Senate Considers More Frequent License Renewals For Older Drivers

A bill that would require older drivers to renew their licenses more often is under consideration by the state Senate.

Under current law, most people must renew their driver’s licenses every eight years. For people age 75 and older, the bill changes that duration to four years. State Sen. Fred Risser (D-Madison) authored the legislation.

“Basically, this would increase highway safety. It would be in line with what is happening in other states,” Risser says.

Risser said 19 other states have accelerated renewal periods for older drivers. Among those states are Iowa and Illinois.

Executive director of the Wisconsin Optometric Association Peter Theo said the bill is a ‘good move,’ and that eye conditions worsen with age.

“From the vision and eye health standpoint, optomatrists would prefer to have conditions – like glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration – be a part of those renewals as well,” Theo says. “However, simply cutting this in half for age 75 and up I think is a good idea, because it does help the problem in part.”

However, some are concerned because they say the bill uses age rather than ability as a determining factor. Janet Zander is with the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources, which doesn’t support the bill.

“There are measures in place to make sure that people who no longer have the ability to drive could have those licenses revoked, could be renewed more often, could be restricted in some way, through use of the existing medical review board that the Department of Transportation has,” Zander says. “Simply moving to changing renewal periods for people at some specific age, … you could pick any age! … is not really grounded in anything other than … some magic age.”

Charges for license renewal would stay the same. Zander said that means increased costs for older drivers because they would have to pay the renewal fee more often.