THE SAFETY & MOBILITY OF OLDER DRIVERS: WHAT WE KNOW & PROMISING RESEARCH ISSUES

This issue of UMTRI Research Review addresses the safety and mobility of older drivers. The report is presented in five sections. The first section, Introduction, summarizes the literature on older drivers and traffic safety. The next section, Mobility, Travel Patterns, and Well-Being of Older Drivers, focuses on issues surrounding the mobility needs and desires of older persons, current and projected travel patterns of this group, and how the use of personal vehicles affects the emotional and physical well-being of older persons. These issues impact not only safety, but also the design and marketing of vehicles appropriate for this booming market segment. The third section, Vision, Perception, and Attention of Older Drivers, summarizes major findings concerning age-related changes in anatomy, vision, perception, and attention, as well as the relationships of these changes to driving performance and driving accidents. A discussion of topics for future research in this area follows. Among these topics are automatic vs. controlled processing, divided attention: the role of the demand on motor coordination, divided attention: usefulness of nonvisual information channels, selective attention: ignoring irrelevant information, and the useful field of view (UFOV). The next section, Human Biomechanics and Aging in the Automotive Environment, provides a brief overview of current knowledge of biomechanical changes in the human body with age that may affect the ability of elderly persons to access and/or safely operate motor vehicles, and that may increase their susceptibility to, and recovery from, injuries in a crash. Biomechanical factors discussed include muscular strength, reflex and reaction times, manual dexterity, joint range of motion, and mechanical tissue properties. The final section, Alcohol, Aging, and Driving Performance, summarizes major past findings in this area and indicates two possible areas of future research: (1) Investigation of the factors associated with drinking and driving, particularly for the cohort of women currently age 20 to 40, and design of appropriate interventions to reduce the probability of drinking and driving behavior persisting into later years; and (2) Investigation of gender differences in driving-related performance as a function of alcohol.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/9187496
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute

  2901 Baxter Road
  Ann Arbor, MI  United States  48109-2150
• Authors:
  • Sivak, M
  • Campbell, K L
  • Schneider, L W
  • Sprague, J K
  • Streff, F M
  • Waller, P F
• Publication Date: 1995-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 21 p.
• Serial:
  • UMTRI Research Review
  • Volume: 26
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute
  • ISSN: 0739-7100

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aged drivers; Alertness; Attention; Biophysics; Driver performance; Drivers; Drunk driving; Future; Guides to the literature; Injuries; Literature reviews; Mobility; Personnel performance; Research; Traffic crashes; Traffic safety; Travel patterns; Vision; Visual perception
• Uncontrolled Terms: Future research
• Old TRIS Terms: Driver vision
• Subject Areas: Highways; Research; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00719372
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-041 692
• Files: HSL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Mar 5 1996 12:00AM