Texas Drivers Are Getting Older

Baby boomers aren't getting any younger and as the years pass we will see and hear more ads targeting that demographic. We will also see more boomers on Texas roads. According to the Texas Tribune:

And the fastest growth of any age group will be the gray-hairs — drivers 65 or older. Depending on the growth model for Texas — what you think migration will do, whether you think the state will be as magnetic as it has been for the last two decades — the over-65 driving population will grow by anywhere from 218 percent to 268 percent between 2005 and 2040. Put another way: A population that numbered about 1.8 million in Texas in 2005 will grow to somewhere between 5.7 million and 6.6 million in 2040.

That group is part of a bigger issue: If the state continues to grow like it has, we will need more roads. “We’re adding lots of bodies to roads that are already congested,” Murdock said.

And lots of them are older bodies. Texas, as with some other states, has a different set of laws for its oldest drivers; after age 85, for instance, they have to get their licenses renewed every 2 years instead of every 6, and everyone who is 79 or older has to do it in person instead of by mail or online.

That might get another look as more drivers get old. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says fatal crashes per mile driven “increase noticeably starting at age 70-74.”

Will Texas see any new laws as more and more elderly drivers hit the roads? Possibly, but let's also remember that it's drivers under the age of 25 that do the most damage on the roads. Remember this as well, as the driving population ages, their voting impact does as well. As the years go on, if most elderly drivers don't want new laws regarding their driving, I doubt we will see them.