unlike that meted out to other age groups. The hostile behaviour that others exhibit against
elderly drivers causes them degradation. Government must protect them from themselves,
but most importantly, against others who may abuse them.

1.10 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Like all people, there are core needs that apply to the elderly as well. These are captured in
the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. These needs pertain to the need for self- fulfilment, the
needs for esteem, the need for care, affection and belonging, the need for safety and the
psychological and survival needs.
The draft policy document seeks to assist the elderly in realizing these Maslovian needs
through adequate transportation platforms.
These Maslovian needs are underpinned by freedom, independence and independent
living, self-sufficiency, being employed, fun and spontaneity as well as involvement in
social and religious activities. Senior citizens are actively involved in these pursuits.

1.11 Continuation Of The Existing Traffic Laws

The South African constitutional and legal space does not allow for a vacuum. Even when
there is a realization that current policies do not serve the current needs of the population,
if the legal instruments have not been changed to deal with them, the old ones continue to
hold.
The document proposal does not seek to replace existing traffic laws and regulations of
general application but adds to them about senior citizens drivers. The wearing of seat belts
when driving is compulsory for all drivers. The sash guide is an addition in respect of the
elderly who may find problems with wearing their seatbelts as required.
Until such time that there has been adequate consultation, refining and acceptance of
this policy proposal, all the systems in place, however inadequate, to deal with the
challenges and opportunities of the senior citizen drivers, shall remain in place.
There should be no void in the traffic enforcement environment. All sanctions that the
abrogation of traffic law in the current system shall not be delayed reversed or otherwise
adversely affected as a result of the introduction of this policy discussion document.

1.12 The Need for Policy

Policy development has not specifically addressed issues of ageing as there was a macro-
policy development process to reverse all the effects of apartheid. Policies have up to now
applied across the board, affecting all age groups. They have not been segmented to deal
with the different categories of ages.
There have been attempts to deal directly with policy affecting the rural people, as well
as women and the disabled. Issues about senior citizens take a back burner or have been
subsumed under the above general categorizations.
Senior citizens have become a motive force for responses to their needs rather than being
relegated to retirement homes. They own their houses, their vehicles and their lives. They
go to church, to shopping malls and other places of convenience.
8
 In the development of this policy the growing numbers of the elderly in our society, the
buy-in into the process by the senior citizen drivers themselves before the policy is
implemented is necessary.
If this is not done, the senior citizens and their families could be the most vocal in
defence of their right to drive. The relatives of the senior citizens and the service providers
who cater to the needs of our senior citizens must buy-in into the policy proposals.
It is under this background that this policy discussion document is being released for
further engagement. The extent of the responses to it will determine whether South
Africans, other than those directly involved, have started to embed themselves in this
“unimportant” but necessary discourse or not.
This policy proposal will have an added advantage of pro-activity rather than reactivity.
Reactive policies do not receive public rigour before implementation.
The policy would work smoothly if senior citizen drivers do not fool themselves that
they will always be driving to the best standards required by the traffic laws and regulations
and that the sooner after realizing their shortcoming, the better for them to hang up their
keys.

1.13 ……..There Is No Silver Bullet

We do not pretend that this document will, on its, own provide, all the solutions needed to
accommodate senior citizen drivers. The problem is huge. This is an attempt at chirping
away this big block of challenges and opportunities. This will require concerted efforts
from all concerned first to acknowledge that there is a problem to be addressed.
The implementation of all, or some, of policy options that shall be agreed upon, would
require co-operation across the board. The implementation process will factor in the trial
and error methods and be flexible enough to devise exit strategies if the implementation
does not achieve the required results in the allocated time.
The policy should take into cognizance the levels of development in the country’s
regions. There are also differences in affordability according to the size of each
implementing agent. The policy should allow for those municipalities or Transport Areas
to go ahead while giving space for the others to do so on an incremental basis.
The DOT should impress upon the well-performing Metros to start with implementation
because of the size of their budgets. The demographic figures should also identify the
Transport Areas with the greatest number of elderly drivers and encourage a pilot project
in those areas.

2. VISION
To be a deterrent to senior citizen drivers who are not competent, through old age, to be on
the road due to old age and reduced abilities, while providing space, safety and improved
road conditions for those who are still competent to be behind the wheel.

3. MISSION
To create a mobile senior citizenry with access to a road network that has been configured,
re-engineered and with technological inputs to allow them to move in public transport in
privately owned vehicles (POVs) to any place of their convenience.

4. PRINCIPLES
There should be a principle of fairness so that those elderly drivers who can still drive,
should not be prejudiced because of their age.
9
 There should be a principle of equality so that drivers of a particular race, gender, or
area do not receive preference over others.
The principle of intergenerational connectivity between the elderly and the younger
generation leading to better social cohesion is captured in the comparison between the
elderly and the younger drivers;
The principle of protection is invoked for the reason that the State must protect its
citizens, including protecting the citizens against themselves.
The principle of access is relevant in the sense that those elderly drivers who can still
drive are not limited by the policy to continue driving to each destination and amenities of
their choice.
The principle of partnerships is relevant in the sense that this is a multi-focused policy
bringing in the government, communities and business together to resolve the challenges
afflicting the elderly drivers.
The principle of inclusivity in the sense that the elderly and people with disabilities may
have different travel demands. Accessibility policies include all categories of people.
Transport modes should be modified in such a manner that all categories of passengers are
catered for.

5. OBJECTIVES OF THE POLICY

The objectives of the draft policy document are to facilitate the easier usage of the road
network by senior citizen drivers and to reassure them that the road network is for all.
The policy will introduce gerontological discourses within the Government
Departments and other institutions of learning so that adequate, provable research can be
embarked upon for the nation to understand the challenges faced by the elderly citizens of
our country.
The policy proposal aims to support Government to proceed with public transport
systems that will emphasize accessibility for all categories of transport users. We want to
alert town planners and building contractors to ascertain that new housing and estate
developments should encourage walkability and bikeability of environments for the elderly
to move around with minimum need for a vehicle.
The document seeks to forewarn Treasury authorities of the need to disburse sufficient
funds for Roads agencies to re-engineer their road infrastructure to cater for the needs of
the elderly.
To develop a funding mechanism that will allow the Road Agencies to operate on their
income and balance sheets to introduce these engineering issues to cater for the senior
citizen drivers.

6. STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
6.1 All South Africans

Senior citizen drivers’ debates talk about the elderly citizens who are South African citizens
and who live among South Africans. For this purpose, all South Africans should be seized
with this issue.
South Africans use the road network as passengers, as drivers, as pedestrians and as
goods and service providers. They are a core group of stakeholders who should drive this
process as the beachhead of all South Africans
The concept of all South Africans should be viewed broadly to include the elderly who
are not South Africans but who may find themselves using the road network as visitors,
conference attendees etc.

10
6.2 Political and Social Activists

The South African metamorphosis from apartheid to democracy has created a pool of
political and social activists. Now that the political objective has been achieved activists
must transcend the political terrain towards issues that afflict society – social mobilization.
It is not necessary that they should all be drawn into this discourse.
They need to continue with their core interest aggregation but to appeal to them to
include the plight of the senior citizens in general and senior citizen drivers in particular as
part of their interest mobilization.
The role of converted political activists to tackle societal issues is important for the
spreading of policies of this nature. The policy will interact with a broader section of these
activists, from the anti-crime activists to anti-adult-abuse activists gender activists. They
should be integrated into policy implementation, the monitoring and review.
To fight the abuse against the elderly, these activists could resort to other supportive
pieces of legislation which will assist in the redressing of the intimidation of the elderly.
The pieces of law are the Domestic Violence Act, Act No 116 of 1998 and well as the
Criminal Procedures Act.

6.3 Associations For and Of the Aged

The associations for the aged (TAFTAs) deal with a variety of issues affecting senior
citizens. They will be consulted on their view regarding this policy proposal. A difference
must be made between the association for the aged, that is those who cater to the needs of
the elderly citizens and the associations of the aged.
There should be acceptance of this policy from the latter first. The former could be added
in as service providers to the elderly rather than as people who are directly affected.
The success of this policy cannot be guaranteed if the senior citizens are integrated into
a representative capacity rather than in their own right. Direct engagement with the
association of rather than for senior citizens will make this policy successful. It will be
beneficial for the consultation to be done with organized than individual associations.
In its development of the Old Age Regulations, the Department of Social Development
(DSD) had a consultation with the South African Old Persons Forum (SAOPF). The DOT
should consider reviving this structure for consultations.
The inclusion of the older person forum is intended to create a continuum between what
currently exists and what is intended. There shall be an inclusion of all those issues that
were functional and effective of the South African Council for the Aged (now known as
Age-In-Action).

6.4 NAAMSA and Car Rental Companies

The National of Automobile Association of South Africa (NAAMSA) is the industry

association that sells vehicles. The draft policy calls for the modification of vehicles,
including some technological interventions to assist senior citizen drivers. Industry must
comment on it and commit these modifications.
Policy formulation in South Africa is always a long-term project. With a growing
litigious culture, courts are approached by parties that should otherwise be working
together. The time-framing for implementation will be first discussed with the association.
To spread the consultative process, car rental companies must be brought on board. By
their early engagement, they may begin to devise some modification for elderly drivers;
decide on the age of drivers they can rent cars out to and set special conditions that they
may enhance it.

11
6.5 Automotive Components and Allied Manufacturers

The National Association of Automotive Components and Allied Manufacturers must be

engaged in much the same way as NAAMSA.
The role of this particular stakeholder is important because the modifications may have
to be retrofitted. In component design, the original parts and components may have to be
changed rather than changing the whole vehicle.
Their skill, ingenuity, innovation and their labour will be employed. This category of
employers is responsible for parts that cannot be produced by the Original Equipment
Manufacturers (OEM).
Pillar 3 of the National Decade of Action on vehicle safety and makes it compulsory for
all to wear safety belts. This also seeks to address old model vehicles. All drivers have to
be alerted to the National Decade of Action.

6.6 NUMSA and other Labour Unions

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and other labour
organizations organizing in the motor industry should be part of the key stakeholders when
this policy is being developed and consulted upon. To the extent that labour is involved in
the implementation of policy, there has to be a buy-in from them for the development,
implementation, monitoring and review of this policy.
There are “overarching” labour organizations and civic service organizations which
organize in many sectors, inclusive of the automotive sectors, such as Solidarity and
AfriForum which should be consulted on the development of this policy.

6.7 Arrive Alive

We have alluded to the need for the involvement of Arrive Alive to provide reliable
statistics. There is a lot of data and statistics generated by this body, but for the challenges
to the elderly, international data rather than the South African ones are used extensively.
The statistics do not consider the peculiarity of the South African conditions.
For the statistics produced by Arrive Alive, say during the Easter seasons holidays and
festive holidays, there will be a need to disaggregation. The statistics should capture elderly
drivers. The Arrive Alive statistics website should be South Africa focused.
The Department releases its statistics for the high peak seasons compiled by the RTMC.
These are made available on the line and the RTMC website. The statistics focus on all
types of accidents, causes of accidents, time and period that the accident happened as well
age groups that are major contributors, which from 2015, elders have been increasing.
Hotspots are identified and also emerging hotspots.
Bearing in mind that the Arrive Alive is still being discussed in court and the private
sector has most control of it. It has also been disapproved of by many as a campaign that
did not have a positive impact on government.

6.8 CBOs and NGOs

Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs)

will be required to be part of the policy implementation and review. The elderly live among
them and belong to their community organizations.
The policy is about building up communities through seamless integration of the senior
citizens into the greater society. Community-Based Organizations (CBO) should, as a
matter of protocol, should be informed about its implementation and the role that they could
play in assisting senior citizen drivers.

12
6.9 Department of Social Development (DSD)

The DSD deals with the social security and development issues for a wide range of South
African including senior citizens. This policy proposal must find approval and assistance
from this Department as part of a broad-based care for the senior citizens.
As a complementary policy to those of disbursing social welfare and social benefits to
a wide variety of categories, the DOT has to work in close collaboration with DSD. Both
should facilitate access, through transportation to these services offered by the DSD under
the rubric of “Taking Government Services To Senior Citizens Programme.”

6.10 Medical and Health Associations

The roles of the Health Professionals Council of South Africa (HPCSA), the Medical
Association of South Africa (MASA), The South African Nursing Council (SANC) and the
Democratic Nurses Association of South Africa (DENOSA), singularly and jointly, are
relevant for the implementation of this policy.
For professional services, the elderly are served by professionals such as psychiatrists
and psychologists who are affiliated with the HPCSA. These professionals are a resource
to identify the weaknesses and the strength of their elderly patients around a variety of
issues. They have to be relied upon in the determination whether their patients can still
drive or not, without abrogating the confidentiality of their consultation.
Nurses are affiliated with a variety of organizations, including DENOSA but are
registered by the South African Nursing Council. Most medical practitioners and doctors
are affiliated to the Medical Association of South Africa.
The policy discussion is multi-focused. It draws on the role of the Health and physical
issues over and above those of transport. The Departments of Health (DOH) and Sports and
Recreation (DSR) will be brought into the focus for the further elaboration of this policy.
Organized private sector supporters to these departments, such as the medical associations
as well as the sports bodies, should be brought into the policy discussions.
They should be involved in all aspects of further development, review, monitoring and
implementation. Without this multidisciplinary collaboration, any meaningful
understanding of ageing is likely to be one-dimensional and misleading.

6.11 Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)

Trade in vehicles, business promotion and the Governments Motor Industry Development
Programme (MIDP), to be known as the Automotive Production Programme (APDP) from
2013 and the importation of modified vehicles have relevance to this policy. The DTI has
direct responsibility for these issues.
There is no clarity as to whether there should be a supplementary policy for the
importation of modified vehicles as there is an attendant need for the development of these
technologies within South Africa.
Should there be an overwhelming need for the consideration of this option, it will be the
prerogative of the DTI to give policy guidance.

6.12 Statistics South Africa (StatsSa)

We have indicated that there is a shortage of data and statistics when it pertains to senior
citizen drivers. Statistics South Africa is both custodians and quality controllers of statistics
and other data forms in South Africa. Population statistics and age pyramids derived from
StatsSA are important for this policy.

13
 The DOT needs to know how many people are over the driving the age of 65; how many
are in the social security system; how many of them were males and how many of them
were women and what are the projections of these for the coming years.
If there are any other sets of statistics that the DOT will self-generate or source from
other entities and sources, these be double-checked with StatsSA for veracity and accuracy.
The existing memoranda of understanding (MOU) with StatsSa should be reviewed to
avoid duplications.

6.13 National Public Transport Regulator

We have alluded to the need for the improvement of public transport to provide mode
choice for the senior citizens who can no longer drive or those who have given up their
licenses. There should be the provision of public transport even during non-peak hours as
it is during this time that most of the elderly travel.
There is a need for the mandatory provision of these services and that the transport so
provided must be usable by all categories of passengers, including the elderly.
The role of a National Public Transport Regulator (NPTR) will be crucial in enforcing
the public transport operators to provide the needed services, at the time that it is needed in
the quality that it is needed and decide on its affordability for the elderly.
The strength of the regulator, like most South African regulators, will lie in how it does
not become the dog that is wagged by the tail. Those entities that are regulated should not
be the ones who decide how they are regulated.

6.14 The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)

Since the issues of older persons and older drivers is a human rights issue, the consultations
should take place with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). The nature
of the consultation will find synergies between this policy and other policies which the
SAHRC is seized with.
The implementation of the policy shall be driven by the DOT and the other two spheres
of government. The role of the SAHRC shall be advisory.

7. A STRATEGIC IMPERATIVE
7.1 A 21st Century Necessity

Since the invention of the motor-vehicle by Henry Ford, motor vehicles have been part and
parcel of our society. Its attendant attribute, the ability to drive, has been attached to it in a
manner that it makes it mutually inclusive. The enforceability and the regulating of driving
is an offshoot of this inextricable link.
The point of departure is that until something happens, driving will be part of the 21st-
century men and women’s mobility. Many people define themselves “however
pathetically” by the vehicle they drive. If the vehicle were to be taken away, it would be
like a prison sentence for many elder drivers. Mr Joe Coughlin of Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) argued that:

“Transportation is a lot more than simply going to the store and going to the doctor’s. This
is the way we maintain the connections with all those little activities that when put together
we call life. And that transportation that driving is the glue that holds our life together.”

