admin July 7, 2026
Driving with Parkinson’s Disease or Essential Tremor: When Is It Safe and What Should You Consider?
Essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease can hinder your driving ability and make it difficult for you to be independent. This is frustrating, especially when driving offers the opportunity to do daily tasks and see family without the help of others. Here we will explain the factors you should consider to ensure your safety and the safety of others while driving.
Parkinson’s Disease and Essential Tremor are both progressive neurologic disorders, meaning they slowly become worse. Simply having a diagnosis doesn’t mean you need to immediately stop driving. Many people safely drive for years after their diagnosis. However, both disorders can affect your coordination and your ability to drive, so it’s important to check your capability to drive and consult your doctor regularly.
There are many different factors to consider when thinking about driving after a diagnosis of a motor coordination disorder. The most important thing is to be sure you are as safe as possible to drive for yourself and the people on the road.
Potential Driving Issues with Essential Tremor and Parkinson’s Disease
Your ability to drive is greatly impacted by both Essential Tremor and Parkinson’s Disease. Although they are both movement disorders, they affect the body in different ways.
Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects your ability to move and your coordination. Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease develop over a long period of time and continuously change.
Essential tremor is characterized by involuntary shaking of different body parts. This highly impacts your driving ability, as essential tremor is very apparent in the hands and highly affects driving coordination.
People diagnosed with the same illness may experience varying severity of symptoms. While one person with Parkinson’s may notice chronic symptoms of fatigue throughout the day, or experience symptoms that manifest as minor impairment of their driving ability, another person with Parkinson’s may experience symptoms that manifest in a way that makes driving extremely difficult on a day-to-day basis.
Examples of Symptoms that May Impact Driving
Parkinson’s Disease
Some of these symptoms include:
- Tremors in the hands or arms
- Slower movement
- Muscle Stiffness
- Reduced Flexibility
- Poor Balance or Coordination
- Difficulty Checking Blind Spots or Mirrors
- Reduced Focus
- Delayed Reaction
- Fatigue
- Drowsiness
Essential Tremor
Some of these symptoms include:
- Difficulty Holding Steering Wheel
- Difficulty Controlling Steering Wheel
- Difficulty Using the Vehicle Controls
- Tremors that Worsen when Stressed or Anxious
- Fatigue after Long-Distance Driving
- Difficulty with Fine Motor Skills
Relatively safe driving may remain possible for many people with essential tremor, especially when symptoms are mild.
How Are These Diagnosed
If you begin experiencing symptoms like tremors or muscle stiffness, seek an accurate diagnosis through a medical professional specializing in these symptoms or a Neurologist before making driving decisions.
This may involve:
- Discussing your history
- Working together to identify your symptoms
- Performing a brief neurological exam
- Testing your balance and coordination and the strength of your muscles
- Observing how you walk and move
- Measuring your hand tremors while you rest and while you are active
When diagnosing Parkinson’s disease, doctors also look for slower movement and rigidity of the muscles. To rule out other diseases of the nervous system, sometimes imaging studies of the brain or other advanced scans are ordered.
Because there is no diagnostic test for essential tremor, most of the time the diagnosis is made by symptoms and a physical exam.
When Is It OK To Drive Again?
Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor patients can and often do continue driving during the early disease stage.
Driving may be OK for you if you:
- Have good control of your symptoms.
- Can react quickly in the face of unexpected situations.
- Have good vision.
- Are able to comfortably turn your head and body.
- Feel good, and are not drowsy from medication.
- Have been given the go-ahead by your physician.
Driving should no longer be performed if any of the following is experienced.
These include:
- Losing control of your lane
- Ignoring signals
- Delayed responses to obstacles
- Difficulty controlling the pedals
- Difficulty controlling the steering
- Getting lost driving familiar routes
- Increased anxiety while driving
- Close calls or fender benders
- Concerns from friends and family
This list above relates to less safe driving. If you experience any of these concerns, please talk to your doctor before driving again.
Driving Tips for Your Safety and Others
If the doctor has given you the “Okay” to continue driving, here are some steps you can take for some extra safety.
Consider the Following:
- Drive During the Daylight
- Don’t Drive While Tired
- Plan Shorter Trips to Reduce Travel Time
- Take Medication as Prescribed
- Avoid Driving During Peak Traffic Time
- Keep Both Hands on the Steering Wheel
- Get a Regular Eye Exam
- Get Regular Maintenance on Your Car
- Consider Cars with Automatic Transmissions
Implementing these steps should ease your anxiety when driving and instil you with confidence.
Reduce Symptoms and Regain Independence
When you learn to manage your symptoms, you can take back control of your day-to-day routines, driving included.
Treatments can include:
- Medications
- Physiotherapy
- Occupational therapy
- Lifestyle changes
Patients with palsy and considerable tremors that do not respond to medications can consider advanced treatments. MRI-Guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) is such a non-invasive therapy that can significantly reduce tremors for eligible individuals and helps them perform their daily activities more easily. The criteria for this treatment should be evaluated by a specialist.
Talking Openly About Driving
Talking openly about driving can be very hard for people. This is because for many, having their driving privileges removed can feel like losing their independence.
Instead of waiting for problems to arise, openly talking about driving with your neurologist and your family will help you to make driving adjustments sooner. Your neurologist can help ensure the adjustments are made gradually and safely make the changes as the health of the driver becomes a serious risk.
The goal is not to focus on the driver having their driving privileges for as long as they want, but to ensure every drive is safe for that driver and all passengers as well as the driving public.
Conclusion
Having either Parkinson’s disease or essential tremor may not mean that driving must be removed. Many are treated and, with the proper medical care, driven very safely for many years.
The focus must be on risk driving and the health driver to comply with the medical recommendations to ensure that all are safe.
FAQs
1. What happens if I get diagnosed with Parkinson’s and I’m still driving?
Many people diagnosed with Parkinson’s still drive safely, especially in the early stages. At this point, it is still up to you and how driving may be affected by the symptoms and how they may affect movement, coordination, and concentration.
2. Is driving with essential tremor still okay?
In many cases, driving is still okay. In mild cases, or when essential tremor is well managed, essential tremor won’t affect driving. However, when tremors are severe and begin to make steering or operating the controls of the vehicle difficult, it is recommended that you see a neurologist.
3. When is the time to stop driving with Parkinson’s or essential tremor?
If essential tremor or Parkinson’s symptoms begin to affect steering, braking, or begin to affect driving judgment or your confidence while driving, you should definitely consult a medical professional, as only they are able to determine the effects on driving.