Age and road safety performance: Focusing on elderly and young drivers

Overview & Synopsis

Existing literature on young and elderly drivers indicates that they have the highest crash risks compared to other driver age groups. This paper improves our understanding of the risk factors contributing to young and elderly drivers' elevated crash risk by examining self-report data from the E-Survey of Road User's Safety Attitudes (ESRA). The primary objective of the paper is to compare the attitudes and behaviours of young, elderly and middle-age drivers in Canada, the United States and Europe. The main focus is on influencers of driving while distracted by mobile phones and driving while fatigued as these are two dangerous behaviours that lend themselves particularly well to demonstrate the impact age may have. The analyses consistently showed there are differences in the responses attributable to age. In all regions, young drivers aged 18-21 consistently reported higher rates of distracted and fatigued driving and higher rates of perceived social and personal acceptability of these behaviours than drivers aged 35-54. Elderly drivers aged 65+ reported even lower rates of these behaviours and acceptability. Young drivers were also the least likely to believe distraction and fatigue to be frequent causes of road crashes while elderly drivers were the most likely to believe this. This pattern with respect to age repeats in the support for policy measures with young drivers least likely to support zero tolerance policies for mobile phone use while driving while elderly drivers are the most likely to support this measure. Multivariate logistic regression modelling confirmed that elderly drivers were the least likely to engage in all four behaviours. For middle-age drivers, statistically significant results showed this age group was less likely than young drivers to read a text message/email or check social media while driving and for driving while fatigued.