Maine Mature Driver Program
Tom Meuser, PH.D.

Unease with driving can occur at times. For some, costs of ownership and maintenance are problematic. For others, driving in bad weather, when traffic is heavy, and/or in unfamiliar areas can present real challenges to competence and safety. When such “situational demands” tax coordination between senses, brain, and body, even the most careful of drivers can end up in crashes. Driving is wonderful until it isn’t.

Such coordination also breaks down in response to health and functional changes in aging. Deficits in sensory skills and speeded reaction are common contributors to this breakdown. Deficits in attention, memory, and thinking can impact negatively on driving fitness too. When known and understood, drivers can compensate for these and continue driving safely.   

I first became involved in driving and aging research in 2000. I was invited by a colleague to join in a qualitative study of what family caregivers of persons with dementia and physicians – primary care and specialist – believed about driving fitness. 

The most robust finding was that everyone pointed the finger at the other! Family members fingered the physicians – specialists in particular – as most responsible for determining driver fitness. In contrast, physicians fingered family members as most responsible. “They live with the person and see the evidence every day,” they asserted. Primary care physicians fingered the specialists! This was a “hot potato” topic then and still is. 

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, accounting for ~70% of cases, and best understood. The evidence is clear that people with AD should retire from driving when in the mild to moderate stages. It is here where coordination deficits between senses, brain, and body shifts into high gear (pun intended). 

I often say that “I’d rather drive cross-country with a healthy 85-year-old woman behind the wheel than a healthy 16-year-old boy,” and I mean it. Older drivers are safer than teen drivers; that’s a fact. When I DO WORRY is when changes in health and function go unrecognized and/or unheeded, and the teenager becomes the safer driver for this hypothetical long trip.

The Maine Mature Driver Project (MMDP) formed this year with funding from the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BHS), as well as logistical support from the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV). I’m a contract research analyst with the BMV focusing on medical fitness to drive, and I am a new community educator with the BHS. 

The goal of the MMDP is to empower older adults, their family members, and the professionals who serve them to (1) consider indicators of driver fitness, (2) compensate for deficits as appropriate, and (3) know and engage with the legal requirements of the State for safe driving.  

I’m funded to visit communities across Maine to offer free presentations and applied workshops on driving fitness in aging. I strive to make these talks both informative and dare I say “enjoyable”! I use humor quite a bit. I’m also respectful of older adults and their ability to make good decisions for themselves in daily life and when behind the wheel. You don’t get to 75 or 85 without lots of life experiences to draw from, common sense, and resilience!

Invitation… Want to host me in your community and/or in partnership with your organization? It is as simple as sending me an email (Tom.Meuser@Maine.gov). The host secures the location, markets the talk (with materials I provide), and offers light refreshments. I will drive to you, bring the handouts, and offer a multimedia presentation at no charge. I’m scheduling, now, for May – September 2025.