Research on relationship between cognitive impairment and driving behavior of starting/stopping for elderly driver

Recently in Japan, traffic accidents caused by elderly drivers have attracted public attention. Elderly drivers are judged whether they can continue driving based on the cognitive test results at the renewal of their driver's license. However, it has not been to lead to the reduction of accidents. Therefore, it is important to understand the relationship between cognitive impairment and driving behavior for elderly drivers. In this study, we analysis on the relationship between cognitive impairment and driving behavior for elderly drivers. The driving ability is evaluated using the data of driving behavior during starting/stopping. Regression models that explain the relations between cognitive impairment of an elderly driver and driving ability were estimated.

Assessing and Improving Fitness to Drive in the Elderly People: a Scoping Review of Policies and Guidelines

Background: Several countries in the world have distinct policies and frameworks to assessment and promote fitness to drive in the elderly. Accordingly, this study has been conducted to analyze the processes, models, and policies to assessment fitness to drive and improving driving in the elderly in the world.Method: Expected data were collected using keywords older, old, elderly, aging, ageing, senior, polic*, process, programme, plan, guideline, framework, driving capacity, driving eligibility, safe drive, fitness to drive, renewal driving license, commercial driver, driving qualification, driving ability, driving evaluation, driving assessment and their Persian equivalents from various English-language databases included: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, and Persian-language databases Included: IranDoc, SID, and MagIran. In this study, the Arkesy and O’Malley frameworks were employed.Results: Eventually, 24 papers and reports were included in the study. Vision assessment was the main item to judge the fitness to drive in the elderly, followed by driving assessment, cognitive assessment, and motor assessment. The in-person, postal, and online renewal of license were the most common method of renewal. General practitioners were the principal performers to measure driving fitness. In most all reports and papers, there were policies on empowering the elderly driver, including providing safe driving tips, optional driving skills tests, holding retraining courses, and so on. The most significant supporting policies included introducing alternative transportation to preserve the independence of the elderly. This study explained that clinical assessment is normally performed in drivers older than 75 years old to diagnose disorders and treat and prevent them in distinct time periods.Conclusion: Most high-income countries have worthwhile experience in measuring and improving the fitness to drive in the elderly and enforce different laws according to environmental, social, and political conditions. Utilizing these experiences by considering economic and social differences can be useful and practical for middle and low-income countries.

A Study on the Acceptability of the Elderly Driver according to the Assistant Method

According to traffic accident reports, many of the accidents that occur at intersections are caused by elderly drivers, and development of an assistant system that can prevent non-stopping accidents (i.e., accidents that occur by not stopping when required) is currently a pressing need. To develop an anti-stopping alert, it has been assumed that an alarm that informs the driver about the impending approach of an intersection is effective. However, a uniform alarm system cannot be expected to influence the individual differences among elderly drivers. Then, audio-visual assistance systems that consist of a nudge that informs drivers about the existence of an intersection and of an approach alarm that follows the nudge, as well as of a display and a warning with sound and voice, were designed based on the timing when braking occurs and on a given elderly driver's braking behavior when approaching an intersection. In this research, considering an elderly driver's cognition, judgment capability, and individual driving abilities, and while investigating individual elderly drivers’ vision capabilities and judgment functions, a questionnaire survey on the posture and concerns about driving was conducted in advance. Subsequently, using the driving simulator of a city road, the driving behavior of an elderly driver from braking behavior to stopping performance was observed; furthermore, driving behavioral changes following the proposed driving assistance alarm were analyzed. The result of our analysis demonstrated that elderly drivers differed in their response to the assistance alarm according to their cognition and judgment capabilities, their experience, and driving style. The proposed system’s effectiveness was apparent when the alarm was adapted to each individual’s capabilities.

Effects of Signalization at Rural Intersections Considering the Elderly Driving Population

The main objective of this study is to quantify the safety impacts of signalization at Florida’s rural three-leg and four-leg stop-controlled intersections by estimating crash modification factors. The intersections are those in which stop signs are provided for the minor approaches or all-way stop-controlled intersections. The crash modification factors (CMF) are estimated using the cross-sectional method. Generalized linear models (GLM) and multivariate adaptive regression spline models (MARS) are employed with four years of Florida crash data. The K-nearest neighbor (KNN) and K-means clustering algorithms are implemented to identify the comparison sites which are sites having similar characteristics as those of the converted intersections. Furthermore, the quasi-induced exposure method is used to evaluate separately the safety effects of signalization for elderly and non-elderly drivers. According to the results, signalization contributes to an increase in property damage only (PDO) and rear-end crashes. In addition, elderly drivers are more at risk of being involved in such crashes than non-elderly drivers. In particular, at rural four-leg two-way stop-controlled intersections, signalization decreases crash severity, and a greater percentage of the decrease is observed for the elderly drivers than non-elderly especially when the intersection has a high level of major-road average annual daily traffic (AADT) and elderly driver proportion. This study also demonstrates that the MARS model shows a better model fit than the GLM model due to its strength in capturing nonlinear relationships and interaction effects among variables. This study’s findings have implications for both practitioners and researchers.