In article ,
Graeme Cant wrote:

Bruce Hoult wrote:

IIRC, the current regulations here in NZ are that you have to renew your
license at age 75, and then at 80 and every two years after that.

My wife - who earns a living in gerontological research - recently
attended a seminar in Sydney where a NZ person stated that extensive
research showed there was no statistically significant difference in
acccident rates of older drivers between jurisdictions (worldwide,
including NZ) which proficiency tested older drivers and those which did
not. Accordingly (NZ being a rational country) it was proposed that
proficiency testing of older drivers would be abandoned and only medical
checks would be required.

Yes, well the rationality of politically-driven decisions is not,
unfortunately, a given.


I forget when, but sometime in the mid 1980's it was decided that there
wasn't any point in making people renew their driver's licenses every
five years, since all that happened was that you showed up, paid some
money, and they gave you a sticker to stick into your license.
Therefore, NZ being a rational country, it was decided by the government
of the day to issue "lifetime" licenses. Mine expires on 31/12/2033, at
which time I hope to still be alive as it will be at the end of the
month containing my 71st birthday.

However, another government in the late 1990's decided that this was a
bad idea and that people should in fact have to renew their license
every ten years (?). So they revoked all existing licenses and issued
new ones. Despite me not having done anything wrong, my license now
expires at the end of 2007 instead of the end of 2033, which is 26 years
earlier than previously.

If there is logic behind these moves, it escapes me.

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O----------