14
7.2 No Early Warning System

There is no early warning system to detect the ability or inability of elderly drivers to drive
beyond a certain age. We rely on the consciences of the relatives to report them. There may
voluntarily hand-over of the license by the elderly driver.
This becomes the crunch point. If the elderly are forced by their relatives to hang the
keys, they become resistant. If they are persuaded or volunteer to hang up the keys, all the
better. Relatives also hope the elders do not renew their licenses for fear of rejection.
Elderly drivers fear that if they drive they will be involved in accidents even when they
have the right to drive.
All these methodologies are not watertight and can be challenged or not adhered to by
the people concerned. The warning that can be made to implementers of the policy and the
enforcement of traffic legislation is that senior citizen drivers are not bad drivers per se.
There are other issues beyond their control which could make driving a challenge.
Policy planners need tackle those issues rather than arrive at a view that senior citizens
should not be accommodated on the road network. Some of them receive pensions and state
grants, but as shoppers, as worshippers and others, they contribute to the tax base of the
country.
They contribute to the tax revenue, bucking the myth that the tax burden falls on the
middle and the rich. They have to gain the benefits of that tax revenue by being
accommodated on the road network.

7.3 No Formal Identification System

There is no formal system which identifies the elderly who cannot be allowed on the road
and the only time that this is detected is when the driver himself or herself shows to be unfit
when stopped by traffic officers.4
There is further no obligation of the traffic authorities to stop senior citizen drivers to find
out whether they are still eligible to drive or not. If they are caught, it is in the normal
execution of traffic duties by traffic officials rather than a targeted approach.

7.4 No Targeted Approach

The targeted approach would in itself be as discriminatory as the targeted traffic policing
of the taxi industry by traffic officials. Targeting is a violation of some or other
constitutional principle. Detecting elderly drivers who should not be in the road network
because of their inability to drive without hindrance, it would be on instinct.
Targeting older model vehicles hopes that elderly drivers drive them. Age alone is not
a correct predictor for an individual, young or old or middle-aged driving ability. Related
to this is the overall rallying call – that the Roads Belong To All Who Pay Their Taxes.

7.5 Ageing In Place

The marginalization of the elderly in the post-1994 a reversal of the human relationships
of deference and respect that was accorded to the elderly. To the extent that we have not
largely integrated them into society, there should be circumspect consideration of how they
can be integrated into the post-apartheid society.

4
Traffic officers in this case shall refer to all officers, be they inspectors of licenses, examiners of
vehicles, examiners for driving licenses, traffic officers and traffic wardens as envisaged in Section
1 of the National Road Traffic Act of 1996.
15
 The unintended consequences of post-1994 South Africa have seen a growing number
of the elderly “ageing in place” (meaning that they do not move away from the homes they
have occupied for years).
There seems to be a contradiction between this approach and the town planning of
sprawling centres, which marginalizes elderly citizens and cause them to be stranded in
“old” planning. Our land-use patterns are skewed. Being mobile without the use of a motor
vehicle is difficult.
Filial obligations play a role in this deference and respect. It is debatable who should
cater for the elderly between the state and their relatives or their offspring or vice versa.
The premise of this policy is that collectively, the state and the relatives are all in this
together and solutions should come from all of them jointly.

7.6 Parenting Responsibilities

From a purely social development point of view, the elderly citizens play an important
role in rearing children and have taken over, in many cases, the role of biological parents
to look after children – their grandchildren.
This rearing requires that whether they make them stay at home, or whether they take
them to kindergarten and crèches, they need transport. The roles of grandparents are not
likely to remain static as the elderly age.
Younger parents are more likely to play a fun-seeking and surrogate role, whereas the
older grandparents are likely to play the role of a figurehead. There is a difference in the
treatment of maternal and paternal grandchildren. Each of those should cater for the
transportation needs of each particular grandparent about their grandchildren.
From a social pension’s perspective, most of their social grants are channelled towards
running efficient families. It is incumbent on policy options to consider this crucial role the
elderly citizens play in families.
They too, need to independently move around to shops, recreational and sports facilities,
to hospitals to churches and to fulfil their parenting roles.
By being able to move around, the elderly can access their social grants and state
facilities. Statistics and data must be provided about how many pensioners receive state
pensions? How many of them are men and how many are women. How many of them
contribute to private pensions.
There is an urgent need to strike a balance between this role and their continued ability
to do so. The balance is more needed in the context of the usage of the motor vehicles on
the increasingly congested road network of South Africa.
A public discussion on this matter should be opened for the policy options to be laid out
for further discussion by stakeholders.
The major aim of the policy discussion is to integrate the elderly into the mainstream of
society rather than its bane. It is to accord those who can afford to drive equal treatment on
the road network.

7.7 Business Planning

With the transportation of goods and services spread through a wide canvas of service
providers, policy clarity should send clear signals to these service providers and the
transport market to plan their businesses well into the future.
Foremost among these, is the motor vehicle insurance industry which has to decide
whether to lower vehicle insurance or raise it for certain age groups. In other transport
jurisdictions, insurance premiums for the senior citizen drivers have been lowered because
they pose less driving risks.

16
 Of all the short-term insurance products, motor vehicle insurance tops other products.
From 7% in 2007, it rose to 10% in 2013 compared to household contents, house structure,
cell phones and household instruments.5
The determination will be left to the insurance houses themselves and not be determined
by this policy.

8. MANDATES AND OTHER POLICIES

8.1 The National Development Plan

The National Development Plan Vision 2030, has pronounced on the welfare needs of
elderly people. Its shortcoming though is that it looks at them from the vulnerability point
of view. It says less about their transportation and only emphasized social aspect. This
proposal should augment the solutions which the National Development Plan seeks to the
elderly.

8.2 The Older Persons Act, Act No 13 of 2006

The Older Persons Acts, Act 13 of 2006, together with its regulations, forms the primary
legislative driver of the policy on the elderly. This is additional to the constitutional
protection of the elderly, in line with the protection of all citizens.
According to this Act, there should be the empowerment of the older persons and
provision of safety and security. This should include life-enhancing issues of independence,
care and protection participation self-fulfilment and dignity.
As all Departments are enjoined to give effect to this legislation, the role of transport is
crucial. The purpose of this policy is in partial fulfilment of all these noble objectives of
the Act.

8.3 The National Road Traffic Act

The matter of the elderly drivers is legislated in terms of the National Road Traffic Act,
Act No 93 of 1996 and the relevant sections are Section 17(1) and to a lesser extents section
24 (1) for employees of the state. These should be read in conjunction with regulation 103
of the Act. The regulation states that:

“An application in terms of Section 17(10 or Section 24(1) of the Act shall be made by the
applicant at a driving license testing centre form LL1 and shall be accompanied by

(c.) in case of an applicant who is 65 years of age or older, by the medical certificate on
firm MC signed by a medical practitioner or occupations health practitioner certifying that
the applicant is not disqualified in terms of section 15(1) (f) or (g) of the Act from obtaining
a learner’s or a driving license.”

The Act, as it stands is limited only to the age of driving. When it is reviewed, it will need
to be comprehensive to deal with the challenges faced by the elderly drivers in the road
network.

5
South Africa Survey 2017. Institute For Race Relations.
17
8.4 The Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)

The Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Policy needs to be developed to respond to the
technological advancements. Technology is being rolled out on the South African road
network in the absence of a laid out policy. Rolling it out should always bear in mind the
needs of the elderly drivers.
The policy takes into account all the existing intelligent transport systems. It is suggested
to assist the senior citizen drivers in driving safely and with ease, but we argue that they
should be taught how to use these technologies.

8.5 The Congestion Pricing Policy Framework

A congestion pricing policing framework still needs to be developed by DOT. In other

transport jurisdictions, such a policy has led to disagreements with road users. In South
Africa, road network user-pays policies are resisted as the case of the tolling of the Gauteng
Freeways has shown. In developing this policy, the DOT has to take into account these
sentiments.
However, even with this non-payment culture, there is now a growing realization that
towns and cities and residential areas should begin to accommodate human beings more
than they accommodate vehicles.
In certain cities, some areas a demarcated for walkability of shoppers and customers.
When vehicles are allowed, they are only those that deliver essential goods to the shops
and amenities within the confined area of congestion charges. If drivers park their vehicles
in the demarcated some, they pay a premium.
Of particular reference to this policy should the suggestion that the implementing
authorities may consider exemptions when pricing senior citizens. The two policies should
not be seen as in conflict with each other.

8.6 The Social Security System

The social security system is aimed at caring for the elderly and is driven by the DDSD.
The policy aims to strengthen the senior citizen’s access to these government grants through
driving to places where these services are offered. The policy has to be seen in the contest
of access for the elderly to amenities provided by the State.
At the time of preparing this draft policy, the (DSD) was investigating the possibility of
a comprehensive social security system. The movement of the elderly discussed in this
policy proposal falls within the paradigm of comprehensive social security.

8.7 Accessible Transport Policy

Accessible Transport is elaborated under the Draft White Paper on Transport Accessibility
in South Africa. Central to this policy argument is the need for the mobility of the elderly
among others to be guaranteed. Public transport should be amenable to use by the elderly.
There has been much talk about the risks that the elderly people pose in the road
network. Mobility should be paramount over risks posed. In essence, accessible transport
should be underpinned by the other four A’s of technology adoption which are
complementary to the first. These are availability, affordability, acceptability and
adaptability.

18
8.8 The Built Environment (BE)

The Built environment, including buildings, lifts stairs and others should be used as a form
of access as most of the elderly prefer driving because the built environment is not
conducive to use by the elderly. The improvement of buildings, including aesthetics and
street furniture, so that the elderly citizens are encouraged to use public spaces.
Appropriate lighting emergency phones, surveillance cameras and on-site personnel
deployment should be implemented. If local public transport exists during off-peak hours,
the senior citizens must be dropped closer to their destinations rather than at the usual bus
stops.
The built environment improvement for the elderly is a mandate that goes beyond the
transport family. The DOT should sensitize its counterpart departments to be seized with
this issue for multiple department benefits.

8.9 A Better Life for All

A Better Life For All as a government clarion call for improving the lives of all citizens
forms the bedrock of this policy. While the call may be seen as sloganeering, its relevance
to this policy is underscored by the neglect of the elderly as only a concern that should be
addressed through the social grant system.
The policy seeks to improve and not to punish the senior citizen drivers; driving is
related to them accessing other amenities and conveniences driven by Government, such
as access to their social security centres hospitals and clinics.

9. SCOPE OF THE POLICY

9.1 No Blanket Application

The policy is directed at issues of senior citizen drivers beyond the age of 65, the
interventions required should be those that make the road network usable by a variety of
age groups and users.
The age of 65 may be arbitrary but forms the basis for a cut-off point for policy. It is
only through a thoroughly assessed driving capability that an individual should be excluded
from driving.
The arbitrariness of age does not consider other attributes that may lead to accidents or
cause some mistakes on the road network. These attributes include Intelligence Quotient
(IQ), temperament and predisposition to distraction.
There are good above 65-year-old drivers as there are bad ones of younger ages. This
gives credence to the understanding that ageing may be characteristically detrimental,
cumulative and irreversible. No sharp points of transition in terms of age can be discerned.

9.2 Terminology

Within the scoping of the policy, it should be stated that terminology should not be
confusing. In certain jurisdictions, they use as Senior Drivers. In some, it is referred to as
the elderly drivers. In others, it is known as the mature drivers or older drivers. These refer
to the same thing, only separated by the cultural and dialectical approaches of a particular
jurisdiction.
Terminologies can be used in their prejudicial and discriminatory imports. Forms and
terminologies around our subject of discussion have prevaricated between ten or so
definitions and classifications. E, each one of them takes a different form of discrimination
or prejudice.
19
 Rarely has the terminology been seen as universally binding in its moral sense. These
ten or classifications have varied from “aged persons”, “elderly persons”, “golden ager”,
“mature South Africans,” middle-aged persons”, “old man/old woman.” “old timer”,
“retired person” “senior citizen.” There are African usages as well such as the Swahili
Mzee.
From the Classics such as Greek and Latin, some classifications arise, such as a
geriatrician, with its offshoot of geriatrics, gerontologists, gerontophilia and gerontophobia;
and its Latin counterparts of sexagenarian, septuagenarian, octogenarian, nonagenarian and
centogenarian.
The typologies and categories should not inordinately congest and suffocate the need to
evolve an elderly drivers policies. The MetLife Study, which was referenced in this
document, categories the elderly into three, namely mature workers, working retired and
traditional retirees.
There will be an interchangeable use of the terms, in all their manifestations and use in
different jurisdictions but they shall refer to the elder drivers whose driving abilities are
declining because of age.
It will include the related degenerative effects of that ageing in how they perform in the
road network. Performance shall not only refer to the acceptable or unacceptable way that
they drive but their mental psychology to do so.

9.3 Continued Law Enforcement

The introduction of this discussion document does not preclude the need for the traffic
officials to continue with their responsibilities for all bad driving on the road network. They
should continue to deal with bad drivers, including from wild teenagers, substance abusers,
emotional problem drivers and road rage – including the little-publicized parking rage-
drivers.
If the senior citizen drivers are found to be exhibiting these tendencies, they should be
dealt with in the discharge of the duties of the road traffic officers, not by their age. The
DOT has to engage seriously with road rage and treat it as an occupational hazard of the
road network, rather than as isolated incidences. A policy position on road rage is
suggested in this regard.

9.4 Urban Domination

Vehicle ownership is higher in urbanized areas. There should be an emphasis on the policy
on congested and urbanized environments. In South Africa’s social arrangements, some
senior citizens are confined to and trapped in rural areas.
There are more likely to be accidents and fatalities of the elderly in urban roads
networks. A policy that caters for the rural elderly is necessary.
There are misconceptions about the growth of sedentary lifestyles of the elderly leading
to obesity, in urban and rural settings. Being entrapped in their homes should not be
underestimated. The two issues of sedentary lifestyle and obesity should find solutions
through the provision of mobility for the elderly.

9.5 Older Model Cars

The elderly keep their vehicles which are older models and not fitted with the technological
gadgets that new vehicles have. Dr James argues that there are three psychological
categories of vehicle people drive, namely the tough driving (sports, light trucks and Sports
Utility Vehicles (SUVs), soft driving vehicles (economic and family) and special driving
(vans and luxury).

20
 Each of these psychological categories has its aggressive driving syndrome that
distinguishes it from the others.
In relation to the size of the vehicle, power trips may arise when drivers are driving
bigger vehicles. They feel that there is no need for them to look out for smaller cars than
theirs, the Big Foot Syndrome. The policy caters for all categories and models of vehicles.
New vehicles do not reverse the side effects of ageing.
In our preoccupation with the ageing drivers, there should be a correlation between them
and the older models they drive. A study conducted at Purdue University indicated the
following, among others vehicles less than five years old, increased the likelihood of
fatality for older men by 216% and for young men by 71%. Vehicles six years old and
older increased the likelihood of injury for middle-aged female drivers by 20%.

9.6 Creation of Mode Choice

The policy is not premised on removing the elderly from the road network but should be
confirmed by the provision of choice, meaning that there should be a multi-modal
transportation improvement which will dissuade elderly drivers from using their vehicles.
New public transport strategies, built environments, accessibility issues should provide
the elderly with this choice. Transport authorities should concentrate not only on the safety
of the mode but the safety of the trip. All modes of transport can be included in one trip.
Before the elderly drive, he or she has to walk. If he has to take a flight, he or she has to
drive etc.
Self-driving in South Africa would require being recalibrated not to be a do-or-die
activity as a result of the absence of alternatives and choices. The purchase and the driving
of a vehicle should not be an enforced decision because of the lack of public transport in a
particular vicinity.
The myth that public bus and rail services eat into the state coffers through subsidization
should be dispelled. That private vehicles pay their way through gas taxation, vehicles
licenses and traffic fines should be dispelled.
The payments do not cover the full cost of road construction and maintenance. It may
well be necessary for the DOT to undertake a True Cost of Driving Study to arrive at the
shortfalls to dispel this myth.
Further studies are needed issues assist the mobility of elderly. These issues would have
to answer transit dependency which would determine the levels of the community’s
dependency on motor vehicles; the problems experienced with existing alternative forms
of transport and gaps in core service delivery which would determine which services are
needed most by the communities.

9.7 New Old Age Cohorts

The policy must be less rigid about age cohorts for the elderly. Instead of grouping them in
ten years age differential, there shoulda consideration for an even reduced year differential
of five years.
To use gerontologist Negarten’s analysis, we can arrive at three categorizations of the
old, namely; “the young-old” (between the ages of 65 and 75); “the middle-old,” between
the ages of 75 and 85 and the “old-old” - those over the age of 85.6
It will be left to the policy implementers to analyze the most vulnerable and to craft the
implementation procedures accordingly. The need to recognize the heterogeneous nature
of the elderly is paramount in this regard. Not of all of them above the age of 65 are well

6
Canada’s Ageing Population: Transportation Safety and Security.
21
off. There are those who are over 65 and particular age groups who can adequately take
care of themselves.
This differentiation is in line with the recommendation of Transport Canada:

“When describing the elderly, more than one age group (i.e. 65 and over) should be used
when data permits. Depending on the nature of analysis, this could require more defined
age groups than those identified above.”

