After Lyn moved to a restricted licence in her 80s, her world got smaller – and lonelier

When Lyn Taylor moved to a restricted driver’s licence in July, limiting her to driving within 15 kilometres of her home in inner Sydney, her world shrunk.

The 85-year-old lives alone, and made the decision after finding the route over the Harbour Bridge to visit family kept changing, and her reaction times were slowing. But it hasn’t been easy.

“If you want to live a full life, it’s hard without proper transport,” she says.

These days, Taylor uses her car for short trips to meet friends or go to the supermarket.

Though keen to use public transport, she thinks options are limited despite her central location – visiting her son, for example, requires multiple changes, and services have diminished recently.

Meanwhile, she’s found booking taxis to be unreliable, and is hesitant to use ride-share platforms like Uber (the app has introduced certain features for seniors like discounted rides and larger text).

“I don’t think they [society] look[s] after elderly people”, she says.

She’d like to attend meetings run by her local MP, for example, but since they’re held at night, without nearby parking, she doesn’t feel comfortable.

“You can’t involve yourself in anything without some form of safe transport,” says Taylor.

A widower and only child, most of her relatives and friends have died, leaving her with few options for lifts. Still, she is a fan of Access Sydney, a community transport service that has introduced her to new people.

In 2025, there were 795,619 Australian drivers over 80 (about 4 per cent of licence holders), compared to 460,273 a decade ago – a figure which will continue to grow with an ageing population.

Getting older doesn’t mean you have to stop driving, or that it becomes unsafe, but ageing, and the physical and cognitive changes that come with it, can affect things.

While there is no age limit for driving in Australia, licensing requirements for older adults vary by state and territory.

An analysis of a decade’s worth of motor insurance claims by AAMI (2014 to 2023) found drivers over 65 were most likely to be involved in an accident, representing 26 per cent of claims.

From 2014 to 2024, the fatality rate for those over 75 decreased 22 per cent – though remained the most overrepresented age group, on par with 17- to 25-year-olds.

Professor Kaarin Anstey, director of UNSW’s Ageing Futures Institute, has researched predictors of safe driving and risk.

“There are many visual and cognitive factors working together to enable safe driving, and some of those have normal age-related declines,” she says.

These include motion perception, visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and reaction times. Older adults can also have difficulty adjusting their vehicles for safe driving.

Then, there are disease-related predictors, like dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Australians with dementia cannot drive on an unconditional license, but may apply for a conditional one, though they will eventually need to stop driving completely.

Older Australians with dementia or mild cognitive impairment want more support from healthcare professionals – not just family – when it comes to this transition, a new qualitative study from Flinders University found.

Speaking with 12 individuals aged 65 and over, researchers identified four key areas often lacking in the driving cessation process: the importance of early and ongoing conversations; a desire for information, options and guidance; clear and compassionate advice when recommending stopping driving; and support to adjust to life without driving.

Claire Spargo, a PhD student who led the research, will use the findings “to develop an evidence-based clinical pathway” to better support healthcare professionals and patients navigate this period.

Fitness-to-drive assessments tend to be conducted by GPs (alongside memory clinics for those with dementia), who Spargo says can feel uncomfortable broaching the topic given its impact on patients’ independence and identity.

In July, the National Transport Commission announced a review into these assessments, amid calls for national consistency and evidence-based tools to support healthcare professionals in making tough decisions.

The RACGP’s Professor Dimity Pond says she has lost patients after recommending they stop driving. She tries to broach the topic early, but it isn’t always easy.

“We see people in their 80s about 16 times a year as GPs, so every few months I’ll introduce it into the conversation, and talk about reducing kilometres or not driving to Queensland for their holidays, so it’s a gradual thing rather than a shock,” she says.

“The more this is normalised and discussed as a part of a life stage, the easier it is for people to move through that transition,” agrees Anstey.

More older Australians living alone, caring for relatives or with adult children who have young kids, makes stopping driving more difficult, says Pond.

Pond would like to see subsidised access to costly on-road assessments by occupational therapists, which are better predictors of driving safety.

For Spargo, the findings highlight the need for funding for services to support seniors after they stop driving – both emotionally, as participants reported loneliness and isolation, and practically, in terms of alternative transport and community services that help keep them connected.

Seventy-three-year-old Anne Field loves to drive – her red, manual Toyota Yaris taking her around her south Sydney and for road trips further afield. Her beloved Cavalier Teddy is regularly in tow.

“I’ve always had the convenience of having the car. I’m very independent – I hate having to ask anybody for anything,” she says.

Field, a retired social sciences teacher and local councillor, lives an active life and is in good health.

But living alone, she has thought ahead to a future in which she can no longer drive.

Field has a bus stop on her street, a local shuttle service and is close with neighbours who can help take her to medical appointments if needed.

While she has cataracts and her hearing is deteriorating, she sees specialists regularly to monitor her vision and hearing.

“You’ve got to be switched on to all of these as you get older.”

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