HIGHWAY RESEARCH TO ENHANCE SAFETY AND MOBILITY OF OLDER ROAD USERS

This paper presents a review of the literature dealing with the safety and mobility of older road users. It begins with comments on the 1988 Transportation Research Board Special Report 218, "Transportation in an Aging Society: Improving Mobility and Safety for Older Persons," a milestone in the history of transportation research. This review makes three assumptions: "old" was defined to include people age 65 or older; the criterion used to make judgments was the 85th percentile level of performance of a designated older sample or group; and older volunteers in most of the studies represented the 80% of older people living independently in a community and capable of successfully performing activities of daily living. A major development since the release of Special Report 218 was intelligent transportation systems (ITS) research and development. ITS technology offers not only the promise to assist older travelers but also the potential to increase their burden if the information-processing demands of in-vehicle interfaces are engineered without special regard for older people's emerging needs and changes in capacity. This review covers four areas: highway geometric design; traffic operations; traffic-control devices; and highway lighting. The review concludes with two lists, one containing suggestions for implementation and the other suggestions for research.

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  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/conf/reports/cp_27.pdf
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  • Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
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• Authors:
  • Schieber, F
• Conference:
  • Transportation in an Aging Society: A Decade of Experience
  • Location: Bethesda Maryland, United States
  • Date: 1999-11-7 to 1999-11-9
• Publication Date: 2004

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 125-154
• Monograph Title: TRANSPORTATION IN AN AGING SOCIETY: A DECADE OF EXPERIENCE. TECHNICAL PAPERS AND REPORTS FROM A CONFERENCE, NOVEMBER 7-9, 1999, BETHESDA, MARYLAND
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Board Conference Proceedings
  • Issue Number: 27
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 1073-1652

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aged; Aged drivers; Geometric design; Highway design; Highway operations; Intelligent transportation systems; Literature reviews; Mobility; Research; Safety; Street lighting; Traffic control devices
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Research; Safety and Human Factors; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I73: Traffic Control; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00974948
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309077451
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Jun 25 2004 12:00AM