Drivers Of Different Ages Research Articles

Orientation in road traffic. Age-related differences using an in-vehicle navigation system and a conventional map

Forty-eight drivers of different ages (35–50 years old, 61 years and older) took part in our study, which tested a marketable navigation system (TRAVELPILOT IDS). Driving and navigation performance, as well as mental workload and the acceptance of innovative technology, were investigated. A limited range of findings will be presented in this paper. The results show that older and middle-aged drivers differ in only a few aspects. Both age groups reveal comparable results in driving. However, regarding the operation of the navigation system and concerning its effectiveness, older drivers performed worse. Age-related differences being rather small, analyses revealed significant global differences between the navigation system and a common road map: usage of the TRAVELPILOT influenced driving behavior negatively with respect to traffic safety. Also, the drivers' orientation was not any better using the navigation system. Based on this experimental work and on results derived from the literature, conclusions are drawn regarding future navigation systems in general and with respect to needs of elderly drivers.

The risk of accidents among older drivers.

The number of older persons holding a driver's license is rapidly increasing, as is the number of older persons driving a car. This paper examines driver accident risk by age group, focusing on the older driver. Two different measures of accident risk are used; involvement in personal injury traffic accidents per million kilometers driven, and involvement in traffic accidents where one or more pedestrians were injured per million kilometers driven. The latter measure is used to refute the assumption that the elderly's risk of being involved in personal injury accidents might, to some extent, be explained by the fact that older drivers generally tend to run a higher risk than younger drivers of being injured in the event of a traffic accident. Another motive is that it provides a measure of the extent to which drivers of different ages present a risk to their fellow road users. This study shows that drivers in the 75-84 age group are at four to six times greater risk than are middle-aged drivers of being involved in personal injury traffic accidents.

Relation of Individual Differences in Information-Processing Ability to Driving Performance

Fifty subjects ranging in age from 30 to 83 participated in a closed-course driving test and in laboratory tests of information processing. Driving tests included responding to traffic signals, selection of routes, avoidance of moving hazards, and judgment at stationary gaps. Lab tests included measures of perceptual style, selective attention, reaction time, visual acuity, perceptual speed and risk-taking propensity. Analyses were conducted to determine how well lab measures predicted driving performance. Results revealed different patterns of correlations for different age groups. For younger drivers (30-51), lab measures generally showed no association with measures of driving performance. For older drivers (74-83), measures of information-processing were associated with overall rated driving performance, while measures of reaction time showed strong correlations with objective driving measures. The results suggested that different mechanisms are utilized by drivers of different ages, and that the slowing of reaction time associated with aging has effects on driving skills related to vehicle control.

Relationship between age and hazard perception in automobile drivers.

Hazard perception in automobile drivers of different ages was studied by assessing reports of potentially dangerous situations encountered while driving. Two experiments were conducted, one with 20 women and the other with 18 men and women. The results of both showed that older drivers perceived relatively more danger stemming from moving objects, while younger drivers perceived relatively more in non-moving objects. Driving skills measured in terms of steering-wheel reversals and speed changes did not vary with age, leading to the conclusion that skill itself was not a factor in the differential perception.

The Effect of Glare from Street Lighting Lanterns on the Vision of Drivers of Different Ages

Although methods of evaluating the effect of glare on the ability of an observer to detect objects in terms of an equivalent veiling luminance (e.v.l.) were developed by Holladay and Stiles prior to 1930 their results have usually been interpreted in Britain as indicating that disability glare is negligible in lighted streets. A re-examination of this question indicates that disability glare is important and that erroneous conclusions may be reached if disability glare is neglected when calculating revealing power. For example the revealing power of non-cut-off lighting installations may be rated higher than that of cut-off installations, though the opposite is usually the case in the critical darker regions of the installations. New work has shown that the e.v.l. is markedly dependent on the age of the observer, and has indicated a need for further work to obtain more precise knowledge of the way the e.v.l. varies with changes in the position of the glare source in relation to the observer's point of regard over the range of conditions important in the street lighting problem.