This paper describes project V1006 DRIVAGE, 'Factors in elderly people's driving abilities'. DRIVAGE has brought together information scientists, cognitive psychologists and social gerontologists to investigate the driving abilities, attitudes and problems of elderly people and the scope of new RTI (Road Transport Informatics) devices for helping them become safer and more confident drivers. The methodology involves the development of experimental tasks on two simulators, one a computer-based 'divided attention' task developed by the Traffic Research Centre at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, the other an interactive-video based set up developed by the Division of Engineering at King's College London, UK. The experimental designs based on these simulators have been integrated with questionnaire based studies of driver histories and characteristics. The questionnaire has been deployed in both countries and to the simulator-trial subjects. The data coding and database structure are common to the Dutch and British investigations, and a common data file will be implemented. This will enable a wide ranging analysis of the factors associated with variations in driving skills and individuals' responses to new information sources. Some peripheral investigations are reported. Preliminary empirical results from both The Netherlands and The United Kingdom are presented.
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