Predictors of Rapid Deceleration Events among Older Drivers: AAA LongROAD Study
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Summary
This study investigates rapid deceleration events (RDEs) as surrogate measures for unsafe driving among older adults, addressing the need for effective countermeasures to reduce crash frequency and severity. Previous research yielded conflicting results regarding RDE thresholds, with lower thresholds (.35 g) potentially indicating risky driving in high-functioning drivers and higher thresholds (.75 g) indicating errors in those with declining abilities. This research examines the relationship between RDE rates, demographics, visual and cognitive abilities, and perceived driving comfort using data from the AAA Longitudinal Research on Aging Drivers (LongROAD) study. The analysis utilized data from 2,774 participants who underwent baseline assessments of objective visual ability (acuity, contrast sensitivity, visuospatial perception) and cognitive ability (verbal fluency, executive function, memory, reaction time). GPS dataloggers recorded vehicle speed over one year to calculate RDEs defined as longitudinal decelerations of ≥.35 g (RDE35) or ≥.75 g (RDE75) with starting speeds >10 mph. Negative binomial and zero-inflated Poisson regression models analyzed RDE rates per 1,000 miles, controlling for driving environment factors such as trip chains, peak hour driving, trip distance, and speeding events. Over the study period, participants drove approximately 26.2 million miles. RDE35s were common (99.6% of participants), averaging 5.3 events per 1,000 miles, whereas RDE75s were rare (2% of participants), averaging 0.005 per 1,000 miles. Significant predictors of RDE35 rates included driving environment variables: rates decreased with more trip chains and increased with higher percentages of trips during peak hours, short trips, and speeding events. Female drivers exhibited RDE35 rates 1.13 times higher than males. Among functional measures, only clock drawing scores, choice reaction time, and delayed word recall were significantly associated with RDE35 rates; visual abilities showed no significant association. For RDE75, only the percentage of trips taken at night was a significant predictor, with rates increasing 11% per unit increase in night driving. The findings suggest that RDE35 rates may serve as a valuable surrogate safety measure when combined with demographic and environmental factors, though their utility is currently limited by the high functional ability of the cohort. The scarcity of RDE75 events prevented robust analysis, though this threshold may better capture driving errors associated with functional decline. The study concludes that as the LongROAD cohort ages and experiences functional declines, future analyses will better elucidate the relationship between RDEs and safety. The results highlight the importance of considering specific deceleration thresholds and the relatively healthy status of the current generation of older drivers.
Key finding
Among 2,774 LongROAD older drivers, RDE35 rates per 1,000 miles were associated with trip patterns, sex, study site, clock drawing, choice reaction time, delayed recall, and driving comfort, whereas RDE75 events were rare and only significantly predicted by the share of night trips.
Methodology
naturalistic
Sample size: N=2774 older drivers (AAA LongROAD); 12 months GPS datalogger data
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_aaa_foundation on 2026-05-23 (5 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | aaa_foundation | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.
- vigilance
- older drivers
- cognitive capacity variation
- age related perceptual decline
- braking response
- incidence prevalence
Information type
What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).
- Empirical Findings: observational prevalence, behavioral performance data, crash risk outcomes