Dear LPG,

I suppose that, as I have become a little older I have learned to be a little lazier.  I am like many of the older people that I know in as much as I learned to make life as easy as possible. I am still driving around the streets of Lewisham and further afield which has made me fairly complacent about getting from one place to the other.  But it occurs to me that one of the many things we need to use are our Freedom Passes. 

There is the argument that if the government become aware that we don’t use them enough it will give them all the more reason to say that they are not a vital feature for pensioners which will add fuel to the fire that they should be discontinued, but there is another reason.

I think I am typical of many older drivers when I say that I depend on my car and truly appreciate that freedom that it gives me to get where I want to go, but I would like to remind pensioners that another disadvantage of not using the public transport system from time to time is that one could lose their confidence. 

In these days when we hear so much about the violence and theft that occurs on our streets, one can easily develop a fear of going out without the protection of a car, with the result that we forget how quickly our situations can change.  Overnight one can find themselves in a position where the car is no longer available to them and with the added fear of traveling by bus, tube and trains there is the danger that one could lose the confidence to venture out at all.

So even though getting in the car every time you need to go out is convenient, I would urge all older drivers to leave the car behind every now and then. 

CP, Lee