United States Department of Transportation
i
Enhancing the Effectiveness of Safety Warning Systems for Older Drivers: Project Report
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2010-12-01
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[PDF-2.65 MB]
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TRIS Online Accession Number:01357963
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Edition:Project Report
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Abstract:Older drivers seem to have the greatest difficulty negotiating intersections, as indicated by overrepresentation in intersection crashes. Older drivers are also the fastest growing segment of the general population and the fastest growing sector of the driving population. To address this area of concern, this research is an effort aimed to support technology development that can mitigate older driver intersection crashes. This project explored a vehicle-based technology countermeasure for crashes associated with failure-to-obey (running a stop sign or stop light) violations developed under the Intelligent Transportation Systems’ CICAS-V project. This system warned drivers when it determined it was likely the driver would violate a red light or stop sign. An evaluation was performed in the NADS-1 high-fidelity driving simulator. The experimental design used 36 participants from three age-related groups; 'middle-normal'(25-55), 'older normal'(>65) and 'older at-risk'(>65) drivers. The participants were presented two levels of vehicle system presence (present and not present). There was an overall benefit associated with the presence of the warning system as there were significantly fewer did-notstop outcomes when the system was present than when it was not. The benefit associated with the system was also seen in the stopping position data. Participants who experienced the system warning stopped instead of driving through the intersection, resulting in more stops past the stop bar, but before the collision zone. From the survey data, there was also a general perception that the system improved driving safety and that the system aided drivers in driving more carefully. Older-at-risk drivers had the greatest decrease in did-not-stop outcomes when the system was present, although this trend did not reach statistical significance. This study shows promise for improving the safety of all drivers, including at-risk-older drivers, with intersection warning systems. However, this study did not thoroughly explore possible unintended consequences of intersection warning systems such as overreliance on or inappropriate reactions to warnings under certain situations.
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