1. Home
  2. TRID
  3. View Record
https://trb-annual-meeting.nationalacademies.org/registration

SAFE DRIVING PERFORMANCE OF OLDER COMMERCIAL VEHICLE DRIVERS

Previous research has indicated that various aspects of perceptual, cognitive, and psychomotor performance that are relevant to driving tend to deteriorate with increasing age. Despite age-related ability changes, many individuals continue to drive into their eighties and nineties. However, the onset, rate, and amount of deterioration varies widely among individuals. As a result, the level of competence in basic driving skills that determine overall driving performance, and the underlying abilities that contribute to performance cannot be predicted by chronological age alone. Each year the average age of commercial drivers in the United States increases. Even with current societal changes - downsizing of industrial and military organizations - the commercial trucking industry faces a shortage of qualified drivers. Retaining older drivers - often the safest group - can help stem the shortage. However, if older drivers present unique or increased safety or productivity risks, those risks must be identified and reduced. Until now, research on older drivers has focused on automobile drivers 65 years of age and older; very little research has been conducted on older commercial drivers. All things considered, it may be appropriate to treat older commercial drivers and older automobile drivers as separate driver populations. Several differences between these two driver groups may add to accident risk for older commercial drivers. For instance, older automobile drivers have been shown to reduce the number of miles they drive, drive on familiar routes, and avoid demanding and risky driving situations. On the other hand, older commercial drivers are likely to drive long hours and be exposed to many of the high risk situations older automobile drivers avoid. Specifically, older commercial drivers will be more likely to drive more at night, in adverse weather, and have less flexibility in the routes they take. The primary objective of this research, therefore, was to identify and reduce the risks (if any) associated with older commercial drivers, thereby enabling this growing segment of the population to remain in the workforce while at the same time ensuring safe and productive driving. In order to address this objective, a series of studies were designed to: (1) Examine the effects of increasing age on perceptual, cognitive, and psychomotor abilities by collecting data on ability measures that have been shown to be related to driving. (2) Investigate the effects of diminished abilities on direct measures of driving performance in order to determine how age-related ability deterioration affects performance in commercial vehicle driving. (3) Evaluate methods of compensating for age-related ability changes through vehicle design changes or training interventions.

  • Availability:
  • Corporate Authors:

    PTRC Education and Research Services Limited

    Glenthorne House, Hammersmith Grove
    London W6OL9,   England 
  • Authors:
    • Rogers, W C
  • Conference:
  • Publication Date: 1998

Language

  • English

Media Info

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00766092
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: VTI konferens 9A part 4
  • Files: TRIS, ATRI
  • Created Date: Jul 23 1999 12:00AM