Aussies love their cars, but driving as you get older comes with a unique set of challenges. Long-time motoring journalist Paul Murrell is the man behind seniordriveraus.com, a website dedicated to Aussie drivers over 50.
Mr Murrell, who is also a frequent YourLifeChoices contributor, joined host John Deeks on the podcast this week to discuss three subjects: the entrenchment of bad driving habits as you get older, whether or not electric vehicles (EVs) live up to the hype and the continuing (and perplexing) rise of the e-scooter on our roads.
Teaching an old dog new tricks
We’re all guilty of a few bad habits on the road. Whether it’s consistently sitting 5km/h over the speed limit, or sneaking through the yellow light when you probably shouldn’t, most drivers break the rules a little from time to time.
These events might seem insignificant, but if most drivers are doing the wrong thing at least some of the time, you can see that the potential for accidents shoots up dramatically for everybody.
Mr Murrell says that older people can be particularly prone to having entrenched bad habits they’ve had for decades.
He says testing requirements were simply not as stringent as in years past, a point Mr Deeks agrees with.
“I can remember my dad giving the local policeman a slab of beer or something and I had to drive down and pick up his dry-cleaning and come back. That was my driving test many years ago,” Mr Deeks says.
Mr Murrell says he probably wouldn’t be able to pass a driving test if he had to do it today, despite his many years behind the wheel.
“We get in a car and we think this is all fine; I’ve been doing it forever,” he says.
“So, we tend to be a little less observant, we tend to concentrate a little less and we tend to be a little more distracted [than a newer driver].”
EVs – worth the hype?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably noticed the increasing presence of EVs on our roads, and being pushed in the media. Depending on who you listen to, we could all be driving an EV by 2030.
But are they all they promise to be? Are they really going to be able to replace the traditional combustion engine car in all areas? Mr Murrell has his doubts.
“When it comes to EVs, it’s hard to understand how much of it is genuine and how much of it is PR spin,” he says.
Mr Murrell notes that a number of leading car hire firms have recently reduced the number of EVs in their fleets, citing high running and repair costs as the reason.
“That’s interesting, isn’t it?” he says.
“Because one of the things we’ve been told about electric vehicles [is that] they have fewer moving parts, [so] servicing costs by definition should be lower, which would lead me to believe then that the repair costs should also be lower.”
Mr Murrell says many people have bought an EV with the best of intentions, only to find it unsuitable for their needs. For instance, if you regularly need to drive long distances.
“It’s very, very important to look at your usage pattern and decide if an electric vehicle is going to suit,” he says.
“For a lot of people who do long distances your battery-run electric vehicle is not going to be quite so suitable.
“Because if you’re going to do five or 600 kilometres, you’d have to stop somewhere along the way there and recharge the car. So, you really need to look at your usage pattern and do some research on it.”
The rise of the e-scooter
On the subject of new vehicles on our roads, Mr Deeks brings the conversation to the subject of e-scooters. These electrically powered scooters are a common sight in the major cities, but are probably less common in rural areas.
Anybody can hire one of these scooters without a licence, and they can travel at speeds of up to 30km/h in some instances. They operate mostly silently and there have been hundreds of run-ins with pedestrians, in some instances requiring admission to hospital.
Mr Murrell says much the problem is not with the scooters themselves, but rather with confusing ‘shared path’ rules that see the two groups mix. He says the e-scooter hire companies themselves need to be held to account more.
It comes down to courtesy, he says, but as a shared pathway of bike lanes and footpaths, allowances have to be made.
“I’m not a great believer in over-legislating these things. But certainly with the rental scooters, the companies that rent these things out, they’re making money out of it, they should be held to account to ensure that these issues are addressed.”
What are some of your bad driving habits? Would you consider buying an EV? Let us know in the comments section below.
Also read: Why EVs are causing more motion sickness