Assisting the older driver - SWOV

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Intersection design and the older driver 5.3.5. General principles of relevant road adjustments The intersection design elements that were discussed in this section have in common that they allow for the functional limitations that are more common in the group of older drivers. Three ways of allowing for functional limitations can be distinguished: • Reduce time pressure by giving the road user more time to observe, base decisions on these observations, and act accordingly. Examples are longer sight distances, and advance warning signs (lane configuration, yield signs). • Improve the visibility of important features of the intersection. Examples are positive offsets of opposite left‐turn lanes, high contrast levels for road markings, background plates for traffic lights, and fixed lighting. • Allow drivers to perform tasks sequentially instead of simultaneously. Examples are roundabouts, and protected‐only operations of traffic lights. Although these design elements have been selected for their capacity to increase the safety of older road users, they will also make a contribution to the safety of other road users. Measures that give the driver more time to observe things and to base decisions on these observations make the driving task easier for all road users. The reduced complexity of the driving task will probably reduce the number of human errors, and in the end possibly also the number of crashes. The fact that adjustments that benefit older road users also have positive effects on the safety of other road users, is an additional argument for taking such measures. 5.4. Conclusions regarding intersection design elements that take the older driver into account In this chapter, two strategies were followed to look for intersection design elements that play a role in the difficulties that older drivers encounter in traffic: 1) inspections of intersections that have different shares of crashes involving older drivers, and 2) a review of the literature on intersection design elements that appear to take the functional limitations of older drivers into account. The intersection inspections were guided by the concept of task difficulty. It was expected that the crash risk of older drivers would increase with the 99
Assisting the older driver complexity of the traffic situation, provided that drivers have to make decisions with regard to road users that are about to cross their path, and provided that drivers cannot use their experience to make these decisions. These expectations were only confirmed for one of the intersection characteristics that were expected to determine the need for decision making with regard to other road users: implementation of right of way. It turned out that at intersections at which no crashes occurred in which older drivers were involved, traffic was more often regulated by means of traffic lights than it was at intersections at which relatively many crashes occurred in which older drivers were involved. At the latter intersections, traffic was more often regulated by means of yield signs. The other hypotheses could not be accepted, either because the direction of the relationship was counter to expectations, or because there was no relation at all. The intersection inspections that were carried out within the scope of this thesis had a rather exploratory character and the number of intersections that were inspected was relatively small. However, the concept of task difficulty and its application to the difficulty of passing intersections deserve it to be studied in a more systematic way. Using structured data collection, future studies should test the hypotheses regarding factors that contribute to task difficulty (complexity, need for decision making, and proper mental schemata) as well as those regarding specific intersection characteristics that determine the complexity of a traffic situation (amount and quality of trafficrelated information, and time pressure). Ideally, these studies should be preceded by a study that helps to determine the direction in which specific design elements contribute to the complexity of a traffic situation. One could argue, for example, that some increases of the amount of traffic‐related information do not add to the complexity of a situation but rather reduce it. A separate traffic lane for vehicles turning left or for cyclists, for example, increases the number of lanes to scan but on the other hand structures the information by dividing the carriageway into different sections that are used by different types of road users planning to execute different manoeuvres. The literature review taught that road design elements that appear to allow for one or more age‐related functional limitations include a positive offset of opposite left‐turn lanes, conversion of intersections into roundabouts, high in‐service contrast levels for road markings, background plates for traffic lights, long sight distances, advance warning signs, and protected‐only operations of traffic lights. However, the actual effect that these adjustments have on the safety of older drivers has hardly been tested yet. Two 100
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Assisting the older driver Intersec
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SWOV‐Dissertatiereeks, Leidschend
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Promotor: Copromotor: Beoordelingsc
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3.2.3. Conclusions regarding future
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7.3. Preconditions for safe use of
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General introduction General introd
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Physical and mental characteristics
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Advanced driver assistance systems
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Advanced driver assistance systems
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Effects of a driver support system
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Assisting the older driver (Eds.),
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Assisting the older driver Appendix
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Samenvatting Samenvatting Dit proef
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Samenvatting Verkeersveiligheidsmaa
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Samenvatting jongere automobilisten
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Samenvatting voordeel dat ze de rij
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Dankwoord Dankwoord Het schrijven v
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Curriculum Vitae Curriculum Vitae R
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Assisting the older driver Nottingh
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