This chapter presents the new experimental methodology of the DRIVAGE project of the DRIVE programme, together with some results of simulator tests of elderly drivers. The project studies selected aspects of the driving performance of elderly drivers, and of control groups of younger experienced drivers, with and without the help of road transport informatics (RTI) devices. A semi-realistic driving simulator was used, with the following components: (1) a Renault car body; (2) a videodisc player; (3) a 660 mm screen; (4) an Archimedes 440 personal computer. Five simulator runs were conducted per subject, and seven hypotheses about the effects of age on driving were tested. The sample consisted of 96 men and 58 women, aged between 55 and 86, living in the London Metropolitan Area. Each person was given a mail questionnaire to answer, and 121 of them completed the simulator test. The simulator test used the following driver performance measures: (1) mean separation distance between lead car and chase car;(2) standard deviation of speed difference between these cars; and (3) mean delay in responding to speed changes. No significant age difference was found for single driving tests, but a minority of older drivers performed significantly worse on multiple simultaneous tasks. The results describe more of the complexity of driving than many previous laboratory trials.
Abstract