Transportation Industry

The older driver comes of age

Public Roads, Jan-Feb, 2006 by Thomas M. Granda, Shirley Thompson

States are trying new funding techniques to help cover the costs of major highway projects.

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As the senior citizen population increases, activities around the country are addressing transportation and mobility challenges. Aging is a fact of life. However, the number of seniors in the United States will reach an apex over the next 20 years. According to census data in 2000, the U.S. population included approximately 35 million people who are aged 65 years and older, making up 12.4 percent of the total population. Baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 will reach the age of 65 beginning in the year 2011. Projections indicate that the population of older Americans in the United States will more than double by 2030.

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Along with this large population shift also will come a shift in vulnerabilities: because of their fragility, older people are more easily injured and killed in crashes, and are more prone to trauma resulting from crashes. In 2003, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicated that older citizens accounted for 12 percent of all traffic fatalities and 16 percent of all pedestrian fatalities.

"This aging population increases the challenges and responsibilities of numerous organizations, including those in the transportation community," says Michael Trentacoste, director of the Office of Safety Research and Development at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

The burgeoning of the Nation's senior population is driving government at all levels to reexamine services such as Social Security, health care, and transportation. Professionals who help shape transportation policy and programs have been at work for some time to address one of seniors' greatest needs: retaining their safety and mobility in later years.

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The transportation community is looking at safety improvements in a number of areas that address some of the challenges facing the Nation--including highway and vehicle design. For example, highway design alternatives might incorporate safer and easier methods for senior usage because perceiving and judging the dynamics of traffic movement may be among the limitations experienced by some older drivers. Safer, easier-to-use automobiles, as well as roadways and walkways designed to accommodate the special needs and functional requirements of older drivers and pedestrians can greatly reduce both the number and severity of crashes. Safe, well-designed, and well-lighted pedestrian facilities encourage walking, which is the second most widely used mode of travel by those 65 and older. Design standards that meet the needs of all road users--drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and bicyclists--will provide a safer transportation system for all.

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This article is the first in a PUBLIC ROADS series that will look at how various groups across the country are managing issues related to the older road user, including program development, projects, and activities.

The Demographics of Older Road Users

Aging is an individual process that affects each person differently, at different ages and at different rates. Aging may bring maturity with seasoned judgment and reduced risk-taking behavior, but it also may bring varying degrees of reduced functional abilities from multiple, chronic illnesses. Physical and cognitive abilities may decline. Physical functions such as strength, flexibility, and range of motion may be reduced. Visual limitations are often, but not always, noted in acuity and contrast sensitivity. Cognitive capabilities may slow in terms of the speed of processing information and ability to address multiple claims on attention. On the other hand, over time many older road users learn to compensate successfully for at least some of their functional limitations.

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FHWA and NHTSA, agencies that maintain the national transportation data on this subject, define "older" to mean people 65 or more years of age. Members of the older population, like everyone else, largely depend on the automobile for the bulk of their travel. Although this varies from rural to suburban to urban regions, overall people over 65 years of age make roughly 90 percent of their trips by car, more than 65 percent as drivers, and another 22 percent as passengers in a vehicle.

Data from the National Household Travel Survey indicate that compared to younger people, older adults make a greater percentage of their trips as drivers. Sandra Rosenbloom, professor of planning and adjunct professor of gerontology at the University of Arizona, Tucson, says, "Regardless of where they live, most older people are extremely dependent on the private car, either as a passenger or a driver, and increasingly the latter."

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In 2002 there were 19.9 million older licensed drivers; a 29 percent increase from 1992. During that same period, the number of drivers of all ages increased just 12 percent.

Maintaining safe mobility through the latter years is one of the highest priorities for many Americans and has obvious impacts on health and well being. According to a U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) report, Safe Mobility for a Maturing Society: Challenges and Opportunities, most older adults continue to live in the same homes or localities where they lived before they retired, close to family and friends, leading active lives, and aging in familiar surroundings. More than three-fourths of the older population live in the suburbs and rural areas, where automobiles are the primary mode of transportation.