More older drivers on road

People over the age of 85 are fastest-growing segment of auto users.

Not sure that driverless cars are safer than cars driven by humans?

Consider this: Drivers over the age of 85 represent the fastest-growing segment of American automobile users. Their numbers doubled between 1998 and 2013, to 3.48 million drivers — the highest number ever on record — and the number is rising, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration.

Drivers over 50 years of age are increasing fast too, reaching 93.5 million in 2013. This age group now represents an estimated 44% of all drivers.

The number of older drivers will continue to be high, because middle-aged people will still be driving as they age.

But young people are not becoming drivers at the rate their parents and grandparents did; some might not ever get licenses and thus won’t be driving when they’re elderly.

The government statistics show that there are fewer 16-year-olds on the road now than at any time since the 1960s. An estimated 1.72 million young people in that age group were licensed drivers in 2009, compared with only 1.08 million in 2014, the Federal Highway Administration said.

According to a University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute study, only 24% of eligible 16-yearolds in the U.S. currently have a valid driver’s license.

Teens are notoriously most prone to car crashes in their first years of driving.

But, citing an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study on older drivers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported earlier this year that, per mile traveled, “fatal crash rates increase noticeably starting at ages 70-74 and are highest among drivers age 85 and older.”

This isn’t a result of an increased tendency to crash their cars, the CDC concluded, but “is largely due to increased susceptibility to injury and medical complications among older drivers.”