Crandall provides a compelling review of this life period approach by mentioning five
issues to be considered. These life period approaches are culture, time and generation
bound, whereas there is ample evidence that one life period will not affect all people in all
societies all the times.
Underlying the above approaches are the social, class, race sex and education contexts
under which they operate. The life period approaches hide under their wings the
heterogeneity of the older populations.
Academic and theoretic researchers have approached ageing from different frameworks
which do not always talk to each other. There is no discernible breakpoint between one life
period and the next. Overlaps may disturb the theoretical assumptions of the life period
approach.
We argue that the theoretical debates may require the contests of theories which will
cause us to shift our focus from the issue at hand.
There must be an acceptance that the disengagement theory, meaning that sociological
theory that dictates that as people grow older, they disengage from society, does not have
any scientific basis. Older people travel and drive to various destinations.
We have tried to avoid theoretical arguments. As in most theoretical contestations,
issues are clouded platitudes which allow problems to fester as “schools of thought”
contest. Assisted by the dominance of one medium over the other and one media stable
over the others, the theory that is “noisy”, not necessarily a correct, carries the day.
If there are areas of disengagement, these are not caused by ageing but by other issues
such as those of living with disabilities, poverty, retirement and widowhood. The
overarching nature of this draft policy is to address forced withdrawal. There is enough
proof that the relationships that the elderly people have are deeper, even if when the visits
are not as frequent as those of the other generations.

9.8 Long Life Expectancy For Women

Females have a longer life-expectancy. Their use of the road may be longer compared to
their male counterparts. This will require rigour in the provision of statistics and data as
indicated in the section that deals with statistics.
We need statistics that will indicate a further life expectancy of males and females to
know how many will be able to live and for how long after turning 65 years old..
Planning for the elderly drivers who live beyond 80 should be prioritized for the policy
to be tweaked differently to cater to their specific needs as posed to those who are between
65 and 79.

9.9 Privately-Owned vehicles (POVs)

The policy deals with elderly drivers in small passenger vehicles less than 4500 kilograms.
If the senior citizen drivers were to drive trucks, buses, tractors and articulated rigs, the
challenges raised in this policy discussion document would be multiplied.
Since their drivers own the vehicles, the constitutional issues, such as the freedom of
movement, the right to privacy and others should be considered when the policy is made
about a State imposition (in terms of policy).
22
9.10 Urban-Rural Split

The urban and rural split in respect of the elderly drivers and driving shows some interesting
comparisons. There is this a need to delineate rural drivers from the city or urban drivers.
There should be a study of how the rural-based elderly drivers fare in the urbanized driving
environment and the times that they send on city streets when they happen to be there.
The urban-rural split should be done to know how many city drivers sometimes drive
on rural roads and vice versa. Even though we admit that public transport still needs to be
upgraded in the country, rural drivers have a high demand for driving than their city
counterparts. They have even fewer alternatives. The document should be studied in
conjunction with the Rural Transport Strategy.

10. URGENCY OF THE POLICY

10.1 Long-Term Policy Planning

Many pressing issues in South Africa require urgent policy interventions. Senior citizen
drivers may not be very high on the radar screens. Policy formulation is a long-term
process. Issues of research and traffic re-engineering proposed in this policy document will
take a long time to put together.
It is within this context that this policy is introduced at an early stage for the proper
consultations and the setting up of institutions and systems to see it through should be
planned.
We have deliberately avoided a time-framed implementation plan for these policy
proposals for the three reasons.
Firstly and as local authorities will drive them, the prioritization of local authorities will
shape their time frames based on their prioritization.
Secondly, the discussion and the consultation may take longer than needed as the subject
is contested and controversial, or only parts of the document will, in the final analysis, be
implementable and implemented.
Thirdly, different localities are at different levels of awareness. This level of awareness
about the challenges will determine implementation schedules.

10.2 Developed and Developing Contrasts

It is true that in developed countries this debate has been ensuing for years, but in the
developing counties, it has been rather muted as a result of the lower adult populations and
even the lower driver populations.
For developing countries, the priority has been on developing policies for survival and
sustainability. Developing states may not consider senior citizen drivers to be pressing. At
a policy level, it is timely to begin to engage now.
It is better for policy to be in place and be open to revision, rather than there being no
policy. Developing policies when problems have already arisen suffers the shortcomings
of reactionary measures.
When implementation time arrives, there would have been sufficient consultation and
fine-tune for the policy implementation to have firm roots. There is a realization that even
when the driving populations are low, the senior citizens are even lower. The policy should
give comfort even to those few drivers on the road networks.

23
10.3 Reality Check

The introduction of this discussion is a reaction to a problem that currently exists. It is an

attempt to arrest it before it gets complicated. The reality of the South African road network
is that there are elderly citizens who are on our roads, with or without licenses. The numbers
are small. In the need for the mega-policies to address the needs of greater society, the
urgency may sound misplaced.
It is not the single elderly driver who is an issue. If one of the elderly drivers has a
mishap on the road network, some activities such as the economy and freight movements
are affected. Experience in policy formulation has shown that greater society would like
minimum government interference where self-regulation fails. Government’s absence and
absence of policy direction become objects of blame.

11. STATISTICS
Statistics and data upon which planning and policy formulation can be based is of such low
quality and is unverifiable. There is an urgent need for statisticians to explore this area
further.
The second challenge concerns statistics that do exist. The premise for understanding
the challenges of the number of elderly drivers in the road network is extrapolated largely
from the population census.
A casual analysis of age projections and the age pyramid upon which they are based
give indications of a lot of forecasts, from old age pensions to elderly drivers.
The is a need for a broader statistical analysis and data acquisition to inform government
policy, with a clear understanding that government policy has different impacts on different
segments of society in much the same way that policy affects different class groups
differently.
In the policy options section below, we have raised some statistical and data issues that
need to underscore the policy. These should be read in conjunction with the statistics and
data areas identified in this section. In the final analysis, there should be a consolidated
statistical backdrop which will assist policy implementers to arrive at informed decisions.
For statistics and data, we will heavily rely on the data from other transport jurisdictions
as these have been analyzed to a better degree than in South Africa. There should always
be an understanding that despite some minor variations, these statistics will hold true for
most transport jurisdictions.
The collection of statistics and data should find solace from, and inform the process of
the development of the transport data repository within the Department. While cooperation
is crucial on the issues of date, the DOT should be wary of its authenticity if provided from
outside. External interests may provide contaminated data to serve their commercial
interests.
Senior citizens who drive their vehicles have to share the contested space with 10, 600
vehicles of different types, consisting of 64,7% being motor cars, 3,4% being trucks, 0,6%
being buses, 3,4% being motor-cycles, 22,5 being bakkies, 2.8% being mini-buses and the
others being, 2,6%.7
Graphs of fatality rates for teen drivers versus elderly drivers take a U shape is described
in a graph form with the younger drivers as well as the elder drivers being at the apex of
the U-shape.

7
South Africa Survey 2017. Institute For Race Relations.
24
 There is an equal response to be shared for the problems that face the teenage population
and the senior citizens. From the ages of 75 to 84 the rates of driver fatality should be
recorded at per one hundred kilometres driven.
This data is not known as a result of the scarcity of data mentioned in this draft
document. There is evidence that when the drivers get old, say from 85 upwards; the graph
rises dramatically.
About 40,3 % of males in South Africa now live up to the age of 65, while 48,6% of
females reach that age The figure is important to extrapolate, using other indices how many
will be on the road network when they reach the age of 65.8 The over 65 population in
South Africa comprise 5.2% of 54 million people. Not all of them will be on the road
network as drivers, but they could be in the network as passengers.
The elderly are the small size of the population. They have a lower amount of travelling.
The total number of fatalities is smaller than younger drivers. This should not persuade us
not to develop policy responses to the deaths and the causes of accidents by the elderly.
The population figures from the latest population census from StatsSA reveals that there
was 1 110 425 number of males and 1 802 009 females over the ages of 65 in 2016.
Although the population figures indicate that there are more women than men, the male
licensed drivers over the age of 65 are higher as result of the women not encouraged to
drive in the past. These patriarchal tendencies are being challenged. Soon the number of
drivers on the road will display the realities.
The fatality rate of the 65-74-year-olds is about twice that of the 30-64-year-olds. The
fatality rate even is eight times higher for the over-75s.
Beyond the split between males and females, a study conducted by the civil engineering
unit of the University of Purdue in the United States, there was reference to the different
severity of injuries between the teenage drivers and the elderly drivers. There are
differences in injuries between males and females (of all ages).
According to this study which can be of international applicability, the following can be
deduced and be further studied within the South African context: Accidents involving
overturned vehicles increased the likelihood of a fatality by 200% for older men. For
women, the likelihood of fatality for older women is 253%.
Vehicles carrying passengers at the time of the accident stands at 70% for older men but
has no signs of injury levels of female drivers. vehicles less than 5-years old increased the
likelihood of fatality for older men by 216 % but did not have a significant effect on the
likelihood of a fatality on middle-aged women.
Not using safety belts increased the likelihood of injury by 187% for older women.
Wearing a seatbelt gives drivers around a 50% better chance of surviving an accident
without being killed or seriously injured than not wearing it and accidents occurring in rural
areas increased the likelihood of fatalities by 208 for younger women but not significant
on older age groups of women.
A study conducted by the University of Kentucky in 2002 found that each advancing
year after 65 years increases by 8% the odds of getting into a crash involving turns to the
left. Since the South African jurisdiction allows or driving on the left-hand side, the
opposite of the direction might be true, but it would need an independent study.
There was a total of 2 082 casualties on South African roads for people over the age of
60, contribution to 4% of the total of casualties.
According to Tasima figures9, the distribution of elderly drivers that is over 65 years in
the nine provinces is as follows: KwaZulu Natal, 122 575; North West 38 720; Gauteng
254 948; Eastern Cape 123 829; Northern Cape 17 219; Mpumalanga 34 821; Free State

8
Ibid.
9
Tasima is a private sector company employed by the Department of Transport to provide some
statistical and date services.
25
48 499 and Limpopo 28 505, giving us a total of 816 389. These figures exclude driving
license cards, which means the number of elderly drivers is more than the recorded
numbers.
The reasons for the cancellation of the licenses of drivers older than 65 years old are
medical (at 873) contravention at 28 and “other” at 7430. According to Tasima, the huge
number of “other” could be attributed to either deceased drivers who voluntarily
surrendered their licenses for fear of being prosecuted for non-renewal.
The types of endorsements on drivers older than 65 years, i.e. those who were born in
1942, are 22 for reckless driving; 17 for negligent driving, 328 for intoxicated driving, 1
for hit and run, 3 for inconsistent driving, 19 for reckless and negligent driving, 36 with
special adapted motor vehicle, other 23 123 and unknown at 3046.
A study conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) concluded in
1998 drivers were the largest group of road accident victims in South Africa a 37% of the
total. This was followed by passengers, at 36% and then by pedestrians at 24%. For this
policy, we will look at the drivers but indicate that future ageing policies should take into
cognizance the passengers and pedestrian elderly senior citizens.
All the figures stated above do not give the whole picture. There is a high number of
“others” and “unknown,” which goes into the heart of the problem. There has been less
concentration on the challenges that the elderly drivers face in the road network.
The figures are not accurate because they do not capture the number of senior citizen
drivers who continue to drive when they do not have licenses to do so.
In the early 1960s, South Africa’s driving licensing system was not strict. The mere
ability to purchase a vehicle portended that the owner could drive. Lower road accident
rates could have caused the laxity. Roads were not as fully congested and challenging as
they are today.
We need to find out the causes of the accidents of senior citizen drivers, implement
preventive measures and improve safety so that they will continue to have their
independence, autonomy and self-esteem.
Solutions to these problems are found in their improvements of the traffic traffics,
roadway designs, i.e. over and above the need to deal with physical (motor functioning)
and mental challenges, cognitive (sensory) and behavioural (temperament), as well as the
budgetary challenges elderly drivers face in the network.
The budgetary challenges have been underplayed in policy considerations, but they are
inextricably linked to the decision whether the elderly driver travels as a driver himself, or
as a passenger or as a pedestrian.
There is resigned mindset from government officials that once the social grants and old
aged pensions have been paid, the Government can then fold its hands and wait for the next
payment date. So much can be done in between, even to the extent of scaling down the old
age pensions.

12. THE STATUS QUO ANALYSIS

12.1 The True Nature Of Driving

At face value, driving looks easy enough with automobiles gliding effortlessly in autobahns
and freeways. The three issues involved, known as the driving triad - namely the driver, the
vehicle and the environment seem to be perfectly synchronized with each. The first two are
referred to as the man-machine interface.
In each harmonious variable, there exist complications and challenges. Each of them
exhibiting mind-boggling and split-second decisions. Some of these split-second decisions
escape the cognitive faculties of some senior citizen drivers.
The reality is that driving is a complex exercise. The vehicle must be drivable. The rough
idling hesitation can reduce this drivability, misfiring, surging, as well as insufficient
26
power. Driving requires more than operating the vehicles. It should be accompanied by the
understanding of the rules of the road.
The driver must have an adequate understanding of how to handle the vehicle. It is a
physical and mental skill. These skills must be applied simultaneously. For some senior
citizen drivers, this is not always possible.
Driving is easy, but the environment in which it takes place is challenging. For senior
citizen drivers this is even more challenging because apart from the anxiety and fear about
what they may do wrong, on the road and inflict on other road users, they fear what can
happen to them.

12.2 The Need to Move Around

Elderly drivers have the same needs, such as travel to their doctors (more than the younger
generations), shops for groceries and visit their friends to break the isolation and loneliness.
Life without friends, as philosopher Aristotle observed, is not a life worth living, even if
the person had all the other goods.10
Movement is not only confined to the young and the middle-aged. Government policies
should be responsive to this need to move. The movement of the elderly is not to
problematize the elderly. Neither is it to legitimize their exclusion from societal
endeavours.
The issues which are raised in this policy discussion document are to integrate South
Africans across the intergenerational gaps that exist in society. In the integration, South
Africans should accept that South Africa has a youthful population.

12.3 The Shrinking Abilities of The Elderly

Despite the medical improvements raised above, there is no denying that the normal ageing
process does come with its medical process affecting all aspects of life for the senior
citizens, driving ability not being the least of them. Ageing leads to reduced reflex
reactions, decrease visibility and leads to less focusing.

12.4 Visibility

A 45-year old driver requires about four times the light required by a 19-year old to look at
objects. Poor visibility can be a cause for accidents.
Visibility in this instance embraces all the elements of visual functions, such as: static
visual acuity (which refers to the ability to discriminate an object when there is no
movement between the driver and the object); muscular degeneration (which is the loss of
the ability of the muscles to react instinctively and quickly); diabetic retinopathy (which
refers to retinal infection caused by diabetes leading to reduced vision); cataracts (the
growing opaqueness of the lens of the eye leading to blurred visions).
The others are glaucoma - a condition in which there is severe pressure on the eyeball
leading to gradual loss of sight; peripheral vision (the ability to detect motion, form or
colour on either side while looking straight); dynamic visual acuity (the ability to
discriminate an object when there is relative movement between the observer and the
object) and figure ground discrimination (which refers to the ability to distinguish an object
from its competing ground).
The testing regime at Licensing Offices has worked perfectly to determine the suitability
of the drivers to drive on the road network. The system itself is foolproof, but for the elderly,

10
Aristotle. 2004.The Nicomachean Ethics. Penguin Classics.
27
it is compromised by the officials’ attitudes to elderly drivers who come to renew their
licenses. The eye-testing machine should decide, not a personal judgement

12.5 Reduced Physical And Psychomotor Abilities

The incidence of disability grows with ageing. The reduced physical abilities of the elderly
manifest themselves in ageing which leads to the reduced activities of the body parts,
external and internal.
These may affect the manner and the abilities of the ageing drivers to drive as they did
in their younger age. The process of ageing is compounded by the vulnerability of the
ageing people to illnesses and diseases and their reduced recuperative powers.
The physiological decline that is a result of ageing leads to functional inabilities to drive
such a reduced reaction time, reduced handgrips, reduced capacity for exertion and
decrease in muscle strength.
Reaction time for drivers tends to decline with age. The degeneration of the
musculoskeletal strength affects the muscle strength, the range of motion, good reaction,
light touch localization, endurance and coordination.
This policy discussion document is not about disability, but it can be juxtaposed to cater
for the elderly drivers with disabilities. Not all senior citizens are necessarily people with
disabilities and vice versa. Even if people were living with disabilities, not all disabilities
are detrimental to driving.
The policy juxtaposes driving with disability and disease. The elderly will continue to
drive without hindrance but there should be warnings about disease and disability
prevention methodologies should continue.
Early detection through regular medical and self-examination; healthy nutrition;
vigorous exercise; safer driving; safe sex; vaccination; avoiding obesity, tobacco and
alcohol abuse and social support should not be abandoned even for the driving elderly.

