I salute you Lilo. I wish other drivers were as responsible as you.

Lilo, it's been six years, maybe longer, since I quit driving because of eyesight...my own decision since I had just had eyes tested and no cautionary remark about not driving. Like you I never really enjoyed driving and live intown so traffic is worse. I sold our car (DH had to stop driving several years prior because of medication side-effects), and never regretted my decision.

Luckily my part time housekeeper is a better driver, nice van, and knows my grocery preferences but also now goes to bigbox monthly or so for paper products, cleaning supplies etc. For clothes and linens, etc, I'd shop internet anyway even if I still drove...infinite choice and better prices.
Including most plants...lol

Son has been on all our accounts since he was 18 and now his wife also. They too occasionally shop for me. And take DH to jazz concerts, family get-togethers, etc. With the internet I rarely go to library or bookstore or nursery...my favorite haunts of yore...lol

Might just mention you may want to renew license unless you have other id with photo...my license expired and once at bank (not mine) when trying to cash check (one of their accounts) clerk acted snippy...but finally agreed that my photo on expired license was definitely me (noone else would have claimed it). Took my thumb print, anyway. lol Also, car insurance may require a license if in your name.
I think you'll feel relieved as I certainly do. josh

What a difficult decision for a rural person in particular to make! I admire the courage it takes to make this change. Thank goodness you have such a solid support network to make this workable!

Something else you may want to think about Lilo. Most states now require an id with a pic to vote.

Our state BMV issues state identification cards, for people who don't wish to drive, but need to have a facsimile to a license for identification.

I wish everyone could be honest when it comes to whether they think they should be on the road. Your decision seems a lot more like choice than necessity, Lilo and if you have your bases covered, may feel like one less obligation. There are several elderly people I know who keep their licenses, and fully intend to use them only under the most optimal of conditions......like avoiding busy roads, and not after dark. But, you know, it's just human nature to grab those keys "just this time" and go under the right circumstances. One of those people drove here for eggs at the beginning of a winter storm. It was icing up so fast, I ran out to her car so she wouldn't fall on the slippery pavement. She just shouldn't have been out in that. Period.

You are a sensible woman, Lilo. Licenses are cheap, and if there is any doubt that you may need to fire up old Nelly and drive, is there any reason why you don't just renew your license and put it away and not use it unless it were absolutely necessary?

I really admire you for making this decision. But then I've admired you many times before this.

As per usual for you Lilo, very forward thinking, civic minded, and selfless. You're a good egg babe. I'd renew it so I had it just in case, but stop driving. And if it went well not driving at all, ever, well then, I'd not renew it next time. But that's just me; I never leap without a net.

I'll second the motion to keep it. My state requires a picture ID to vote too. The license is the easiest to get (and keep)

I have found that a lot of stores are now wanting to see a picture ID along with a credit card or when cashing a check.

But you are very wise to drive as little as possible. I have found that since my husband has started driving us everywhere, my driving skills have gone down, and down, and down. It's amazing how much we do because it habit. I forgot the check before I backed out the drive the other day. Lucky me! There wasn't anyone around. I don't think I would want to go back to driving except in some kind of emergency.

Renew it. You won't regret it. It could come in handy.
Aggy

Veering just a bit off the topic, this is an issue I have some strong feelings about. It's not as pertinent to people who are rural, like Lilo, but is very much so for people in a suburban or urban environment. Both young and old.

When I was a younger woman there were mail drop boxes on every block in town. In our town, all of them in the residential areas have been removed. Carriers are no longer required to pick up out-going mail from residential mailboxes either. IOW if you don't drive, you cannot even post a letter without a trip to the post office. Now, which is most cost effective and earth friendly. One truck going around to each collection box as the route is carried.......or requiring each patron on a city or suburban route to drive their own vehicles to a post office?

All the Mom and Pop stores in our nearby town are history, and not replaced by convenience stores. Nobody can walk to one for an emergency jug of milk or lunchmeat. So, that means if you need a staple, even one staple, you get in a car and drive to a market.

That brings us to the next hurdle. There are no markets downtown anymore except one, and before it opened there were NONE. You have to go up to the one highway in town where almost every store is located. Needless to say, even in this small city, it is dangerous and congested, and anyone who is questioning whether they should be driving would be crazy to try to navigate it.

