American Retired Seniors

By Steve Shay, West Seattle Herald, Friday, November 21, 2008

Ask professional driving instructor Daniel Lilleness what the difference is between teaching 15 year-olds and teaching senior citizens, and he will declare, “The young ones you cannot get their foot on the brake and the old ones you cannot get their foot off the brake. It is that easy.That blunt, public response earned him some belly laughs from his audience of senior citizens at a recent all-day class he held at the West Seattle Christian Church basement. The American Automobile Association contracts his business, American Driving Services, for the improvement course which keeps insurance rates down for seniors while they brush up on their driving skills.

The stern but equally gentle former Marine also got a few smiles when he announced wryly, “I am now turning down the lights which doesn’t mean naptime,” as he prepared an instructional video.

Also presenting were American Cancer Society volunteer Sharon May seeking volunteers to drive patients to and from the hospital, and retired railroad conductor Wayne Langbehn with Operation Lifesaver who spoke on driving safely through railroad crossings and other danger spots.

“Kids do not see the disconnect between the technology of cell phones and text messaging while driving and the activity of driving,” said Lilleness. “They do not see its deleterious effect. I believe legislation will step in to make the now secondary offense primary to say no more cell phones while driving. I have not seen any cessation of their use since the July 1 law went into effect.”

“Your reflexes slow down as you get older,” said Pippa Kiraly, who attended the class. “It takes longer to process something, but, on the other hand, because of your experience, your judgment means you paid attention earlier than the kid driver did and have given yourself extra time, that is, if you still have all your marbles.”

“I think young,” said Pat Hartle of West Seattle, also in the class. “I am 77. I don’t feel it. I am a good driver and have not had a ticket in a thousand years. My grandkids like my driving and think I’m pretty cool.”

Hartle dislikes the numerous Sharrows on California Avenue that encourage bicycling in the right lane. “There is too much (automobile) traffic. They are trying to say it is a bicycle friendly city, but I cannot say I am happy about it. All too often bicyclists ignore the laws.”

While Lilleness instructs his students to spot ever-increasing distractions around them like bicycles, he has tried, often in vein, to get his older drivers to change that popular bad habit of “two-foot driving,” placing the left foot on the brake pedal and the right foot on the gas pedal.

“You ask them directly to stop and they will often deny it or argue that their reaction time is less if they use their right foot on both pedals,” he said. “But when push comes to shove and you have to take evasive action, the urge for these drivers is to push both pedals at the same time with the left and right foot, and the accelerator will always overpower the brake. That’s just what happened when that 86 year-old driver accelerated into a crowd in Santa Monica five years ago and killed nine pedestrians.”
“It is hard for older people to break their driving habits,” said Lilleness’ former colleague, Rick Bartlett, who instructs mostly15 year-old drivers at Evergreen State Driving School in Federal Way, a business Lilleness once owned. “Many switched from driving an old stick shift car to an automatic and stayed with their ‘two-foot’ method.

“Not to make a blanket statement, but while older drivers are more experienced than teen drivers, some might be less cognizant, lack motor skills, and get more confused in a situation, like driving onto an off-ramp,” said Bartlett. “I had a student in her 80’s who couldn’t turn her neck around enough and had trouble parallel parking.”

Of course, Bartlett can also point to patterns of shortcomings in young teen drivers.

“About 10 percent of my new drivers accelerate like an airplane taking off and don’t know how to level off. We’re not in a rush to go from point A to point B.

“Once they leave our school they confront a lot of peer pressure. For these kids driving is a newfound freedom. They love to listen to music and talk on their cell phones.

It is a little party on wheels.”

He said most of his young drivers get the message about safety as they collect more hours of driving under their belts. “Our kids start noticing how many bad drivers are out there.”

Filed under: Retiree and Senior Resources