Assisting the older driver - SWOV

Assisting the older driver
persons scoring relatively poor on them were considered to be functionally
older.
To summarize expectations, functionally older drivers were expected to have
more difficulties crossing complex intersections at which they have to decide
how to deal with other road users than functionally younger drivers do. We
expected that these differences in difficulties would be reflected in
differences in experienced workload and safety of driver decisions. In
addition, we expected an intersection to be more complex a) if it was
connecting more streets and traffic lanes, b) if there was no other priority
regulation than right goes before left, and c) if the view of the intersection
was blocked by cars, buildings or trees. Knowing which design elements of
intersections are responsible for task demands that overask the capabilities of
the older driver will give road authorities the opportunity to adapt the
infrastructure to the demands of tomorrow’s driver population.
6.2. Method
6.2.1. Participants
Participants were recruited by means of a newspaper article about the
driving simulator, and by advertisements in supermarkets. Participants had
to be either between 30 and 50 years of age or 70 years of age or older. Thirtythree
older adult drivers (70 to 88 years of age; μ = 75.2, σ = 4.8; 26 males, 7
females) and seventy‐two younger drivers (28 to 51 years of age; μ = 39.2, σ =
6.6; 41 males, 31 females) participated in this study. All participants had at
least 5 years of driving experience and passed a test on sensitivity to
simulator sickness (Motion Sickness/Simulator Sickness Screening Form
MSSF; see Hoffman, Molino & Inman, 2003).
After being selected based on their chronological age, participants were
grouped according to their functional age. Functional age was based on
scores on three tests of cognitive functioning, relating to reaction time,
selective attention, and visual‐motor coordination (Determination Test © S1
[Schuhfried, 2003], Tachistoscopic Traffic Test Mannheim for Screen
TAVTMB © S1 [Biehl, 2003], and adaptive tracking task [see e.g., Ponds,
Brouwer & Van Wolffelaar, 1988; Withaar & Brouwer, 2003] respectively).
We used the median reaction time provided by the Determination Test © , the
overview score of the TAVTMB © and the performance on the second trial
(third trial when considering the practice trial) of the adaptive tracking task.
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