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I have read several recent posts re driving and I would like to add a few
thoughts.   As I have previously chronicled in excerpts from my conceptual model
of PD gait I have proposed that there likely is an impairment of  visual
perception or visual  processing of low velocity changes in motion.  This
impairment is the underlying cause of most of the gait problems associated with
PD, and a specific driving problem as well.

Significant others and sometimes  PD'ers themselves will notice that while
driving, when they see the car in front of them begin to slow down they will
very rationally and appropriately apply the brakes.  This very normal braking
maneuver lasts  throughout the braking episode until one reaches approximately
the last 5% of the braking cycle, i.e. just prior to coming to a complete stop.
At this point the driver suddenly finds himself prematurely on top of the car in
front of him  and a necessity for a panic stop occurs.  This, in my opinion, is
a manifestation of the visual pathology of PD.  One can compensate for this by
anticipating it and slightly overbraking at this point in the brake cycle - a
kind of cognitive compensation for a perceptive deficit.

regards,

Tom