Hardly any of the suburban communities surrounding the town (where the bulk of the population now live) even have sidewalks anymore. That speaks to the assumption that no matter where you intend to go, you intend driving to it. That has to speak to a mindset that keeps people on the road out of sheer necessity when they don't want to be, or being totally dependent on somebody else to do it for them.

All of the amenities one used to associate with the downtown area are gone now. Drug stores, physicians, and entertainment.......even most of the restaurants and government offices. You drive to the shopping strip. So, where do you think they put the new senior houseing? LOL. Yeah, downtown. Then the bus service for city, residential and suburban areas is down to a skeleton crew with a clumsy schedule for lack of support.

And, all school functions are slated for after classes, so that if your child is to do ANYTHING extra-curricular and parents are working.......they need to get their own cars and drive to school or not partipate. We've created our own situations of making a vehicle a necessity for independence for both young and old.

Lilo & Josh, I applaud your decision to voluntarily give up driving. I know it's not an easy decision, especially if you live in an area without good public transportation - i.e. most everywhere outside of a handful of very big cities.

And Suzy, it isn't just suburban areas that are pedestrian unfriendly. Here in Tyler (which is ironically promoting itself as a "retirement city") there are great swaths of the city that don't even have sidewalks! One of these areas is on a very busy street with a retirement center located on it about 1/4 mile from a large grocery store & shopping area with a drug store, Barnes & Noble, Starbucks & other stores. If there were sidewalks, the able-bodied folks who live in the retirement center could easily walk to any of these merchants. However, without sidewalks they have to walk on uneven grass of take their lives in their hands & walk in the street.

And while there is a bus service here in town, it's schedule is pretty much beyond a joke.

Our entire landscape has been built to accommodate cars (and very big cars at that). Anyone not driving a private vehicle is pretty much ignored.

Lilo, another vote here for renewing your license, but not using it unless you really had to or wanted to. Like the others, I admire your sense of responsibility and wisdom in knowing when it's time to make a change.

DH always said he wished our suburbs had a golfcart/bike lane because in previous house and here we are within easy distance of strip malls with hardware, barbers, nice neighborhood bar & grill etc. plus small stop 'n shops for milk, bread, etc. Weather would prevent use of golfcart up north but here in south most of time it would be fine. josh

I applaud you. Would that more seniors were as responsible as you.

I live rurally (at least six miles to any grocery store, skinny snake-trail roads to get to any major roadway) and if I couldn't drive I have no one to depend on to carry me around. When the time comes that I have to stop driving I will also have to give up the home that I love and all that goes with it. I am not looking forward to that time.

My family never owned a car, but there were always local stores within walking distance. The last thirty years of my mother's life she lived close to mile from the nearest grocery store. She walked and did that almost every day. Partly because she had to and partly for the interaction with the community. When my Dad was alive he biked to the shops some days. Or they both walked. Mum lived to be 98 and was the only old lady in her assisted living community that didn't use a cane or a walker.

Lilo, more power to you. This is not something that will slow you down, I know that. Take the money you save and go on a nice vacation. Come to the Pacific NW:)

If you don't think you should drive, then you probably shouldn't. I applaud you for making that decision. Just be sure to get a picture ID.

Just because you have a DL doesn't mean you have to use it.
You can give up driving but still keep your license.

Pooh Bear

Congratulations on having the courage to do what's right, even if it means giving up a form of independence.

OTOH, I'm in agreement with others that choosing not drive is a separate issue from choosing not to have an up-to-date licence. My state also requires picture ID for voting, and there are stores which want the pic-ID even when using a credit card (well, that's one way to control credit card crime). If your state provides non-driver ID, that would take care of the issue, otherwise, I'd continue getting the driver's licence just for the ID uses.

This belongs to a guy a few blocks from us. When you come to visit we will get him to give you a ride...

{{gwi:139328}}

He also owns these, some people just have too much fun stuff...