12.6 Cognitive Degeneration

Cognitive degeneration manifests itself in the reduction of intelligence which makes elderly
drivers fail to comprehend abstractions, fail to comprehend new information, fail to adapt
to new situations and failure to create avoidance ideas. Learning and Working Memory are
also reduced. Dementia of the Alzheimer Type (DAT) which results from persistent mental
disorder marked by memory loss, personality changes and impaired reasoning.
A study by the Department of Psychology at the Catholic University of America, in
Washington, has revealed that motor vehicle accident rates are related to information
processing measures of different components of attention.
The relationship is greater for measures of the switching of selective attention and less
for that of divided and sustained attention or vigilance. Many of these same attentional
functions are impaired in early stages.
Problems faced by the elderly drivers in the road network include, but are not necessarily
limited to dents and scratches to their vehicles which they cannot explain how they got
them. They get lost in surroundings where they had not been lost before. They have poor
reaction time and poor judgment at traffic intersections. Their muscular degeneration goes
together with visual impairment and hearing impairments.
They experience dizziness behind the wheel caused by medication. Glaucoma and
cataracts are causing poor vision leading to their eye drop not being able to adjust to low
light or sudden brightness.
Parkinson’s diseases and arthritis reduce their reaction time. Diabetes which reduces
sensation in feet and making elderly drivers not to gauge their pressure applied on brakes
or accelerator. Drugs such as painkillers and tranquillizers and anti-depressants; and

28
cognitive problems such as Alzheimer’s and multi-silent strokes compound their driving
lives.
Cognitive degeneration is a challenge for all drivers who are caught up in the dynamic
driving environment. Drivers must project the state of the future driving environment and
be able to plan accordingly.

12.7 Driving Under The Influence

Elderly drivers, to their credit, do not get involved in crashes caused by high speeds as
compared to their teenage counterpart drivers. Neither does alcohol play a part in the
crashes compared to the other age cohorts nor on the blood alcohol concentrations (BAC).
Studies have shown a lower level of concentrations of alcohol in cases where there are
crashes caused by the elderly drivers. They are more likely to cause crashes at intersections,
or when they miss a stop sign or when they turn to the right in the face of oncoming traffic.
The lower alcohol influence should not discount that that elderly drivers also take
alcohol. Their problems on the road will be exacerbated by their levels of alcohol tolerance
which is lower than the younger generations. The cardinal rule of driving should apply to
all age categories: Don’t Drink and Drive!

12.8 Vehicles Used By Elderly

In most cases, the senior citizens drive old model vehicles. It is their rational choice. New
vehicles are introduced for at the time when senior citizens experience reduced incomes.
There are some cases where the elderly do afford to purchase late model vehicles for the
ease with which they drive.
When they do so, they make rational decisions. Like all other new vehicle purchasers,
they are driven by either price considerations, loyalty to the brand, the size of the vehicle
about the purpose it will be used for, as well as comfort.
In the main, they drive old model vehicles which do not have the latest gadgetry. They
continue to experience the difficulty of driving these vehicles compared to their younger
counterparts. There is compensation that they are more familiar with their old vehicles.
The elderly also involved in vintage vehicles clubs. They may need from time to time,
to “show off” their vehicles. Those vehicles will be on the road. Their drivers will mostly
be their owners, the elderly.

12.9 Talking and Driving

The dual appeals that characterize the transportation marketing and accident prevention
initiatives in South Africa have been around for some time, such as Don’t Drink and Drive
and Arrive Alive. To this should be introduced the “Don’t Talk and Drive”, referring to the
use of mobile phones while driving.
A study conducted by Strayer and Drews found that drivers who talked on cell phones,
regardless of whether they were young or old, were 18% slower in applying their brakes
than drivers who did not use their cell phones.
Drivers talking on cell phones had a 12% greater following distance presumably to
compensate for paying attention to road conditions. It is comforting that there is a growing
trend among consumers to use hands-free kits and the authorities are becoming stricter
against people who talk and drive.
The other element of talking has to do with the passengers who may talk when an elderly
driver is driving them. The driver may want to be involved in the discussion of the
passengers. In the process, he may lose his or her concentration.
Driving in groups has other positive effects in other strategies of traffic reduction.
Driving together encourages the camaraderie and the social cohesion and ending the
29
isolation. However, the driving together needs to be carefully managed. If the leaders of
the group, behave in badly, the rest of the group are likely to follow.

12.10 Environmental Issues

Between 2013 and 2014, the total fossil-fuel emissions in South Africa was 1 275 088
metric tons.11 There is no scientific evidence to prove the point of emissions on drivers and
their health. Emissions are known to lead to health problems.
Senior citizens, because of other ailments, could be more vulnerable than their younger
counterparts. They can be vulnerable either on their (emissions) own, or in combination
with other medications that they may take to arrest other health conditions. The effect of
the emissions on the elderly is bound to accelerate the other sicknesses which they might
have.
Road traffic produces the following pollutants: nitrogen oxides, which are created when
vehicle engines burn nitrogen that is present in the air: carbon monoxide, which is a gas
produced by incomplete combustion of petrol and diesel fuel: volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) (which are contained in engine exhausts such as benzene and 1.3 butadiene and
are known to be cancer-causing); fine particulate matters including metals, acids and
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, as well as ground-level ozone which are chemical
reactions stimulated by sunlight.
All environmental pieces of legislation from the road network should, of necessity,
consider the environmental effects on the elderly. The unit responsible for the environment
at the DOT has to be seized with this issue as an add-on to the understanding of the
implementation implications of this policy.
In the connection between technology and the environment, there is a consideration that
should be made about the old model of vehicles which the elderly drivers normally drive.
These do not have the latest technologies of catalytic converters and use the cold catalytic
converters which are not very efficient in neutralizing pollutants. The elderly contribute
more to the vehicle created pollution of the environment.

12.11 Changing Landscape

The other environmental issue which should be taken into consideration is the changing
land use patterns and the changing landscape. In relation to changing lanes, the elderly may
appear to be right lane hogging and referred to as “Right Lane Bandits”, but are having a
tough decision to make about when to change the lane.
This may raise aggressive behaviour from other road users. They have been used to
familiar surrounds and the environment, but land-use patterns are changing. The built
environment is springing up in front of their eyes.
The road directions are changed. There are new roundabouts instead of the stop signs
they were used too. New traffic lights are being introduced to control the flow of traffic.

12.12 Types of Accidents and Deaths

Younger drivers are more likely to be involved in head-on or rollover crashes. The elderly
drivers are more likely to be involved in the side and angled impacts on their vehicles,
backing, rear-ending and parking collisions.
Drivers over the age of 65 and overkilled in car accidents were significantly more likely
to die of chest injuries, while younger drivers were more likely to die of a head injury.

11
South Africa Survey 2017. Institute For Race Relations.
30
There are no hard and fast rules though. As the elderly driving population grows, the
numbers of the elderly who die of all types of injuries will also change.
The leading manner of deaths among the 0-14 years of age was by transport at 35%. For
the 45-54 age group, transport deaths contributed about 35% of the total deaths. In relation
to this particular policy, the 65 + group that died because of transportation reasons stood at
29%.
This does not mean that all the deaths through transport pertain to elderly drivers who
did not qualify to be in the road network and there will be a need for the further
disaggregation of these figures for the draft policy.
They are more likely to wear seatbelts than their young counterparts. Elderly drivers are
more likely to be injured or die in an accident than the younger drivers. For the
comprehensive understanding of all the facets of the accident, the integrated approach to
accident analysis should be applied.
The analysis can be enhanced by the application of the Haddon 3X3 matrix, which
includes all factors associated with the accident, namely the driver, the vehicle and the
infrastructure on which it happened, juxtaposed against the temporality of the categories of
pre-crash, crash and post-crash.
The 7th Report of the National Injury Mortality Surveillance System (NIMSS) indicates
that there 38.76% of death causing accidents, of which 74.3% are transport related. The
remainder at 25.7% is non-transport related.

12.13 Day of Most Crashes

According to the NIMSS transport-related deaths were on Saturday at 22.2%, followed by

Sunday at 17.1% followed by Friday at 15.2%. Friday has been cited as the busiest day of
the week as far as distance driven and is the day where there is a high level of collisions.
The volumes of traffic have a direct impact on the number of collisions.
Younger people who drive more during the weekends than the elderly.
Senior citizens drive during the day to avoid the congestions in the road network which
would make them vulnerable to high volumes of traffic, adding to the challenges they face
on the roads. Traffic officials should identify the day of the week when most senior citizen
drivers are on the road network. They should deploy personnel plan accordingly for
assisting them.
A large number of the accidents by the elderly drivers takes place during the day. This
indicates that on their own volition they recognize that it is safer to drive during the day.
In other transport jurisdictions, this self-regulation and self-compensatory behaviour by
the senior citizen drivers is a positive sign. In this risk, compensation increases call for the
development of the elderly driver policy to be shelved.
For the South African transport jurisdiction should encourage self-regulation and the
development of policy and for the two to be complementary.

12.14 Driving In Familiar Roads

When they drive during the day, the elderly drivers normally drive in familiar surroundings,
drive shorter distances and at a less speed than the other age cohorts. There is evidence that
for most senior citizen drivers, the majority of kilometres they travel are to their homes.
Most of them are pensioned.
They drive more to grocery shops, followed by personal business, recreational trips,
work-related and medical appointments.
Elderly drivers are found on smaller side roads with which they are familiar. Their
choice should not be confused with rat-running. Rat-running is about familiarity with the
surroundings, of congestions and red lights by all categories of drivers.

31
 Elderly drivers are also found on intercity highways. The pattern is that they drive
shorter distances because in high ways they experience fatigue during the extended driving
hours. The roads that go on for kilometres and kilometres without stimulation.
The long distance puts the elderly to sleep. They choose shorter distances for fear of
other speeding vehicles and the limited access to highways.
There are some other problems which make the elderly use freeways and highway less,
such as navigational and wayfinding challenges, freeway ramp merging, lane changing and
passing behaviour, illumination requirements and roadway signing.

12.15 Driving-related Problems

In a scenarios presentation at the Fersi Conference in Germany, the scenario planning

exercises indicated that the senior citizen drivers are faced with the following drivingrelated
problems in the road network: narrow lanes; driving under pressure; high information load;
adverse weather conditions; turning on a narrow lane; interaction with passengers; passing
and overtaking; wayfinding in an unfamiliar area; driving with a secondary task; driving in
a complex area; yielding right of way and intersections.
One unsafe driving habit of many senior citizen drivers is that they fail to look over their
shoulders for other vehicles behind and besides their vehicles. This affects their driving
when they change lanes without looking over their shoulders.
It causes them problems when they reverse or back up their vehicles. The cause of this
failure to look over the shoulder could be related to chronic stiffness and pain in the upper
body and neck caused by arthritis.

12.16 Traffic Signs

The senior citizen drivers may face certain problems in relation to traffic signs. These
problems may be related to the following: legibility distance; sign luminance; sign
comprehension; section time glance; and gender and race considerations; and visibility
distance under (day, night, night with glare condition, reaction time, glance legibility and
conspicuity).
One of the problems which the senior citizen drivers have with signs is not that they are
new, or in small print, but that they are similar to one anotherwhen they mean different
things.
The meanings of signs should be clear and succinct because some signs that may be
confused as the same. The signs should be addressed as a matter of an engendering better
traffic sign obedience by road users.

12.17 Right and Left Turn Collisions

Most senior citizens have a problem with stopping as they do not know where and when to
stop. Stopping requires a greater deal of conspicuity of traffic control devices and longer
perception-reaction times (PRT).
Perception reaction times in response to an unexpected hazard; for stopping in response
to a traffic signal; crossing an intersection and when turning right through opposing traffic,
all rely on a wide field of view. If the field of view is wide, there is an increase in
perception-reaction times. This point should not be lost to traffic engineers.

12.18 Reduced Insurance Premium

Among the industry issues raised above, the insurance industry needs to acknowledge the
insurance premium deductions related to driving by the elderly. In other jurisdictions, the

32
matter of elderly drivers has led to reduced premiums compared to the teenage drivers,
because of self-regulation raised in this section.
Self-regulation by the industry decreases the liability on them, as the elderly drivers
leave driving on their own once they realize it is becoming dangerous for them.
To reduce vehicle insurance premiums, elderly drivers should pursue the route of
ensuring other belongings such as their houses using the same company as this will reduce
vehicle insurance premiums. For the working retired, especially women, the nature of work
they are involved in can have an effect on reducing their premium.
The last issue that should be considered and be discussed further with vehicle insurance
providers is for senior citizen drivers to reassure that they are not high risk by undertaking
advanced driving lessons – the K53.
Insurances fall outside the province of the DOT and should be pursued by the individuals
and the insurance companies. It is raised here to demonstrate the all-round benefits that can
accrue to all South Africa from sound and proactive policymaking.

12.19 The Role of Private Sector Companies

The senior citizen may not be actively working in a company, but companies decide to
reward the elderly who retire for their loyalty to the firm. One of the incentives and rewards
is to make the elderly citizens drivers for senior executives of the company.
In the private and the work-related situations, senior citizen drivers should be adequately
addressed through policy. This spans the private and the public sector.
Other private sector players beyond the direct employers of the senior citizens should
be innovative. In Japan, businesses are starting to offer benefits to the elderly drivers who
give up their licenses to back up the police bid to cut back on the ballooning number of
accidents caused by drivers over 65.
One bank will give higher interest rates. A department store plans to provide free
delivery from its Tokyo stores. A hotel will offer a 10% discount on meals. (Sunday Star,
March 10, 2008).
Private sector companies must weigh the implications on their business when they
employ senior citizen workers. The study conducted by Metlife and quoted in the
bibliography of this paper, argues that (private) organizations need to specific recruiting,
retention and workplace strategies to address different needs among older workers and how
to keep them productive and satisfied.
It goes further to separate the needs of Baby Boomers (in the age group 55-59) as those
who express a strong desire for financial planning support and guaranteed source of
income. The study is a clear example of how policy should not be static. It should always
seek to embrace many of its beneficiaries.
Employees in the 60-65 age group care a great deal about job design and work
environment, while those in the age groups 66 to 70 have a special premium of feeling
engaged, doing meaningful work and feeling connected to colleagues. In all these
expectations, transportation is the umbilical cord that joins all the working aged.

12.20 The Role Of Family Members

If the discourse has not been entered into in the quantum that it deserves in the public
domain, it is assisted in this by the nature that the subject of the elderly drivers is treated as
taboo within families who do not want to discuss the driving abilities of their elder family
members directly. The silence must be broken.
The role that can be played by family members in persuading the elderly drivers to stop
driving is limited. Urban-based work life detaches the nucleated families. The younger
members of the elderly driver’s families cannot always be readily available when the
elderly want to move about their daily chores.
33
 The “sandwich generation” does not have enough time to balance the three things,
namely working, raising their children and also attending to their elderly. Most of the
elderly drivers found on the roads are there precisely because of the lack of support from
the other members of the family.
Some elderly drivers decide to stop driving on their own volition; family members must
impress on the elderly drivers that they should stop driving if they notice slightest
difficulties on the road which they did not experience before.
The forms of persuasion from members of the family may differ from family to family.
When family members consider the senior citizen driver to be at high risk should decide on
a case-by-case basis. The extreme of disabling the motor vehicle if all other forms of
persuasion fail should be carefully weighed. It is unfair to punish all drivers for the mistakes
done by a few of them.
Where family members stay with their elderly who are still driven, they should look at
these signs that indicate whether the elderly driver is still fit to drive or not.
These include: bumping into curbs; not standing the glare and bright lights; not turning
their heads or necks to observe the other traffic flows; not noticing objects and people on
the road, such as pedestrians, cyclists or other cars; not yielding for other cars or pedestrian
where these have the right of way.
They have problems with driving at inappropriate speeds; forgetting to turn the headlight
after dusk; getting lost even in places familiar to them; having near misses or actual
accidents; always asking other passengers whether he or she can pass another car, or turn
or whether he or she is still driving correctly; is confused or frightened on the roads; they
cannot correctly judge the distance between cars on their side or in front.

12.21 Irritability

Senior citizen drivers can be emotional and easily get angry when things do not happen as
they expect them to. The elderly grew up in an environment in which they respected their
elders and expect that the younger generations should reciprocate the respect.
When this does not happen, as it often does not to happen in the road network politics,
they may get angry and then lose their temper. This may make them take irrational
decisions that may affect other drivers on the road network.
Traffic authorities have warned against road rage as one of the human weaknesses that
complicates their duties. If they warn against road rage, they should include tolerance for
the elderly drivers on the road network.

