Assessing Route Choice to Mitigate Older Driver Risk

Older drivers face decline in perceptual, cognitive, and motor abilities, and yet, increased fragility largely explains their increased risk of fatal crashes. Adaptation and self-regulation explain why older drivers can be safe drivers in the face of declining ability. Left turns and U-turns are particularly challenging, accounting for 10% of crashes for drivers aged 60–69 and increasing to 32% for those over 80. To mitigate these driving challenges through more effective adaptation, a route risk measure was developed. The route risk measure quantifies the risk of driving challenges such as left turns, U-turns, and trip length using older driver crash statistics from the General Estimates System. The authors applied the risk measure to 1253 trips taken by 39 urban and rural older drivers residing in Wisconsin. A search for a low-risk alternative route was conducted by applying the measure to corresponding routes suggested by Google Maps. Results showed that the low-risk alternative reduced risk for 77.7% of the older drivers' trips, on average, by 61.4%. The low-risk alternative had 1.50 fewer left turns and 0.23 fewer U-turns and were 0.44 mi shorter. Thus, selecting low-risk alternatives from the routes suggested by Google could help drivers avoid challenging maneuvers, potentially reducing their crash risk by promoting more effective adaptation to their declining abilities.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1109/TITS.2016.2582513
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/41297384
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Copyright © 2017, IEEE.
• Authors:
  • Payyanadan, Rashmi P
  • Sanchez, Fabrizzio A
  • Lee, John D
• Publication Date: 2017-3

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 527-536
• Serial:
  • IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems
  • Volume: 18
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
  • ISSN: 1524-9050
  • Serial URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=6979

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Advanced driver information systems; Aged drivers; Left turns; Mathematical models; Risk analysis; Risk assessment; Routes and routing; U turns
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01631484
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TLIB, TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 30 2017 5:09PM