The popularity of family cars has made travel more convenient for many families, but the increasing number of cars has also made traffic congestion more and more serious. Even in some big cities, traffic congestion occurs even during non peak hours or holidays. As a result, electric vehicles with lower prices and more flexible driving have become essential means of transportation for many ordinary people at home, and many elderly people also purchase an elderly scooter as their own means of transportation.
A few years ago, the main means of transportation for elderly people was basically either manual bicycles or tricycles. Although these two modes of transportation are useful, they consume a bit more physical energy for many elderly people. As long as the distance is long, it will make people feel very tired, and they can only hold back at home when encountering bad weather. However, with the introduction of elderly mobility scooters, daily travel for the elderly has become much more convenient. They can easily pick up and drop off their children and buy groceries without the wind or rain.
However, the reaction speed of elderly people is not as fast as that of young people, and some elderly people have low awareness of traffic safety, so they often make dangerous decisions such as driving their elderly scooters at a slow speed on the fast lane, running red lights, and going against the traffic. After noticing that traffic accidents caused by electric vehicles are increasing year by year, relevant departments have also made regulations that require drivers of elderly scooters to pass a driver's license exam in order to drive normally on the road. They have even lifted the rule that people over 70 years old cannot participate in the driver's license exam.
As a motor vehicle, elderly scooters require drivers to master relevant traffic safety skills and establish correct traffic safety awareness, which is not excessive. But what has sparked a lot of discussion among netizens is that the drivers of elderly scooters and electric tricycles are usually elderly people in their sixties or seventies. For such elderly people, is it difficult for them to take the same level of driving test as young people? Should the threshold for the driver's license exam be lowered for the elderly?
Some netizens believe that compared to non motorized vehicles such as bicycles and human powered tricycles, the emergence of elderly mobility scooters and electric tricycles clearly provides better comfort and safety for elderly people's travel, and they are fully equipped on the road. In addition, these types of vehicles are inherently easier to operate than cars, so it is clearly not feasible to have elderly people take the same C2 exam as young people. Such a high threshold will definitely deter some elderly people from using these modes of transportation.
Some netizens also believe that although it is a good thing to encourage elderly people to apply for a driver's license and enhance their awareness of traffic safety, if the threshold for obtaining a driver's license is too high, it will inevitably reduce the enthusiasm of elderly people to apply for a driver's license, and there may also be situations where elderly people drive without a license, which in turn increases the risk of traffic accidents. Therefore, a better approach is to enable elderly people to take lower difficulty driver's license exams and increase their motivation to apply for a driver's license.