12.22 Telltale Signs

Ageing Parents and Elder Care has a checklist of telltale signs related to the above, but they
include: driving at an inappropriate speed either too fast or too slow; asking passengers to
help check if it is clear to pass or turn.
Responding slowly to or not notice pedestrians, bicyclists and other drivers; ignoring
disobey or misinterpret street signs and traffic lights; failing to yield to other cars or
pedestrians who have the right of way and failing to judge distances between cars.
They are becoming easily frustrated and angry; appearing drowsy, confused and
frightened; having one or more near accidents and misses; drifting across lane markings or
bump into curbs; having difficulty with glare from oncoming headlights, streetlights, or
other bright or shiny objects, especially at dawn, dusk and at night.
They are ignoring signs of mechanical problems, including under-inflated tyres; having
too little strength to turn the wheel in an emergency such as tyre failure, a child darting into
traffic, etc; getting lost repeatedly, even in familiar areas; having difficulty with looking
over the shoulder to change lanes; having difficulty in moving the head left and right to
check traffic at intersections.
34
13. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
13.1 Cooperative Governance

Transportation Governance in South Africa is spread along the three spheres of governance,
namely the national, the provincial and the local authorities. The (National) DOT has to
develop policies and strategies. The implementation of these policies and strategies fall
squarely in the hands of the provincial and local authorities. They too can evolve their
ordinance and bylaws.
The spread of responsibilities is the product of the Constitution. It can, and often does,
cause confusion in the implementation of policies, their monitoring and evaluation.
There are other jurisdictions which fall under the purview of the residences where the
elderly reside. When they drive within these localities, they use electric vehicles and golf
carts. In the main, there should be no deviation within these localities and the traffic rules
that apply to the three spheres of government.

13.2 Agencies

There are state entities who report directly12 to the DOT and also to the other spheres of
government. Those that report to the DOT and which are relevant to this policy proposal
are the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) and the Road Traffic
Management Corporation (RTMC).
These report to the DOT, when the role of the DOT shall be mentioned it will be
assumed that this encompasses all the entities expected to implement this policy. Within
the DOT, the Land Transport Regulation Branch should be charged with the overall
“national” responsibility.

13.3 Lines of Responsibility

In issues of traffic law enforcement, there is a three-way separation, where national has its
enforcement arm, the provinces have theirs. The local municipalities have their own.
There will be a need for the clear lines of responsibilities. These should be the subject
of role definition discussion among all three mediated by the national DOT. Even given the
misnomer of a “national” department in the governance arrangement, the need for
leadership is expected from the national DOT.

13.4 Transport Authorities

Local governments in certain cities have their road agencies, with the Johannesburg Road
Agency (JRA) and the Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL) being the known examples, but not
limiting the other local jurisdictions, especially the metropolitan municipalities establishing
their own.
Local governments are enjoined by the National Land Transport Act (NLTA) to
establish Transport Authorities (TAs) under their jurisdiction. Not all of them have
established these at the time of developing this policy draft.
The policy discussion document does not seek to allocate the responsibilities of policy
implementation to one or other government sphere, or to this or that entity. It is to raise
senior citizen drivers issue for a proper allocation of responsibility.

12
Established in terms of Act No 7 of 1998.
35
 The awareness will help prevent the situation in American transportation jurisdiction
where states differ in the application of senior drivers’ policy.

13.5 Localized Implementation

On the balance of evidence that has been studied to develop this policy, most of the
accidents and the transgression by the elderly people take place on local roads. Local traffic
officials should be more vigilant, without allocating the right of laxity to prevail at
provincial and local government spheres.
Localized implementation is preferred because as the traffic officials would almost
always be from local communities, there will be a rapport between the senior citizen drivers
and traffic officers.
When traffic officers are known to the senior citizen drivers, conditions of trust can
exist. Local officers can be seen as friendly as opposed to officials who come out of town
who may not know the senior citizens personally.

13.6 Co-ordination

The sharing of knowledge, information and strategies, in a coordinated and co-operative

manner by the entities or the spheres of government that will be allocated the responsibility
of implementing this policy, is a prerequisite for this success of this policy. The knowledge
and the advancement of one area of transport jurisdiction should be used to benefit others
which are still struggling with this issue.
This issue has not featured in any of the discussion of the region at the level of the
Southern African Development Community (SADC). There will be a need for the gradual
introduction of this policy at this regional level so that countries of the region would find
synergies in implementation and review.
Senior citizen drivers may not be foremost on the agenda of the Community, as there
are many other pressing issues which have not been resolved. The DOT should try all
efforts to have the issue of elderly drivers tabled at their meetings of Ministers responsible
for transport in the region.
This regional integration should take a leaf from the Aged People Integration, Mobility,
Safety and Quality of Life Enhancement (AGILE) which looks at broader pan European
approaches to the certification of fitness to drive scheme.
Co-funded by the European Commission and ended in March 2005, the most relevant
areas for this battery of testing included reaction time, focus, divided attention, visual
scanning, eye-hand coordination, assessing distance.
Central to the policy is the sharing of information. The pan-European approach aims to
develop knowledge to establish rational pan-European policies for delivering certification
of fitness to drive and helping the elderly continue to drive safely. In the light of the
singularization of the driving licenses, the sooner this debate is engaged at community
(SADC) level, the better for coordination.

14. LINKING WITH EXISTING PROGRAMMES

There are some government programmes to improve a lot of the elderly in South Africa.
Much still needs to be done. These programmes should find support in this policy.
The most important of these projects at a national level is the social security grant. The
need for the elderly to reach social security centres, including hospitals and other service
areas is paramount. The transportation system at the public and self-provided, by privately
owned vehicles (POVs), is the mandate of the DOT.
The support and subsidization of retirement and old residential facilities by national
government driven by the DSD is an indication of how the government is seized with senior
36
citizens. There are laudable efforts by provinces to bring the elderly into the radar screen
of service delivery. Their accommodation should go beyond their invitation to dinners at
the end of the year and become a year-round preoccupation.
There are support mechanisms for the disability and women located within the
Presidency and the Premiers in the provinces. Not all the provinces have included the
elderly part in their programmes.
The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government has taken the lead in an innovative study.
The study will ensure that adequate services will be provided to the elderly. The outcomes
of this study will respond to the mobility of the elderly. The first of its kind as far as is
known, it should be replicated throughout the country.
The reconstruction of the R32-million KwaBadala Home For Senior Citizens in
Nkandla, which is one of the 53 facilities for senior citizens facilities in the province, by
the KwaZulu Provincial Government shows how Government can be alive to the plight of
the elderly.
Officials should also find ways of reaching out to the elderly at retirement or assisted living
villages to assist those elderly citizens who may require renewing their licenses. Their
assistance may require that they seek co-operation with DSD which visits or should do so,
the elderly more than other Departments.

15. THE BENEFITS OF THIS POLICY

15.1 Saving The Elderly Drivers

The development of policy that limits the movement of the elderly feeds into the stereotype
and the growth of the neglect of the elderly that is brought about by a number of factors
related to the work-life patterns and the change of morals in the new generation.
On the balance of probabilities between increasing the safety of the elderly and the
increasing dangers that they expose themselves by driving in the road network exposing
themselves to danger, the latter should prevail.

15.2 Assurance To Manufacturers

A clear policy on elderly drivers will not only send signals to the car manufacturing
industry, but to the insurance industry about how to configure their services to serve the
elderly citizens better. The market can better respond to the needs if the projected
numbers of the drivers on our roads are known.

15.3 Energy

The dependency on fossil fuels for vehicle energy and the unpredictability of the oil market
the supply and demand and the balance of payment deficit to the fiscus will be factored in
when the benefits of such a policy are considered. The choice and alternatives suggested
would assist the elderly to use their savings on urgent needs, but these suggestions could
have benefits for all road users, irrespective of their age.

15.4 Social Cohesion

Social cohesion as the result of mass usage of public transportation is a benefit that this
policy will bring and the maximum usage of public transport instead of the spare capacity
that is experienced during non-peak hours, for public and private service will be reversed.
Older persons should mingle and visit their friends and relatives and can enjoy the
benefits of other forms of social networking, meeting different people from different
37
cultures, a broad South Africanness, across generations. At the centre of social cohesion is
this common South Africanness.
Friendship and ageing cannot be backed up but social science research. Professor
Kennelly has argued that friendship is difficult to operationalize because it is hidden among
other themes. The concept of friendship needs further investigation as enhancing the
welfare of older people and their attainment of good life.
One issue which causes improper social behaviour in social situations could be best
responded to through the growth of this social cohesion for the elderly can learn from their
peers how to deal with disinhibition.

15.5 Roads For All

The policy will create new thinking in road civil engineering which will cater for all
categories of users, including the elderly. Not only the elder drivers but all users will
benefit. A Roads for all philosophy should be embraced in the conviction that once we
acknowledge that we all have shared ownership, there will be common respect for traffic
laws.
If there are benefits, they will accrue to all users. The reduction of accidents will be of
benefit to the country and help to divert financial resources channelled to the road network
to other competing needs.

15.6 Education

We argue that t there is an urgent need for education and retraining. The benefits of
retraining are enormous. It would immediately disseminate a body of information and
knowledge to a public that is always short of this information and the changes and demands
of the enterprise of driving.
Included in the beneficiaries of this new body of knowledge are the driving school
businesses which integrate this knowledge into their driving manuals and change their
methodologies. Education will spread corrective strategies to assist the elderly drivers.
Most importantly is the psychological preparation which brings into the reality that all
drivers, young and old, should know that one day they will hang up their keys. Young
drivers can begin to plan their futures and save more to have more independent later lives.
Finally, organizations for the ageing such as caregivers, retirement villages, doctors,
therapists, volunteers and others shall have advanced knowledge of the new information.

16. POLICY OPTIONS

16.1 The Drivers’ License Is A Privilege

The power to grant licenses to people to be on the road is a function of tests. In essence,
driving on South Africa roads is a privilege in the same way that a passport is. The major
policy option to underline the driving environment is the power of the state to grant, or not
to grant, to restrict and to revoke that driving privilege.
The licensing authorities will continue to have the right not to grant the license at first
application to all aspirant drivers who do not conform to the required test standards set out
for driving. Secondly, the power of the State through its agencies to revoke the drivers’
licenses of people of any ages should continue to be the overriding policy approach.
The privileges nature of the driver’s license having been explained, there is a rider which
goes with this privilege: that of responsibility. The state is aware that it is extending the
privilege to drive to suitable drivers.

38
 There is a reciprocal expectation that drivers with this privilege to treat the right to drive
as the one fraught with lots of responsibilities – to themselves, to their vehicles, to other
drivers and to the surrounding environment in which they drive.

16.2 Road and Vision Testing

Across the DOT, there has been no preparation at a policy level for the booming elderly
population. One of the considerations for the policy in this regard will be the promotion of
frequent vision test and behind the wheel examinations for drivers over 65.
The vision tests should be carried together or separate from a second policy option,
which is the road test which will enable traffic authorities to know which drivers have the
physical and mental abilities to continue to be on the road network.
The policy options should depart from the premise that not all elderly drivers are bad
drivers. The development of policy should be taken into consideration that there should be
no blanket application of policy, as this would otherwise prejudice elderly citizens who are
facing a myriad of other societal prejudices against them.
Each case should be studied on its own, with a clear understanding that people have
individual capabilities including the physical, sensory and cognitive.
If testing cannot be done physically, there should be enough technological introductions
to allow for simulated testing for the senior citizen drivers who want to renew their licenses.
Simulated testing should be based on a modified vehicle which can be operated similarly
as any other production vehicle for the two environments to “talk to each other.
The study conducted by Yamada and Kuchar13, quoted for this policy is an ideal resource
for simulation and elderly drivers. The simulator should accommodate the following areas:
visibility; wayfinding; wayfinding with a navigation system; Automatic Braking System;
4-scenario yielding for jaywalkers, pedestrians and right of way; intersections of varying
complexities for left and right turns merging; starting up traffic and roundabouts.
The simulator should provide a dynamism that mimics the actual real-life driving. It
should be able to have a visual system; primary controls such as the steering wheel and
pedals; a vehicle model with active feedback; a sound system; car body in the form of a
driver’s cab as well as an optional motion system.
There should be financial consideration by the DOT if a semi-dynamic simulator
consisting of pitch roll and vibrations, based on SMART vehicle cabin with a sight system
of 200 degrees Field of view (FOV).
For an effective e relationship between road engineering and the perception, the testing
criteria should include the following components: latency time (the period lost between the
rise of the stimulus and the eye movement to that stimulus); the eye and head movement (
the time that the head and the eye will move towards the stimulus); fixation time (the time
that must be spent before the stimulus is identified); recognition time ( the tine that the
brain takes to formulate a reaction to the stimulus); decision time (the sifting of alternatives
before a correct decision is made) and limb movement times ( the time that a driver needs
to move his or her limbs particularly the foot to the brake pedals).
The other areas of vision changes which affect the elderly are reductions in acuity,
contrast sensitivity and visual field; restrictions in areas of vision attention; increased
sensitivity to glare; decreased dark adaptation; decreased motion sensitivity.

13
Yamada, K. Kuchar, J. Preliminary Study of Behavioural and Safety Effects Of Driver Dependence On A
Warning Systems in a Driving Simulator.
39
16.3 Age Limitation

As far as could be ascertained, no policy or legislation exists for the limitation of the age
of drivers in the road system. It is recommended that the driving age be limited to the age
of 85 across the board, irrespective of whether the ageing effects of one driver over another
is better or worse.
Policy options to address accessibility by the elderly should include public
transportation which should include buses with “kneeling” capability. First introduced in
Germany in the later 1980s, these will be replicated in the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).The
mobility needs of the elderly and senior citizens should be considered in the introduction
of BRT by cities.
The Public Transport Strategy and implementation plans should cater for the senior
citizen drivers and the necessary modifications that would make their journeys using public
transport more accommodative of their needs.
The provision of public transport should be all-encompassing. It seeks to encourage the
transportation-rich senior citizens. It should provide mobility for the transportation
deprived. The elderly should be able to travel where they want to as opposed to travelling
where they need to.

16.4 Voluntary Escorting Programmes

Public transport strategies should be supplemented by a culture of voluntarism, where there

should be an encouragement of younger drivers offering a voluntary service to drive elderly
passengers and commuters, either directly to the places of conveniences, or to the nearest
public transport facility.
Communities drive these efforts. Their add-on outcome are the strengthening of social
cohesion and the creation of intergenerational camaraderie. Public transport alone would
not be sufficient but will need to be complemented by a public transport infrastructure such
as transit shelters, climate conditions, short waits and short distances to transit stops,
situational awareness (SA) and information about existing options.
If there are no vehicles, either personally-owned or public transport vehicles available,
the volunteers, referred to as the transportation concerned, or care providers who move
from assisting one elderly driver to another should be available to walk with or assist in
walking the elderly to their places of convenience.
This would have the added benefits to the health and longevity of the elderly person and
be able to provide the door-to-door service and protection from the inclement weather.

16.5 Car-Pooling and Share riding

Other alternatives such as carpooling, “school bus” walks and vehicle sharing should be
explored as alternatives to the elderly driving on their own. To encourage these alternatives,
some myths about all of them as a principle should be dispelled. It is a myth that carpool
lanes do not carry as many people as regular users.
Carpools carry more people than single drivers, even when the carpool cars found in the
road network are less than the regular user. Although South Africa does not have a
carpooling culture to warrant the demarcation of roads, when it was piloted by the DOT
(the HOV Day), there was no uptake to institutionalize it.
Owning a vehicle and driving one even when there is no urgency, speaks to the decades
of deprivation. Car ownership has been entrenched as a symbol of material success.

40
16.6 Mobility Option Matrix

If the elderly would like to exercise their right of choice, the implementing sphere of
government should develop a Mobility Option Matrix. The matrix which shall include fixed
routes in rail and bus; paratransit which could provide door-to-door, community
transportation; such as community buses with flexible routing, demand drive transport and
dial-a-ride; taxis with or without shared rides and limousine services.
The neighbourhood travelling such as golf carts; neighbourhood electric vehicles (NEV)
or Segways; powered wheelchairs, scooters; cycling and walking, could be decided on a
neighbourhood level as and when available and affordable. Affordability has to be
determined before each option is decided upon.

16.7 Travel Demand Management (TDM) For Senior Citizens

In all travel demand management strategies, the DOT should be able to factor in the
particular travel needs of the elderly. They are different from those of the other age groups.
To accordingly plan public transportation schedules and routes in such a manner that the
elderly are dissuaded from using their transport to their destinations.
The travel demand patterns of the elderly are anecdotal. The other policy option is
continuous research on the travel demand of the elderly drivers to develop travel demand
management measures to respond to their travel needs.
Such a travel demand management should form a ring in the onion of TDM approaches
for all categories of transport users. The TDM culture itself has to be further inculcated as
a planning tool which should also include the elderly as a category.
Travel demand management should be done to ascertain on which day of the week and
between which times, are most of the senior citizen drivers on the road and which roads
they often use to facilitate the planning and traffic authorities to deploy adequate personnel
to assist them.
These determinations should be able to factor in the seasonality of the traffic movements
in South Africa. We should concede that as more people move and drive around during the
Easter period and the festive season periods, the chances of the senior citizen drivers to be
on the road network during this time is higher than at other times.
Faith-based transportation and the elderly would require further research, but there is
anecdotal evidence that the elderly are more religious than their younger counterparts and
are likely to be the higher percentage of drivers who drive to churches and other places of
worship.
Cultural differences in South African can determine the travel needs of different cultural
and ethnic groups. I cultures where extended families are important, the chances of travel
demands are higher than the culture where the individual family and individual personality
is paramount.
A celebration of certain cultural functions such as the reed ceremony in KwaZuluNatal
can trigger a demand that would not be expected in other provinces. Cultural functions of
this nature are presided over by the elderly. They have to travel to these destinations.
Sports events and festivals (e.g. July Handicap and the Cape Town Jazz Festival) have
contributed to high travel demands. It should be monitored for the particular travel needs
of the elderly and senior citizens.
Seasonality affects demand travel for all age categories. The summer season around the
beginning of December has mass volumes of people movement, including the senior
citizens, travelling mostly towards the east coast of the country. At these times, the traffic
is unidirectional.
In South Africa and in all developing countries, there are additional travel demands
which are not exhibited in developed economies. These are travelling needs to the
chieftains and tribal courts and faith and traditional healers.

