Projecting Fatalities in Crashes Involving Older Drivers, 2000-2025
Projecting Fatalities in Crashes Involving Older Drivers, 2000-2025
Projecting Fatalities in Crashes Involving Older Drivers, 2000-2025
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
frailty may be reduced by improv<strong>in</strong>g elderly health trends or through general technological<br />
improvements <strong>in</strong> safety equipment that can help a frail person survive a crash.<br />
10.3.4 Comparison of Younger and <strong>Older</strong> <strong>Drivers</strong>’ Behavior<br />
This study’s f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g of the importance of employment status as a determ<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g force<br />
<strong>in</strong> elder driver fatalities po<strong>in</strong>ts to the question of how much of this effect is a pure age effect<br />
and how much is comparable to the exposure to crash risk faced by all work<strong>in</strong>g drivers. This<br />
issue can be addressed to some extent with currently available <strong>in</strong>formation, but projection of<br />
younger fatalities <strong>in</strong>to the future would require <strong>in</strong>come projections for the younger age<br />
groups, which may behave quite differently from those of the elderly liv<strong>in</strong>g between <strong>2000</strong> and<br />
<strong>2025</strong>. Another issue that bears further <strong>in</strong>vestigation is age-specific seat belt use. The seat<br />
belt use <strong>in</strong>formation available for this study was population-wide. If age- and/or gender-<br />
specific seat belt use <strong>in</strong>formation were made available, it might be possible to study seat belt<br />
use as a choice made simultaneously with other driv<strong>in</strong>g choices such as VMT, driv<strong>in</strong>g, and<br />
crash rate.<br />
10.3.5 Alternative Transportation Options for the Elderly<br />
As noted <strong>in</strong> Section 10.3.1, there are several uncerta<strong>in</strong>ties regard<strong>in</strong>g mobility of the<br />
elderly <strong>in</strong> the future. The impacts of smart cars, <strong>in</strong>frastructure enhancements, and <strong>in</strong>novative<br />
safety programs and/or components can simply not be quantified at this time. However,<br />
current trends are to solve the problems of traffic congestion, air pollution, and safety through<br />
better eng<strong>in</strong>eer<strong>in</strong>g and creative approaches to public transportation rather than by build<strong>in</strong>g<br />
new roads. The need for alternative mobility options for the elderly is well recognized, and<br />
various concepts for mak<strong>in</strong>g transit use more acceptable to elderly riders are be<strong>in</strong>g explored.<br />
Additional research is needed <strong>in</strong> the areas of public transportation as well as other<br />
alternative mobility options. For example, more <strong>in</strong>formation on public transit is needed (1) to<br />
identify the features that the elderly desire <strong>in</strong> a transit system (price/method of payment, ease<br />
GM Project G.6 10 - 14<br />
October <strong>2000</strong>