SAFE AND UNSAFE PERFORMANCE OF OLDER DRIVERS: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

Abstract

The elderly population will increase substantially in the years ahead, and so long as they are able, older Americans will continue to drive their automobiles to satisfy their transportation needs. Consequently, it is expected that the proportion of older drivers, those over age 55, will increase from approximately 22% of all drivers today to 28% by the year 2000 and 39% by 2050. Mobility is a highly important factor in the independence and mental health of older adults. Almost everyone concerned with traffic safety wants to keep older drivers on the highways as long as they can drive safely. However, since defining and performance can be complicated, this study was undertaken with the purpose of determining what experts in relevant fields and older drivers themselves consider indicative of and driving. After considering various techniques for arriving at a reliable determination of safe and unsafe driving by older adults, the authors chose the Critical Incident Technique (CIT). It was hoped that the CIT would make it possible to define and produce a descriptive classification (taxonomy) of safe and unsafe older driver behavior and to organize these descriptions for use in older driver improvement courses and other educational activities. The authors identified three major categories and 35 subcategories, which are presented in this report.