The Asphalt Identikit: Old Age and the Driver's License

Abstract

A recent study of fifty older adults from a small community is used to explore the asphalt identikit—possession of a valid driver's license and driving—and its use as a disidentifier of old age. Interview material is used to illustrate the substantive issues of identity that underlie the practical activity of driving. Resistance to giving up driving is strong even as self-imposed limits curtail the kind and amount of driving that is done. Older adults use and maintain this asphalt identikit to ward off the stigma of an old age identity.