41
 New routes are established when it is known that a particular healer in one part of the
country or the other is capable of healing this or another form of disease or can bring luck.
Travel demand management should factor these needs.

16.8 Inter-Government Relations (IGR)

Transport is a cooperative governance issue as indicated in Section 3 of the South African

Constitution. All the three spheres of government can and have adopted different
approaches to deal with transportation issues.
The central government should guide the policy on driving by the elderly. The other spheres
should develop their criteria without deviating from the main policy options determined by
the national government.
District Municipalities may decide to embark on a district approach. All the
municipalities that make up the district municipality should follow the lead of the district
municipalities. In each case, the municipality or district should make sure that the
implementation of the policy achieves social cohesion.
When the local sphere has decided on implementing the policy, they would require the
assistance of the other spheres of government. All locally based initiatives to deal with
senior citizens driver should be driven from the local fiscus.
If there are financial challenges, the normal process for budgetary applications to
National Treasury should be embarked upon. As in the Municipal financial architecture,
this process should be subject to the Municipal Financial Management Act (MFMA) as
well as the Municipal Structures Act (MSA).

16.9 Voluntarism

Often the pressure is put on the state authorities to identify drivers who are not fit to be on
the road. The responsibility must be shared. The one policy option to achieve would be for
the drivers to have the responsibility of informing the licensing authorities if they suspect
that their driving abilities are being impaired.
The privilege to drive should be balanced by the onus being on the drivers assuring the
licensing offices that they can still drive. It is of paramount importance to the age cohort of
this policy document, but this responsibility should be for universal application.
Related to this will be the policy option of rewarding elderly drivers who voluntarily
hand over their cars. The nature of the reward can be reworked by the DOT at a later stage.
It may include, but not limited to, the issuing of public transport tickets to the driver free
of charge for a certain period and reduced fare at non-peak hours.
As there are organizations that provide these services, the DOT as well as implementing
spheres of government to partner with them. When these services are faltering or non-
existent, there should be a hybridization of services, meaning the cooperation between
public and private sectors.
The State should consider resourcing State-run retirement villages with vehicles suitable
for the transportation of the senior citizens. These vehicles shuttle between the places of
conveniences and the retirement villages. While the richer retirement villages do provide
these, the poorer ones cannot afford.

16.10 Vehicle Modification and New Technologies

In conceding that there will always be a need for some (even a larger number) of elderly
drivers on the road network, elderly vehicle owners should consider modifications to their
cars which will allow them to drive their vehicles easier. The areas that should be
considered for modifications are the mirrors, the seats and the steering wheels.

42
 This will be at the discretion of the driver, but it has to be underpinned by a policy of
enforcement. If the elderly driver has been found to have been involved in an accident as a
result of the absence of the modifications, they should only be allowed back into the road
network once they satisfy authorities that their vehicles have been modified.
Newer versions of motor vehicles are cluttered with dashboards which have newer
instruments with multiple displays. These require the elderly drivers to concentrate more
than they would in older models. There should be consideration by the vehicle dealers to
acclimatize the elderly vehicle buyers to these new dashboards and their multiple functions.
In cases where the senior citizen drivers have arthritis and cannot turn their necks to
look over for behind and beside them – that is the fixation issue or peripheral vision- these
drivers should consider installing a larger rear view mirror inside their cars to ensure that
they have complete vision through the rear window.
In cases where senior citizen drivers cannot turn their necks and cannot be able to detect
blind sports, small convex fish-eye mirrors can be attached to the exterior mirrors of the
vehicle to assist them with vision.
Ergonomics designs of vehicle seats for the elderly should be such that the elderly
drivers can move their seats forward. The seats could be raised as most senior citizens lose
their body mass as they grow older, as is often the case with elder women drivers.
If a seat cannot be moved upwards or rotate, the elderly can decide on an option of using
cushions to elevate themselves from lower seats. The door opening dimensions in
horizontal and vertical dimensions, fish-eye mirrors, the force of control buttons and easy
reach safety belts should be examined.
Seatbelts may not fit exactly because senior drivers lose their body weight. The elderly
must ensure that the seatbelts fit them well. If the seat belt does not fit, the drivers may
consider getting a sash guide from vehicle dealers or auto accessory shops.
The innovation by a leading car manufacturer of a Third Age Suit, where there is a
simulation of an “elderly driver fitment” process into a new vehicle, is a step to be followed
by others in the field.
Other vehicle manufacturers have adopted this approach such as Nissan in Japan. The
“old suit” displayed below simulates the effects of ageing because it is not always possible
to recruit senior citizens drivers in vehicle design research.
While discussing the loss of body mass by the elderly drivers as they grow older, policy
options around ergonomics should not ignore the rising figure of people with obesity. When
obesity is an inhibiting factor for the elderly drivers to drive their vehicles, different
measures should be taken to accommodate them in their vehicles.
In relation to the alternatives of public transportation as a persuasive measure to wean
the elderly off their vehicles, the modifications for the people with obesity should be located
within the paradigm of all-encompassing transport mode accessibility discussed in the
relevant section of this document.
The policy option of modifications will require technological interventions. The policy
options should be underpinned by the encouragement of the development of technology to
increase elderly driver safety, including retrofitting their older model vehicles with
improved braking systems such as Advanced Braking System (ABS) as well as “smart”
airbags and other improvements.
The DOT will be actively involved in technological inventions or to support such
inventions materially and financially, but it should not deviate from its mandate of policy-
making. It should leave the commercial development of products to the private sector.
The space for the technologies should be enhanced on the back of the already existing
ones and those being studied. Without reference to the specific manufacturers, there should
be additions and improvements to the Third Age Suit, iDrive, Multi-Media Interface
(MMI), Heads Up Display (HUD) and others.
With the advent of technology and the DOT migrating to more technological
innovations, it may well be that in future drivers will have the ability to renew their license
by internet or email.
43
 Elderly drivers need to be tested physically. The option of the internet or email renewal
should not be considered an option for elderly drivers. If the tests are a monumental task, a
random post-drive test for the elderly drivers should be considered.
The traffic IT systems such as e-Natis should be able to automatically originate the need
for the senior citizen drivers to re-test than for them to report to the driver licensing station.
The systems should be able to pick up drivers who have reached a determined age for
rechecking and retesting.
New vehicle technologies include collision warning signs, visual, auditory and tactile
displays, night vision equipment, in-vehicle signing. There should be an understanding that
the elderly drivers would have to be introduced to these technologies.
The technologies may require the elderly drivers to multi-task while driving. The
reliability of the warning systems has to be tested in such a manner that they can be easily
defined regarding the Miss Rates (MR), False Alarm Rates (FAR) and Positive Predictive
Values (PPV).
Newer technologies may go with newer driving methodologies which are different from
the ones we were used. Air bags require migration from the traditional “10 and 12” o’clock
driving to the “9 and 3” o’ clock driving method because of injuries that can be caused by
the bursting airbags. Authorities and the drivers should always be kept up to date with these
changes.
There must be policy support for the most effective driver assistance system for the
elderly drivers. Emergency systems and an enhanced vision system can call for assistance
location. Curve lighting, automatic dipping and parking aids with a camera and infrared
techniques, longitudinal and lateral controlling of cars, cruise controls, anti-lock systems
and electronic stability programmes need to be taught to elderly drivers who drive vehicles
fitted with them.
It is incumbent upon new vehicle designers to be aware of the needs of the senior citizen
drivers. In vehicle design, the testing of these vehicles should involve senior citizens drivers
themselves.
Elderly drivers should be taught the use of Geographical Positioning Systems (GPS) to
avoid being lost. Designs in new vehicles should have the mandatory technologies, such as
the accident prevention and audible alerts, forward collision warnings, lane departures
warning and headway monitoring and warning.
There must be a warning related to the over-reliance of technology which may trigger
risk homeostasis. Drivers who know their vehicles have the best of technological
protections tend to drive more recklessly than those who do not. The case of cognitive
overload becomes a negative side of the technological innovation.
At a civil liberty level, there is justifiable fear from a certain user that the car has more
information about how they drive and where they are and what they do. The “intrusion may
be used as evidence against them in the case of an accident. These should be considered in
the technological deployments.

16.11 Other Illnesses and Disabilities

The assessment of whether people with certain categories of disabilities can continue to
drive, at whatever age, is necessary. If people use walkers, they will have problems with
foot control of pedals and brakes. It may be risky for them to drive.
There are exceptional cases, where people can still drive when they have some or other
disabilities. This is an area that would need scrutiny, as this policy is not discriminatory.
Not all senior citizen drivers live with disabilities. The degenerative effects of their
ageing cannot be linked to any disabilities. It is true, that if there are solutions found for
people with disabilities in the transportation system, they are likely to have a positive effect
on the senior citizen drivers and vice versa.

44
16.12 Reduction of Passengers Numbers

We alluded to one of the tell-tale signs of elderly drivers asking other passengers if they
are still driving correctly. A policy limiting the number of passengers that travel in a vehicle
driven by a senior citizen driver need to be developed. It will minimize the number of
people injured or killed in an accident.
Social networking is central to the life of the elderly. Limiting them should be
communicated as an effort to assist the elderly rather than limiting them from the company
of their friends. It should be on a voluntary basis for their safety rather than on an enforced
basis. It should be left to the elderly driver to inform the authorities of the conditions which
may affect their driving.

16.13 Insurance For All Vehicles

There is evidence that car insurers have taken a stand of reducing vehicle insurance
premiums for elderly drivers because they are involved in fewer crashes. The DOT should
express a policy view.
This view should be generic in that it should force all vehicles on the road to be insured.
The levels of insurance premiums and rates to be left at the discretion of the companies or
to market forces.
At all age levels, the impact on the fiscus for the reclamation of a road accident, or the
delays caused as a result of them has got to be addressed. The unequal treatment and access
to the road system for those who drive with insurance and those who drive without
insurance is a gap that must be addressed.
The user-pays principle has got to be applied across the board. The DOT will consider
whether the reclamation of a road accident should not be at the cost of the driver who caused
the accident.
In the Californian traffic jurisdiction, there is a compulsion for all the drivers to maintain
in force an acceptable form of insurance which must be carried at all times. If the drivers
are found not to be insured when involved in a collision, their driving privilege is
suspended. The DOT will study the applicability of this traffic law in the South African
transport jurisdictions.

16.14 Accelerated License Renewals

More frequent license renewals after a certain age should be a policy option. If the normal
drivers renew their licenses after five years, the elderly drivers will renew theirs at reduced
intervals.
The elderly drivers will renew them in person rather than electronically, or by post. It is
advisable to test elderly drivers on those aspects identified as afflicting many elderly
drivers. It is not advisable to subject the elderly drivers to a new battery of tests.

16.15 Determination of driving times

As there is evidence that most of the elderly and senior drivers do not prefer to drive at
night, there should be a policy determination of the times at which the elderly can be
allowed on the road. These should be calibrated between the summer and winter seasons
and the shorter and longer nights.
Driving time limitations should be buttressed with the determination of weather
conditions limitations. In hazardous weather conditions, senior citizen drivers are
discouraged from driving. There is evidence that elderly driver crashes also happens in
good weather.

45
16.16 “Lights-On” Policy

Related to the determination of driving times because the elderly cannot see clearly at night,
it can be a policy consideration that they should not only be able to see during the day but
should be seen.
The policy on lights throughout the driving experience, including during the day has not
been articulated. It may well be that the elderly are advised to have their lights on even
when they are driving during the day for other drivers can see them.
During the season of congestions, there have been suggestions that drivers should have
their light on during the day. The lights off has been on a voluntary basis. There has been
no independent evaluation of whether this contributed to the reduction in fatalities on the
roads. The DOT will make a policy announcement since newer vehicles are fitted with the
automated lights.

16.17 Re-education and Retraining

We have alluded to the impossibility of removing all elderly drivers on the road and because
of this there, is a need to re-educate those elderly drivers who will continue to be on the
road. To re-educate the elderly drivers, the authorities should concentrate on the following
collision avoidance techniques: left angled; rear-end; side sweeps; right turn; reversing;
parked vehicles; parking manoeuvres; cyclists; animals; and pedestrians.
There should be another policy option of retraining elderly drivers to include lessons on
vision, hearing, reaction, flexibility and the after effects of medications; safer driving
techniques; dealing with blind spots and how to drive carefully at intersections where most
elderly drivers find problems; parking in parallel and other forms of parking; ergonomic
issues such as proper seating to have the correct vision and be able to react in time in cases
of accidents.
Other inclusions should be the availability of alternative public transport. Elderly drivers
and commuters should know how to read the timetables and study the routes of alternative
public transport. There should be home internet access for elderly drivers who have access
to computers may not need to drive to places where they can have things sent to them
online, or delivered to their homes after ordering them online.
Retraining and education are important as some elderly drivers are consumed by the
lack of confidence in themselves emanating from another societal concern that is
ambivalent to them.
There is a need for the creation of this self-confidence as it may have positive effects on
their driving as well. The self-confidence could be approached from a variety of angles
which will have ripple on effects.
Further education and information sharing by the responsible authorities should be
undertaken continuously to alert drivers under cognitive, physical and sensory challenges
that they should consider giving up the wheel.
Vehicles and rules change as people get older. Senior citizen drivers often quote their
experience, but this does not necessarily mean that they are up to date with the recent
changes in road use. Coughlin and Reimer observed that:

“the 50 + year driver is likely to have well over 30 years of driving experience – experience
that makes them among the safest drivers on the road. The same experience that makes safe
drivers often makes their learning and use of novel systems a challenge.” 14

14
Coughlin, J. and Reimer, B. New Demands From An Older Population: An Integrated Approach to Defining
The Future Of Older Driver Safety. MIT.
46
New traffic signs and not the ones the senior citizen drivers were tested on are introduced
from time to time. Elderly drivers were tested on hand signalling, which while still useful
in certain cases, has been overtaken by time and the other drivers, especially younger
drivers, may not understand them.
There is a knowledge gap between the age groups. The elderly need to be kept up to
date with new road rules and new acts and regulations and traffic signalling as they pertain
to driving, including new traffic signs introduced from time to time.
About the attitudes of male drivers against female drivers and in particular to the elderly
female drivers, societal and cultural values need revision. We need to inculcate it now
across the board. The change of these values would go a long way towards benefiting the
objectives of this policy.
The transport family needs to embrace ubuntu in the moral regeneration movement. The
policy cannot be fully implemented without an undertaking of attitudinal research of the
senior citizens. Research should factor in addressing the combating the negative images,
attitudes, stereotypes and discriminatory practice.
For effective education and training, there should be available statistics to determine the
levels of education of the elderly, for proper re-education and training material can be
developed according to those levels of education.

16.18 Self-Restraint

We have argued that an ideal situation would be when the elderly drivers decide on their
own to hang up the keys. It is not always that the senior drivers will approach traffic
officials. It may not be feasible for all traffic stations to deal with the numbers of elderly
drivers who want to hand themselves over or to find out whether they are still competent
to drive.
Traffic authorities have to develop a self-assessment tool by the elderly drivers to
determine whether they can still be on the road. The tool will enhance the policy
implementation. It will also lead to an administrative reduction mechanism for the often
stretched traffic officials to concentrate on other aspects of traffic law enforcement.

16.19 Counselling

The establishment of the counselling advice should strengthen the policy options. The
elderly will be able to share their experiences of driving in challenging times. Counselling
should open space for the elderly to vent out about their isolation and the need to be mobile.
They should articulate the disadvantages they face if they do not drive.
At the same time, counselling could assist the elderly driver to arrive sooner to a decision
of driver cessation, as the counselling sessions should be able to issue out alternatives to
driving.
Group therapy in this instance could be of assistance as elderly drivers consider
themselves to be part of a group that is facing similar problems. Such counselling could be
done by registered community support groups or can be done in driver testing stations.

