Road safety and mobility of older drivers in rural versus urban areas
The aim of this thesis was to examine the safety and mobility of older drivers who live in rural areas of South Australia, compared to their urban counterparts. This was achieved through five independent studies. Studies 1 and 2 involved the analysis of crash, serious injury, and fatality data for drivers of different ages from both rural and urban areas of South Australia. Study 3 involved an examination of the perceptions of 170 drivers (aged = 75) from rural and urban areas of South Australia regarding: the importance of driving, their access to alternative transportation (e.g. public transport), and the degree to which they self-regulate their driving. Prior to investigating the driving mobility and exposure of 56 drivers from rural and urban areas of South Australia, using GPS data loggers and telephone-based travel diaries, the suitability of these methods of data collection was firstly evaluated in Study 4. The data collected for Study 4 were used in Study 5, in order to assess whether older rural drivers are more restricted in their everyday driving mobility, and whether they differ in their exposure to risk while driving, compared to older urban drivers. Overall, the findings suggest that living in rural areas affects the driving safety of older adults, such that the rural driving environment increases the likelihood that they will be seriously or fatally injured in the event of a crash. Importantly, their day-to-day driving mobility is not affected by living in rural areas because they undertake as much driving, and as many activities through their driving, as older urban drivers. Therefore, the challenge for the future is to reduce the risk of serious and fatal injury for older rural drivers without reducing their mobility and, consequently, quality of life in the process.
- Record URL:
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Supplemental Notes:
- PhD thesis
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Authors:
- Thompson, J P
- Publication Date: 2014
Language
- English
Media Info
- Pagination: 1 file
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Aged; Aged drivers; Crash analysis; Crashes; Data collection; Drivers; Highway safety; Mobility; Rural areas; Safety
- Uncontrolled Terms: Safe systems (road users)
- Geographic Terms: Australia; South Australia
- ATRI Terms: Aged driver; Crash analysis; Data collection; Mobility; Road safety; Rural area
- ITRD Terms: 9105: Mobility (pers)
- Subject Areas: Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01586880
- Record Type: Publication
- Source Agency: ARRB
- Files: ITRD, ATRI
- Created Date: Jan 14 2016 11:35AM