Here is a link that might be useful: The top two rows of pics

Don, I want one of those!
What an interesting discussion has this turned out to be.
I appreciate the advise from those who think I should renew the license "just in case" - but that will not do it, because then I shall not ask for a ride to town or for Joann to pick up stuff for me, I'd feel I would be imposing.
Our DMV will issue a picture ID, all I have to do is get to Ukiah, a 90-mile round trip, to get it. No hurry about it, I don't need it to vote, as I am a permanent "vote by mail" voter - the precinct was closed because there are not enough voters in this sparsely populated, spread out area. More people vote by mail because it's easier to do than to drive over rough roads just to cast a ballot.
Auto insurance is required in California in order to register the vehicle, it is not tied to driver's license.
Car is registered until September, Insurance is valid until April - we shall investigate what we need to do to be legal.
I just want to be done with.
Understand I didn't drive until I was in my mid-thirties, for a long time DH worked nights and therefore was always able to provide transportation as needed. He tried to teach me, but he was a horrible teacher, a terrible passenger, though a good driver.
I finally signed up with a driving school, took the lessons, passed the tests and got a license.

My mother just turned 83. The time to quit driving is getting closer and closer. I dread it for selfish reason, I will be the one taking her every where, which I do a lot now, and because I know she values her independence. She lives over a mile from the center of town but was always trotting down to do banking, post office, library, hair salon. I work downtown, and if she was a little tired she would stop in and visit, have a chat with my coworkers (who thought she was the cutest little thing, to which I would reply that is because she is not your mother, she drives me crazy!). Sometimes she would finish the walk home, sometimes I would take her. That was before the osteoperous (sp) got bad, now she is almost bent double, which makes her lose her balance and then she falls. Tonight she called me and said she misplaced her car keys. We know they are in the house. The roads are icy, I am not going out, and I certainly don't want her driving. I told her I would stop over tomorrow and help her look. Unfortunately I know she will continue to stress out about the keys and not go to bed or eat until she finds them. I want to scream and cry at the same time.

I'd pass the test and keep the card for ID and for info when asked if you have one - sometimes necessary for some kinds of transactions. Don't limit yourself if you don't pass the test then the matter is settled JMHO

I understand your reasoning, Lilo. My mother kept hers awhile after she hung up her keys, and it never bothered me to still drive her or get things for her. But, I'll bet she had those very same feelings sometimes. I was very impressed that she hung them up so gracefully. She drove a car for the first time when she was ten years old, lol. Her gramps didn't drive, but owned a a car anyway, and he would call up Mama's cousin to drive it for him. Mama thought she'd surprise her gramps one day and cranked it up herself and drove to where he worked to pick him up. She said he nearly fainted. LOLOL. She loved to drive, and after Daddy died, in her eyes, it was 'independence'. She'd pack up her little white dog everyday and find an excuse to get out to run an errand of some sort. When the doc suggested it might be time, she asked me what I thought.......and I told her that although I felt she was still more than capable, if a fender bender ever happened, at her age people would assume it would have been automatically her fault. The quiest street she accessed had been made into a major city artery, and she also admitted after the fact that she was relieved she didn't have to do it anymore. She asked occasionally, even after she gave me her car, if I thought she could still handle one. I told her yes, (and although I was glad she wasn't, she prolly could have) it seemed to be enough for her.

Lilo, I understand your reasoning. I'm the same way. If I had the license I'd waver about using it. You've certainly thought of all the issues and if you feel you need the ID you'll get it in Ukiah when the time comes. Enjoy your freedom from that particular chore/responsibility.

Suzy, that's a riot about your Mother. I can just see your Gramps face when she came rolling up. LOL..

We don't have sidewalks around here either. My neighbor across the street did drive his lawn tractor up to the municipal building or the cemetary occasionally. I use my lawn tractor to drive across the street and around the corner to get my mail after almost getting hit too many times trying to cross the street in the 25mph zone with my cane. People actually have the nerve to beep at you. I've come close to cracking a few windshields with my cane. Idiots.

Coconut, I was telling my friends several weeks ago about being behind a school bus who was letting off a child, and the idiot behind me was also honking. AT THE SCHOOL BUS. Here is what made my blood boil. It was a child in a wheel chair, and the mother had come out to push the chair back to the house up her gravel drive, and was struggling with a wheel stuck. The bus driver wasn't about to move until she was clear of the bus. I was so boiling mad, I wanted to get out and go back to look at what kind of moron would do something like that and shame him. I am a firm believer in what comes around goes around. I'd hate to be in his shoes.