16.20 Ability Matrix

For the alternatives to be attractive, it is suggested that transport authorities and

implementing spheres of government should develop an ability matrix. Such a matrix
should make the elder person must be able to know what he or she should do at the
functional level and what he or she should know if the decision to drive himself or herself,
be a passenger or to walk is taken.

47
16.21 Popularizing The Discipline

This issue may fall outside the mandate of the DOT. There Transport officials should be
au fait with the research products that would come from a new discipline on gerontology.
This would require that the Department of Higher Education (DHET), transport research
houses and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), engage in growing the
awareness of the discipline on Human Factors and Ergonomic (HF/E), which is a discipline
that deals with the “symbiosis between humans and their environment.”15
The DOT should support the establishment and the growth of Chairs of Gerontology in
higher education to supplement the one that exists at the University of Cape Town.
This will eliminate a risk aversion syndrome within the DOT where scenarios and
forecasts and margins of error are avoided.
There is a preoccupation with accuracy and exactitudes. A discourse that has to involve
individuals such as elderly drivers driven by certain environmental conditions at a societal
level, there can be no exact sciences.
This draft policy seeks to break out of this thinking and propose a policy issue that may
not be currently pressing but is likely to do in future. The emphasis is not looking for
anything anywhere near a revolution, but an evolutionary process which will mature over
time. The study of gerontology can be added as a third level training in the social sciences
and other disciplines.

16.22 Reporting By Third Parties

Systems already exist for the anonymous reporting of bad driving and bad drivers. The
anonymous reporting of bad driving by the elderly drivers should not be encouraged as a
stand-alone reporting, as it may victimize all elderly drivers.
If there is anonymous reporting of bad driving, it should be up to the traffic authorities
who respond to determine whether the cause of bad driving was a result of age.
There should be an obligation for doctors to advise their elderly patients whose
abilities to react to situations or who are having diminishing levels of sight and judgment
to stop driving. Doctors should make arrangements to meet their patients at their homes or
encourage them to be accompanied by members of their families.
This decision should be made on the balance of costs: If home care is expensive in
relation to the patients visiting the doctor at his or her practice, then the option should not
be considered.
The advantages of a doctor visiting a patient should not be discarded as this would be
to the benefit of the traffic authorities. It will have an added advantage of making known
to the members of the family how to care and or administer the prescribed medicines to the
elderly.
In Pennsylvania, in the US, deficit-reporting laws make it obligatory for the doctors
and physicians to report their patients to traffic authorities. Deficit reporting may affect the
doctor patient-confidentiality and should be treated with caution.
It can be challenged in a court of law. Patients themselves tend to hide their medical
problems from doctors if this would prejudice them (the patients). It is advisable for doctors
to advise their patients against driving when they have challenges rather than reporting
them to the police.
We need statistics that will indicate how many elderly people live with longstanding
illnesses including those illnesses such as Alzheimer and dementia. How many attend
primary care facilities? How many have hospital care and home care?

15
Dough Griffith; Human Factors, Ergonomics and Aging: The View of One Ageing Ergonomist. Virginia.
48
 On issuing medication to the elderly, including multiple medications, it is incumbent
upon the medical practitioners to explain to them the side effects of the medication. Some
of the medication is correct prognosis for the elderly people’s ailments.
They may have a deleterious effect on driving, such as benzodiazepines, which are good
for treating insomnia, but may lead to confusion, drowsiness and decreased motor
coordination.
If benzodiazepines are prescribed, efforts should be made to prescribe those with short-
term side effects. Other depressants that should be used with caution are antihistamines and
other small allergy medicines as well as codeine, which are painkillers and headache pills.
There are other medicine acquisition methodologies which are often not scrutinized for
side effects or for which side effects are not properly explained to the users.
The first relates to the Over-the-counter (OTC) medicines from pharmacists. The
purchaser knows the medicines they want and gets them without proper diagnosis.
Pharmacists or the dispensers should discuss the after-effects of the medicines so obtained
to the elderly drivers.
The second relates the traditional medicines whose appropriateness has not been
scientifically proven. There is a limited number of elderly drivers who use these categories
of medicines. The reality of South African life is that there are people who rely on them. If
there are known side effects even when these have not been scientifically proven, these
should be made known to purchasers.
Despite the family members’ responsibility to see to the transportation of the elderly
and their safety, there shall be an obligation on the members of the family to alert the traffic
authorities of the inability of the elderly relative to be a competent driver. Many family
members do not want to hurt their elderly by turning them in.
The incidental benefits of the involvement of all the people in close contact with the
elderly drivers will be the overall understanding of the challenges faced by the senior
citizen drivers. It would thus serve as a learning period for younger drivers. They too would
reach the stage in their lives when they should consider the challenges in the road network
as beyond their capability to drive.

16.23 The Role Of The Private Sector

The partnership we have been alluding to extends to the private sector as well. There are
issues where we call on the private sector as benefactors of their corporate philanthropy
principles.
Since the private sector can employ the elderly as drivers as a reward for loyalty or as
full-time drivers largely because they know the delivery areas more than others as a result
of experience, the same rules that apply to society should apply to the private sector
employees.

16.24 Statistics

Despite the need for statistics in the policy, they are peripheral. However, they (statistics)
would help to support it and would be directly helpful to other departments. The ones
discussed in this section deal specifically with the policy.
In the absence of reliable and consistent statistics for policy formulation and planning,
the relevant authorities should cooperate. StasSA in collaboration with transport entities
and authorities should devise a means through which a cross-sectional population-based
assessment of the severity of the motor vehicle traffic crashes (MVTCS) and driver
involvement rates per 10 000 licensed drivers by age, can be ascertained.
All statistical analysis carried for and by the DOT should be aggregated to age groups.
The transport policy and transport planners to place their emphasis on certain age groups.

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There are bound to be differences in the manner in which different age groups react to
different situations.
Male vs female fatality statistics for all age groups should be undertaken to understand
better the age and gender differences that should lead to improvements in vehicle and
highway design to minimize injuries.
Since the incidences of disability can be juxtaposed with that of ageing, disability data
aggregation should work in tandem with the data analysis of the elderly people who cannot
be able to drive as a result of the incidents of disabilities.
There should be closer collaboration between police records, hospitals and clinics and
insurance records and court records to arrive at more reliable figures about fatalities and
injuries. These are located in different depositories specific to each of these institutions.
Collaboration will result in a comprehensive understanding of the gravity of senior citizen
drivers.
In the compilation of these statistics and data, the details of the crash such a roadway
conditions time of day and road condition should be analyzed. Crash patterns such as the
driver stopping in the middle of the roadway could be helpful in predicting future crashes.
The analysis of time is important for the necessary personnel to be deployed. The
following graph indicates most transport-related deaths at 31.1% occurred between 18 h00
and 23h00, followed by the 07h00 to 08h00 time slots. These times indicate odd times for
the elderly drivers who drive during the day. The statistics may need to be drilled down
even further for age:
In the determination of deploying resources to implement this policy and using the
preponderance of numbers, it is clear that following its centrality in the South African
economy, Gauteng has the highest number of senior citizen drivers.
A study conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) on the Road
Accident Fund (RAF) indicates that the claims for compensation from the RAF increases
with age. There was no substantial difference in the success rates of the different age
groups, except the 60+ group who tended to be less successful in claiming that the others.
We not to deal with the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and the claims success rate
according to age groups. The DOT should consider conducting a study to find out why the
elderly are prejudiced in this manner.
This study may not fall squarely within the transportation statistics but may best serve
DSD than DOT. It will give “line of sight” to the general problems faced by the elderly.
The DOT, working together with StasSA, shall provide, among others, the following
sets of statistics, differentiated into gender and age groups: population, mileage and
licensure rates crash types; licensure rates of adults; gender differences; motor vehicle
deaths; passenger vehicle deaths per 100 000 drivers; pedestrian deaths per 100 000;
percent distribution of passenger vehicle drivers by crash types.
The other statistics should be average number of daily vehicles kilometers by driver age
group; average number of daily vehicle trips by age group; average distance of daily vehicle
trips by driver by age group; percentage of kilometres drive at night by driver age group;
percentage of kilometres drive during peak hours by age group; average speed on all roads
by driver age group; average speed on limited access; percentage of kilometres driven on
limited-access highways by driver age group; average size of automobiles by age group of
main drivers; and average occupancy of vehicle trips by driver age.
There should be a concerted effort from the statistics community to eliminate the
preponderance of “others” and “unknowns” as these “quantities” do not assist in arriving
at appropriate policy formulation and planning.
To collect statistics in a manner that will be useful and correlate with other statistical
methods and area delineation, Transport area zones (TAZ) that were developed for the
National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) should be used. The metropolitan statistical
areas (MSA) could be the ones that were developed by the Metropolitan Demarcation
Board (MBD).

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 To have an efficient statistics and data collection system, there must be a compulsory
reporting of all accidents and incidents within ten days to the traffic authorities of all
accidents.
This reporting should be over and above those reported to the insurance companies or
the police. Such a report must indicate whether any damage was done to any property and
whether any people were injured in the accident or incident.

16.25 Accident Analysis

Much effort should be put into accurate and proper analyses of the characteristics of
accidents caused by the senior citizen drivers in particular. These characteristics should
pertain, but not be limited to locating; traffic control; prevailing conditions; time; driver;
and type of collision (right-angled; left-angled; backing collisions and parked vehicle and
Parking manoeuvres).

16.26 Injuries

There has been much preoccupation with crashes and fatalities in the provision of data and
statistics to the detriment of injury analysis. The functional reasons and the structure of the
elderly drivers means they are more likely to be injured in a crash than other age groups.
Because of reduced income and the lack of support systems from families, the elderly
drivers are likely to take longer to recover from their injuries.
Both fatalities and injuries impact on the national fiscus. The analysis of the “golden
hour” and how the elderly drivers fare when faced with motor vehicle injuries should be
understood. Do the injuries contribute to the disability or death and to what extent can
answers to these questions accelerate the adoption of this policy?

16.27 Interdepartmental and Inter-Provincial Co-operation

Transport is an input function which facilitates the achievements of other objectives. The
DOT should co-operate with all the multi-faceted efforts of other government departments
such as the DSD, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) (e.g. Masifundisane campaign
in KwaZulu-Natal), the DOH, e.g. cataract surgery, provision of reading glasses and
reduction of morbidity and mortality), Department of Human Settlement (DHS) (e.g. the
South African Plan On Ageing) and Department of Safety and Security (DSS) (Safe Teas
Programme) among others, including Transnet’s Phelo Phepa comprehensive train health
services.

16.28 Engineering Interventions

General town planning should be reconsidered to cater for the gentrification that allows the
elderly people easier access to places of conveniences. Such ameliorative gentrification
will reverse the suburbanization of the elderly and arrest the effects of sprawl. This policy
option needs to be supported by tangible incentives as the elderly people are the least likely
to move, seeing it as part of their marginalization by society.
The questions which would need to be responded to by further research in the DHS to
assist this policy, should be able: Where are the seniors moving in our country and are
services available for the senior citizens? Where should elderly housing be located? How
many houses are needed for the elderly?
This will require wider and coordinated planning across departments which should lead
to walkable, bikeable parks with sidewalks, rail-to-rail projects, landscaping and scenery
protection measures and accessible town centres in much the same way that they were
designed before the Second World War.
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 Restaurants, homes, offices are not isolated pods but are intelligently mixed. To
understand the mobility needs of the elderly, authorities should know statistically, how
many of them own their houses and how many of them live in retirement villages.
Underlying this rezoning is New Urbanism, a phenomenon which has not taken root in
the South African land use and land planning arena. It is hoped that the DHS will be seized
with this issue in such a manner as to view transport as its integral rather than competitive
part.
There is a new of street names being overhead and larger than the orthodox ones. There
is also the visible cross streets under the bridges emblazoned in the larger black paint on a
white background should be continued for the benefit of all drivers, including the elderly
and the senior citizen drivers.
These should have a minimum letter height of 300 mm overhead. There should be
directional arrows overhead of the intersections of the roads have different road names.
Because of their visual challenges, senior and elderly drivers cannot read the street name
signage. As a result of this, they may get lost, or take wrong turns. This street signage and
names should be provided in advance and be retroreflective. Elderly drivers should know
a distance before turning that they would be turning.
Signage should not cause a clutter as many elderly drivers cannot process multiple
sources of information at the same time. Perceptions and reactions times affect the elderly’
processing speed.
Traffic signs are ever converging towards some international standardization. As a result
of this, traffic signs being introduced should be preceded by a wider publicity campaign
not only to the senior citizen drivers but for all categories of drivers.
Guide signs should have larger letter sizes based on the 10 m legibility distance per 25m,
of letter height to satisfy the 20/40 vision to which a larger number of senior citizen drivers
can be accommodated.
Because some elderly drivers have visual impairments (which escalates rapidly after 75-
years old) cannot differentiate between edge treatments, there should be correct luminance
contrasts, which should be decided on whether there is overhead with lighting on without
lighting.
In the case of the former, there should be a contrast level of 2.0. For the latter, there
should be a contrast level of 3.0.
There should be signal heads directly above the lane they are referring to in order avoid
confusion and comprehension errors. Signal back plates relevant to the lane should support
these.
If there should be a left or right turn by the elderly driver, there should be left and right
turn signals. There should be a separate face for the left turn and a separate face for the
right turn.
This should be decided by the protected only mode if the capacity will permit, or if there
is minimum sight distance which cannot be met and where there is a pattern of left or right
turn crashes.
With the growing use of the safer roundabouts as opposed to traffic lights in road
engineering, engineers should ensure that a comprehensive safety approach characterises
the design of the roundabout.
The roundabout should have slow speed entries and slow speed exits; splinter islands;
deflection for slow speed throughout; a crosswalk of a single car length back; separated
side-walks to direct pedestrians to crosswalks and safety truck aprons.
Roundabouts should be seen as graduation from the rotaries. The latter requires traffic
to merge or “weave” into the rotaries at high speed entering or circulating traffic, which
can lead to high speed crashes. The rotaries can be refitted into roundabouts, which are
bigger and which have less risk of crashes.
The roundabouts can have the aesthetics that can enhance the ambience of the city or
area, by the addition of statues, fountains or other artistic contribution or another form of

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attractive landscaping, in the island of the traffic circle for those localities which can afford
it.
There should be enough consideration before the art and street furniture are added on
the island, as this may create problems of pedestrian crossings if the art attracts large
crowds and this may have the unintended consequences of any crossing passengers.
It is desirable that at interchanges road engineering should cater for parallel designs at
entrance ramps, where there is an increased gap search and acceptance area as opposed to
the often confusion tapered designs. There should be an increased usage of diagrammatic
signing at interchanges for the number of arrow shafts to match the number of lanes.
Neutral and unmarked medians may confuse some elderly drivers. There should be a
conscious effort to delineate the vertical face of curb and extend the delineation to a portion
of the top of the surface. The painted curb should be supplemented with reflectors mounted
at the top of the curb to assist visually impaired drivers.
As curve delineations are problematic for elderly drivers, it is advisable to have the
chevron signs of the curve delineation above. The centre sign must be located in such a
position that it is aligned to the driver’s line of site.
Pavements edge lines should be widened for all new roads, or where research shows that
there are more elderly drivers. The elderly drivers can regain control through the use of the
wider pavements.
Rumbles are essential to redirect drivers who veer off the road. For the rumbles to be
observable, they should be painted in bright colours. Apart from the effects of the rumble,
the colour itself is sufficient to warn the elderly driver. There should be a consideration for
those that will have a reflective effective for night vision to assist the elderly who may drive
at night.

16.29 Construction Zones

Construction zones change the flow of traffic and the usual manner in which roads are used.
To the elderly who have been using the road before, construction zones may pose a
challenge.
Construction zones are a double problem. The road itself is not the ones drivers are used
to. The personnel that works in the construction zone may pose a threat to drivers. When
both think they have the right to be where they are, the driver on the road and the workers
on his construction zone, conflicts are bound to happen.
In construction zones, there should be an increase in the length of time that the messages
are visible. Barriers and the cones and drums used to divert traffic to temporary lanes should
be easily observable. Where there is going to be variable message signs (VMS), these too
should be legible to the older drivers.

16.30 Rail Crossings

There is no evidence that many elderly drivers make rail crossings, there was a reported
case in Rocky Bay in the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal where an elderly couple died at a
level crossing. There is an attendant need to increase the safety of the rail crossings for the
benefit of all drivers.
This can be done by using reflective crossing signs and to delineate the space and
approach with reflective posts. There should be a closer working relationship between rail
traffic authorities and the road authorities.
The benefits will be that all road users where there is rail crossing shall be catered for.
The role of Spoornet and the Passenger Rail Authority of South Africa (PRASA) and their
active role will be crucial.

