This will likely not come as a surprise to many people, but almost all American senior citizens fear losing their ability to drive. In fact, a recent poll by AAA shows that 85 percent of all seniors fear losing their driving privileges and more than half would consider losing their driving privileges a serious problem.

Driving in America is a privilege, but it is also a necessity in almost every city. Public transportation is unreliable, at best, and nonexistent in many places around the country. If you need to get across town you can expect public transportation, if it exists, to take three times as long as driving yourself, and be fraught with the hazards of multiple stops, multiple transfers and expense.

America has built its infrastructure around the fact that most Americans have cars which they will use to get them where they need to go. If someone does not have a car, or loses their ability to drive their car, they are going to find it difficult to get around. And no group of people deals with this problem more frequently than the elderly.

Not all seniors lose their ability to safely operate a vehicle as they age. In fact, some Americans continue to drive safely well into their 80’s and 90’s. However, a great many other drivers lose their ability to safely operate a vehicle due to physical ailments such as poor eyesight. This creates a problem for them and the people who are closest to them. The inability to operate a vehicle safely greatly inhibits their ability to get where they need to go; it reduces their freedom.

Every day in America 10,000 citizens hit their 65th birthday, an age which often reminds them of their own mortality and signals yet another major life change. For some this might mean thinking about when they will surrender their keys and how they will continue to enjoy life without the privilege they have relied upon for so long.