What factors influence older people in the decision to relinquish their driver's licence? A discrete choice experiment

Abstract

PurposeTo investigate the relative importance of a number of key factors that influence older people in the decision to relinquish their driver's licence. MethodA discrete choice experiment (DCE) was administered as an online survey to Australian adults, 65 years plus (N=114) who drive, recruited from an online panel. The survey was composed of three main sections. (A) The Adelaide Driving Self Efficacy Scale to assess confidence in driving. The scale is generated from individual's responses about confidence in their driving ability in various situations. (B) The DCE in which respondents were presented with a series of hypothetical binary choice situations and asked to indicate in which situation they would be more likely to relinquish their driving licence. (C) Socio-demographic and health status questions. A conditional logit regression model was adopted to analyse the DCE data. ResultsOlder people would be more likely to relinquish their driver's licence due to advanced age, low confidence in driving ability and in situations where their local doctor advises them to cease driving. Other transport options availability and the cost of public transport were not found to be influential to this decision. ConclusionsFactors pertaining to the individual themselves including advanced old age and low confidence in driving ability may be more influential than environmental factors such as availability of other transport options and the cost of public transport in an older person's decision to relinquish their driving licence.