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16.31 Right and Left-Turn Collision Avoidance

Where there are high levels of left or right turn collisions, there should be an effort to add
stop bars. Vehicles can be positioned in such a manner that elderly drivers can have better
sight distance. There should be large stop signs of increasing their conspicuity. Signals
should be adjusted. Sign displays should be improved.
Left and right turn phases should be added to create adequate gaps in the traffic from
the opposite stream, side signal heads are required to narrow the useful field of view
(UFOV), turning path and offset lanes with reflective pavement markings lanes and should
be added to facilitate turning into the proper lanes.

16.32 Parking Policy

To evolve an inviting driving environment for senior citizens and elderly drivers, there is
an onus on local authorities and those who will be implementing this policy to have a
consulted upon parking policy that will favour the elderly drivers.
The distance between the elderly parking and the areas they are visiting should be
considered. Elderly drivers do not have to walk unnecessarily for longer distance but and
that their parking bays are safe from muggings.
The built environment around such parking area should be such that the mobility of the
elderly is facilitated. Parking meters should be easier to use. There should be a
consideration for reduced parking fees for the elderly are not unduly prejudiced.

16.33 Shopmobility

The loaning of small shopping electric vehicles in malls for use by the elderly shoppers,
popularly known as shopmobility, has not taken root in South Africa. Walking in massive
malls could provide a challenge for the senior citizens. Shopping complex owners, or
renters of shopping spaces, must consider this possibility to increase the mobility of the
elderly.
Mall managers may solve the complexities of the shopping centres and malls. However,
it is the road infrastructure that leads to the mall itself which may confuse the elderly
drivers. With multiple entrances and exits, elderly shoppers may not remember when they
were parked. Parking assistants at malls should identify elderly drivers and be on standby
to assist them to identify where they were parked.

16.34 Funding

Some of the policy proposals suggested would require funding. Before there is an
application for funding, it is advisable that the implementing agencies and spheres of
government should source this funding from their budgets. They should apply to National
Treasury through the equitable share mechanism.
The responsibility for transport is not a devolved responsibility, but one that resides
within the constitutional mandate of all the three spheres of government. There is a wealth
of funding that resides within the Municipal Infrastructure Grants (MIGs) and the
Provincial Infrastructure Grants (PIGs) that can be used for this purpose.
Municipalities have never been able to use this fund to its maximum, such that when the
financial year ends, they want to fiscal dump it. When they fail, the legislation calls for
these funds to be returned to the Treasury.
To build on the partnerships, the implementers of the policy should tap into the charitable
community. Compassionate capitalists and other private sources have an interest in the
mobility needs of our senior citizens. There may need to piggyback on already existing

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projects in Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) arrangements and to use these as Pilot tests
for an argument for wider and national funding streams.
National Treasury and donor communities are attuned to supporting successful projects.
There should be more marketing of this finding stream as past projects, such as the Gautrain
project, private sector players did not uptake in large numbers but have reaped enormous
benefit for the one private sector company that invested.

16.35 Communication

The DOT, together with all implementing spheres and agencies has to develop a
communications strategy which will assure the elderly and the service providers in this
sector, of the intentions of the governments when it releases this policy.
At the centre of the communication, messages should be that there shall be no arbitrary
withdrawal of licenses and that those elderly who can still show reasonable evidence that
they are still fit to be driving have no reason to worry.
The communication messages should indicate the need for voluntarism and partnership
and the overall benefits for all who are involved. Aligned to this message should be the
emphasis that the clampdown on all lawlessness on our roads shall continue and be
enhanced.
For the communication to be done on a continuous basis, implementing agencies should
issue an annual report on their implementation of the elderly drivers. Such communication
should be done as a matter of course rather than being reactive. Reactive communications
carry a lot of apologies as well as self-defence.

16.36 Marketing

There has been minimal marketing of the independence of modern living. Service providers
in this area should be encouraged to market their services. Space should be created for their
advertisements, at market rates for their services on public transport facilities such as
stations and trains.
Overriding this marketing should be the service providers’ response to what the elderly,
in the language of marketing, the consumer, wants out of the service at affordable prices.
There should be a realization that if the product is worth it, consumers will pay a premium.
If it is bad, they will vote with their feet.
For the elderly to be attracted, supportive mechanisms such as the easy payment system,
a geographic information system (GIS) that can plot coordinates, discount incentives and
internet access should be considered. Sensory and visual material for the elderly citizens
who are losing or have lost these faculties should be considered.
A multi-media approach, relying on the information that will lead the elderly to effective
decision-making rather than being seen as a veiled attempt to remove them from the road,
will reap more benefits.
To maximize the effects of marketing and communication, there has to be a ranking of
the target audience. At the top of the pile should be the senior citizen drivers themselves,
followed by family and friends, then caregivers, doctors, law enforcement agencies, and
then the public and government officials.

16.37 Race and Gender

Driving in South Africa is not gender neutral. “Genderized” driving should be viewed
within the light of the broader “feminization of ageing”- meaning there are more female
elderly than there are men – and these elderly females are likely to be widowed or living
alone.

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 There has been a growing number of younger females who have entered the driving
fraternity as a result of the democratic transition. There is a growing “professionalization”
of women who can afford to purchase their vehicles. There is a combination of their
husbands and spouses are managing to purchase second vehicles.
Women are earning higher salaries to afford to buy their vehicles. The same cannot be said
for the senior citizens as the status quo of male domination continues to exist.
The effects of the domination of males are even more pronounced when the dominant
cultural-genderized paradigm replay themselves. When the husband passes on, the widow
has, at a late age, having to inherit and use the vehicle she had not been driving throughout
her life.
The reasonable thing to do would be to give the vehicle away or get driven by competent
younger drivers. The older women who drive themselves for the first time drive without
confidence and at greater danger to themselves. If the abusive attitudes of males towards
them are anything to go by, the attitudes towards elderly female drivers are doubled.
The living patterns are changing as a result of the ageing populations. The economic
subordination of the young caused a gerontocracy to the old, (peppered on the patriarchal
paradigm as well). Non-property owning older people, the youth and women were always
marginalized. The living patterns have been turned on its head.
There should be appropriate responses to the changed circumstances. Driving in South
Africa is not race neutral. Most of the elderly African men do drive because they acquired
the skills as professional drivers in their earlier lives, this does not necessarily translate to
their affordability to purchase own vehicles after retirement.
There are White senior citizen drivers, male and female, who drive than their other
counterparts in the other race groups, even when their demographics are low. Different
races and ethnic groups have different travel needs. Elderly White males and females drive
a lot more than the other race groups.
The age pyramid evidence shows that the Black population exhibits a developing
country pyramid. For Whites, there is clear evidence of a developed country trend. Statistics
need a racial breakdown not so much for separate policy but purely for statistical intentions.

16.38 The Powers Of The Minister

The Minister of Transport shall have a variety of powers in relations to this draft policy.
The Minister can decide to reverse the decision to withdraw the license of a senior citizen
if, in his or her view, the proper provisions were not followed and when there is ample
evidence that discriminatory practices were employed to withdraw the license.
He or she may order a publicly-funded transport mode to transport the elderly, if his or
her view, these services are not equitably spread over the areas most used by senior citizens.
The Minister may, in collaboration with the transport regulators, determine the
appropriate fare which senior citizens should pay in a publicly-funded transport mode.
The Minister may suspend the implementation of any of these policy positions suggested
in this draft document if in his or her view they do not achieve the objectives of the policy.

16.39 Non-Driving Measurers

Physical exercise for the elderly, such as walking or cycling, can build muscles and fitness.
The motor neuron abilities of the elderly should not affect when they need to drive. More
South Africans walk. The need for walking for the elderly should be seen within this
context.
The pseudo-teaching that the elderly who were engaged in physical training “were not
acting their age” was to keep the older people in their place – which was conceived to be
at home.

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 In the intergenerational approach to the problem of driving, ordinary mind games can
assist the elderly to have their minds always alert, even though games are seen as a childish
pursuit. A well-known vehicle manufacturer has teamed up with a games manufacturing
company to “read” the age of the elderly driver’s mind.
Confidence building for elderly drivers would require further scrutiny as some of them
get involved in driving mistakes because they do not have confidence in themselves. The
confidence can be built by the elderly engaging with other people to reduce depression.
Some elderly people are used for child-rearing because the actual parents are off to work.
If alternative child-rearing measures were introduced such as kindergarten and crèches, the
elderly would then have much time to themselves to be creative and in that way extend
their longevity freed from work and parenting obligations.
There will always be a need for the elderly drivers to drive. Their driving should be
combined with new methods of reaching out to others such as the use of telephones, online
purchasing and access to government services.
Home delivery methodologies should not undermine the advanced residential
technologies of safety, non-intrusive mentoring technologies and others. These should be
supplemented with televisions sets, as the elderly easily identify with some of the characters
on television shows. They assume “surrogate relatives” through watching television.
The elderly driver should choose medicines with less drowsiness effect. They should
consider driving long after they have taken their doses of medicines. The DOH and the
medical profession should ensure that medicines that cause drowsiness should be labelled
for users can be aware of their side effects.
Eating just before driving can induce the same amount of drowsiness. The elderly driver
should ensure that they do not eat just before they drive. Concentration on the road is a
challenge for many of the drivers.
To assist them it is suggested that they should not play the car radios loudly or open the
heating system in the vehicle as this may cause them not to concentrate. The heating,
ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system can add to the vehicle but can cause
unnecessary discomfort if not operated appropriately.
There is a pervasive libertarian individualization of driving. It has been portrayed, by its
seclusion, as the effort of an individual, in his or her vehicle in which nobody else has a
say. It is seen as a contestation between the driver and the unwelcome but ubiquitous traffic
official.
There are well-meaning South Africa organizations such as the Automobile
Associations of South Africa (AASA), but drivers have to organize themselves to improve
their driving abilities.
This is more needed for the elderly drivers who could participate in self-enriching
sessions such as one of the Quality Driving Circles (QDC). Such an organization could be
shaped around the car associations, conglomerating around the model of the vehicle they
are using.
The self-enriching schemes such as the QDC have not yet established themselves in
South Africa. Driving experts should consider how to import and adapt it to South African
conditions.
The issues of safety and security in public places create the impression that confines of
a motor vehicle give safety to the elderly driver without an adequate response to the very
reasons for them not to favour public transportation.
An Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) symposium
found that being a pedestrian is 14 –20 times more dangerous than being a car driver. If the
elderly are in unprotected public spaces, they become vulnerable to harassment and the
policing system should play its part in this regard.
Positive life events with beneficial effects such as the birth of grandchildren, going out
of town after a long time, receiving an award or accolade, starting a new hobby etc., all
have positive effects on the confidence of the elderly. These should be encouraged.

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 There should be a general approach which discourages the notion where South Africans
think that being able to drive and owning a vehicle is a rite of passage to success.
This will require that employers should desist from demanding that new employers
should produce their drivers’ licenses even when the work they are applying for does not
allow driving.

17. WAY FORWARD

17.1 Policy Prioritization

Since not all the policy proposals in the document can be implemented simultaneously, the
following section is aimed at assisting policy departments across all spheres of government
and the implementing agencies to prioritize policies which can be immediately be
implemented.
The policy has been carefully designed for the elderly drivers. Prioritization should be
given to policy formulation that will have benefits for all age groups with the elderly
benefiting as a result of all-around benefits.
Integration should lead to systems-based approaches with higher societal impacts for
the mobility of the elderly as a whole rather than responding to an individual’s need.
Integration must be informed by multi-disciplinarity of action and co-operation between
government departments, non-government organizations, industry and other stakeholders
for each of them to have a role to play. There should be integrated in-vehicle technologies
driven by a worker management system that will reduce the confusion of man gadgets for
the elderly.
The standardization of procedures should enhance the mobility of older citizens through
universal design principles for all modes of transport, using ease-of-use signage standards
for road signs public transit airports, bus and rail terminals. The standardization will require
that existing guidelines should be integrated. If there are new guidelines to be developed,
they should be included in existing guidelines.
Information systems in transportation should be improved meaning that the
implementing should invest more but in a cost-effective way that has for instance warning
signs posted in public infrastructure than in individual’s vehicles or gadgets. Route
planners, dispatch schedules and bust-stop displays should be synchronized and
disseminated timeously for convenient usability. Self-service kiosks such as ticketing
machines, online bookings in a cost reduction way should be encouraged.
Lifelong education rather than education for the particular age cohort should be the
priority. Driving at an old age should be taught to drivers before they get old. When they
get there, they would know in advance what to expect.
Service providers should recommend to the elderly drivers – “smart advisories” - what
to look for when they purchase a vehicle rather than mandating that all cars should have
these driving aids to assist the elderly drivers but do it without brand advertising. Brand
makers will migrate to the smart advisories if they want to capture the market.
The need to expand regulation of modes is now self-evident. There are newer lower end
vehicles that cannot be pigeonholed into the existing modes of transport but which can
assist mobility in residence and crowded cities such as neighbourhood electric vehicle
(NEV) Segways. These should be rescued from their regulatory limbo as they are
unregulated, existing between cyberspace between sports and mobility vehicles.
Data collection and statistics have been identified as the weak links in the policy
development and implementation chain. There should be data collected from across the
transportation service providers and operators in a manner that will inform policymakers
on the specific needs of the elderly drivers.
In other transport jurisdictions, the provision of statistics and data to the DOT is
governed by an Act of Parliament. The DOT needs to take a leaf from these jurisdictions.
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17.2 The Consultation Process

This document will require to be circulated within the DOT for the different branches to
decide if any additional issues need to be included, or redundant issues to be excluded.
The document will be circulated to the Deputy Directors- General who will nominate
officials, preferably at the level of Chief Director, in their branches to deal with this matter.
Some Branches would, as a result of functionality, be required to contribute more than the
others. The branches are Transport Policy and Economic Regulation TP&ER), Public
Transport (PT), Freight Logistics and Corridor Development (FL and CD), Integrated
Planning and Intersphere Co-ordination, (IPIC) Transport Regulation Accident and
Incident Investigation (TRAII), Financial Services (FS). Management Services (MS) and
Office of the Director-General (ODG) can only provide supportive services to these
Branches.
An internal departmental workshop where these comments and inputs of the Branches
shall be discussed shall be organized. The document will be reworked, factoring in
contributions by the Branches for inclusion and exclusion, emphasis and de-emphasis.
In the process of this discussion, issues which may overlap the responsibilities of each
of the nine branches shall be highlighted. If the policy proposals are accepted leading to
implementation are discussed, there shall be no confusion about the role and responsibilities
of Branches.
A slot in the DOT Executive Committee (EXCO) meeting shall be requested for the
agreed upon policy to be presented for the Executive Committee (EXCOs) further direction
and request will be made for the document to be put in the public domain as a discussion
document rather than a policy position. The website posting shall be discussed at this stage.
Once the Executive Committee (EXCO) accepts the proposal, a Stakeholder analysis
exercise based on those stakeholders already identified in the document shall be augmented
at the instruction of EXCO. The exercise should include as broad a section of our
population.
The role of a national policy coordinating committee shall be defined. It will be a
broadly representative body which brings into a single fold, transport provincial and local
government policy officials.
A workshop of senior citizens organizations shall be organized by the Transport Policy
and Economic Regulation Branch. Their invitation will not be limited to this Branch. Other
Branches in the DOT shall be invited.
At this conference, organizations of and organizations for the senior citizens shall
participate. Their inputs will be integrated into the document.
This will require that a central venue be booked for is the purpose and that the draft
discussion document be circulated ahead of time to facilitate seamless discussion at the
workshop. Since calling all associations for the aged and retirement facilities shall be a
logistical nightmare, they shall be consulted on their collective basis. They can then
disseminate the information to their chapter and branches.
A roundtable shall be held with other Government Departments at National, Provincial
and Local spheres. Their implementation approaches of the policy shall be requested. The
implementation and their roles in the implementation shall be included in their
programmes. Cooperation and coordination shall be emphasized.
Through a roundtable, the roles and views of the transport entities and agencies which
shall be affected by the policy proposal, such as SANRAL and the RTMC, the Roads
Agency Limpopo (RAL) and the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) as well as the
Licensing Authorities shall be discussed.
Vehicle sales companies and manufacturers, together with the labour organizations and
Community-Based Organizations (CBO) shall be called into the same meeting for a proper
and consolidated view on the policy, shall be charted. The workshop or a roundtable format
should be decided.
59
 Once all these views have been consolidated, there shall be a presentation made to the
Committee of Transport Officials (COTO) as a precursor and a preparation for presentation
to the Minister and MECs Meeting (MINMEC). MINMEC’s permission shall be requested
to send the document to Cabinet for approval to release the document as a policy proposal
into the public domain.
Once Cabinet has given its permission after submission of the Cabinet Memorandum,
the Portfolio Committee on Transport (PCOT) shall be approached as a matter of courtesy
and as a request for their insights and inputs.
The legislative process driven by the Legislation Chief Directorate under the Transport
Policy and Economic Regulation Directorate, working together with the Land Transport
Regulation Branch under the TRAII shall then follow. If there will be regulations that will
need to be made as a consequence of this policy the Legislation Chief Directorate shall
advise us.

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