Characteristics of older road users and their effect on road safety

This paper reports the results of several field surveys on the characteristics of older road users in Japan and of their traffic accident statistics. The results obtained are as follows: the reduced physical and mental functions with advancing age give improper driving characteristics to elderly drivers, but are not deterministic factors of quitting driving; the driving characteristics have some relation with traffic accidents; problematic drivers seem to emerge among elderly drivers; reduced functions are also related to the occurrence of accidents among elderly people in bicycle riding and walking. Further, a systematic and comprehensive approach is presented for traffic accident prevention among the elderly based upon these results.