Purpose: We review what we currently know about older driver safety and mobility, and we highlight important research needs in a number of key areas that hold promise for achieving the safety and mobility goals for the aging baby boomers and future generations of older drivers. Design and Methods:Through the use of a framework for transportation and safe mobility, we describe key areas of screening and assessment, remediation and rehabilitation, vehicle design and modification, technological advancements, roadway design, transitioning to nondriving, and alternative transportation to meet the goals of crash prevention and mobility maintenance for older adults. Results: Four cross-cutting themes emerged from this review: safe transportation for older adults is important; older adults have a variety of needs, abilities, and resources; research to help meet the transportation needs of older adults may be of benefit to persons with disabilities; and transportation issues concerning older adults are multifaceted. Implications: Safe mobility is essential to continued engagement in civic, social, and community life, and to the human interactions necessary for health, well-being, and quality of life. When safe driving is no longer possible for older adults, safe and practicable alternative transportation must be available. Furthermore, older adults are individuals; they have specific needs, abilities, and resources. Not all older adults will have difficulty meeting their transportation needs and no single transportation solution will work for all people. Research and countermeasures intended to help meet the transportation needs of older adults will likely also benefit younger users of the transportation system, particularly those with disabilities. The issues surrounding the maintenance of safe transportation for older adults will require an interdisciplinary research approach if we are to make significant progress in the next decade as the baby boomers begin to reach age 70.

Objectives. The objectives of this paper are to review the published research findings about the role of self-regulation in older driver safety and to report on an exploratory study to better understand the self-regulatory practices of older drivers as demonstrated through the avoidance of a number of specific driving situations including making left turns and driving alone, at night, in bad weather, in high traffic, and on the expressway and through restricting driving to familiar or local areas only. Methods. As part of a larger study on the development and testing of a self-screening instrument by older drivers, data on self-regulation were compared with data on driving-related abilities collected through clinical and on-road assessments for 68 drivers age 65 and older. Results. Findings indicate that 25% of subjects reported self-regulating their driving in some way. Of those who self-regulated, five individuals reported avoiding just one type of driving situation, six reported avoiding two, one reported avoiding three, and five reported avoiding four types of situations. The most frequently reported situations were avoiding driving at night (19.1%) in bad weather (8.8%), and driving only in local areas (13.2%). Women were considerably more likely than men to report self-regulatory practices. Consistent with the findings of low avoidance of driving situations, subjects generally reported high levels of confidence, with the exception of driving at night, for which over one third of women reported being “not at all confident.” Overall, subjects were least confident driving at night, in bad weather, and on expressways. Results from a logistic regression model indicate that subjects did appear to self-regulate their driving at night based on their performance on the on-road driving assessment (p < .01). That is, for every 10-unit decrease in driving score (with lower scores indicating poorer driving performance), subjects were 1.6 times more likely to self-regulate. Conclusions. Continuing research on the extent to which older drivers appropriately self-regulate their driving is warranted. Future studies should focus on objectively measuring self-regulation, possibly through instrumented vehicle studies, and comparing these measures with clinically determined functional abilities and driving performance. It is also important to take into account differences in self-regulation by sex, as well as the effects of confidence in driving ability and insight into functional impairments on self-regulation.

Objective: The primary objective of this study was to better understand how self-regulatory driving practices at multiple levels of driver decision making are influenced by various factors. Specifically, the study investigated patterns of tactical and strategic self-regulation among a sample of 246 Australian older drivers. Of special interest was the relative influence of several variables on the adoption of self-regulation, including self-perceptions of health, functioning, and abilities for safe driving and driving confidence and comfort. Methods: The research was carried out at the Monash University Accident Research Centre, as part of its Ozcandrive study, a partnership with the Canadian Driving Research Initiative for Vehicular Safety in the Elderly (Candrive), and in conjunction with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). Candrive/Ozcandrive represents the first study to follow a large group of older drivers over several years and collect comprehensive self-reported and objectively derived data on health, functioning, and driving. This study used a subset of data from the Candrive/Ozcandrive study. Upon enrolling in the study, participants underwent a comprehensive clinical assessment during which data on visual, cognitive, and psychomotor functioning were collected. Approximately 4 months after study enrollment, participants completed the Advanced Driving Decisions and Patterns of Travel (ADDAPT) questionnaire, a computer-based self-regulation instrument developed and pilot-tested at UMTRI. Results: Self-regulation among older adults was found to be a multidimensional concept. Rates of self-regulation were tied closely to specific driving situations, as well as level of decision making. In addition, self-regulatory practices at the strategic and tactical levels of decision making were influenced by different sets of factors. Conclusions: Continuing efforts to better understand the self-regulatory practices of older drivers at multiple levels of driver performance and decision making should provide important insights into how the transition from driving to nondriving can be better managed to balance the interdependent needs of public safety and personal mobility.

Advanced in-vehicle technologies have been proposed as a potential way to keep older adults driving for as long as they can safely do so, by taking into account the common declines in functional abilities experienced by older adults. The purpose of this report was to synthesize the knowledge about older drivers and advanced in-vehicle technologies, focusing on three areas: use (how older drivers use these technologies), perception (what they think about the technologies), and outcomes (the safety and/or comfort benefits of the technologies). Twelve technologies were selected for review and grouped into three categories: crash avoidance systems (lane departure warning, curve speed warning, forward collision warning, blind spot warning, parking assistance); in-vehicle information systems (navigation assistance, intelligent speed adaptation); and other systems (adaptive cruise control, automatic crash notification, night vision enhancement, adaptive headlight, voice activated control). A comprehensive and systematic search was conducted for each technology to collect related publications. 271 articles were included into the final review. Research findings for each of the 12 technologies are synthesized in relation to how older adults use and think about the technologies as well as potential benefits. These results are presented separately for each technology. Can advanced in-vehicle technologies help extend the period over which an older adult can drive safely? This report answers this question with an optimistic “yes.” Some of the technologies reviewed in this report have been shown to help older drivers avoid crashes, improve the ease and comfort of driving, and travel to places and at times that they might normally avoid.