Older Drivers

Introduction

The six major areas of the AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan—Drivers, Vehicles, Special Users, Highways, Emergency Medical Services, and Management—are subdivided into 22 goals, or key emphasis areas, that impact highway safety. One of these addresses the reduction of crashes and fatalities involving older drivers. This implementation guide provides engineering, planning, education, and policy guidance to highway agencies that desire to better accommodate older drivers’ special needs.

Older drivers represent a subset of the driving population that deserves special attention. Aging affects a variety of skills needed for safe driving. In particular, the aging population experiences deterioration in physical, perceptual, and cognitive skills:

• Reductions in strength, flexibility, and range of motion caused by arthritis or other conditions can negatively impact driving.
• Many visual functions deteriorate with age–including static and dynamic visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and glare sensitivity.
• Normative aging most often causes cognitive changes, such as working memory, selective attention, and processing speed.

Many highway design and traffic control elements can be improved to better meet the aging population’s physical, perceptual, and cognitive needs. In addition, motor vehicle departments, highway safety offices, medical professionals, and others can join to help older adults extend their safe driving years. Both the Federal Highway Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have developed key resource documents for this emphasis area. The U.S. Department of Transportation also recently released a planning guide entitled Safe Mobility for a Maturing Society: Challenges and Opportunities, which establishes the goal of creating a national transportation system that provides safe mobility to all persons at all stages of their lives.

The following guide outlines a variety of strategies that can assist state and local transportation agencies with addressing older drivers’ special needs while improving safety for all road users.