Summary of LongROAD Research on Older Drivers from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety: 2017–2025
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Summary
This research brief summarizes findings from the Longitudinal Research on Aging Drivers (LongROAD) study, a prospective cohort study conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety between 2015 and 2022. The study addresses the critical need to understand how age-related functional declines impact driving safety and mobility, aiming to identify risk factors and support strategies for older adults. The research focuses on a cohort of 2,990 American drivers aged 65 to 79 at enrollment, recruited from five university health systems. Data collection involved annual assessments, including in-person visits and phone interviews, alongside objective driving data from vehicle dataloggers, official crash records, and medical histories. The study examined health conditions, medication use, self-regulation behaviors, technology adoption, and the transition to driving cessation. Key findings reveal that older drivers actively self-regulate their driving habits in response to physical and cognitive declines. Drivers with poorer visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, or hearing impairments tended to drive closer to home, avoid night driving, and steer clear of high-speed roads. Similarly, those with physical frailty or musculoskeletal conditions, such as arthritis, reduced their driving distances and avoided challenging situations, though frailty was not directly associated with increased crash involvement. Medication use was prevalent, with 97% of participants taking at least one medication and high rates of polypharmacy; 18.4% used potentially inappropriate medications, particularly benzodiazepines and hypnotics. While cannabis use was common in the Colorado study site, actual impaired driving was rare, whereas high-risk alcohol consumption was associated with risky driving behaviors. The study also highlighted trends in technology and transportation. Adoption of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) increased significantly over the study period, with features like backup cameras and blind-spot warnings becoming more common, particularly among higher-income and male drivers. However, many participants learned to use these features independently rather than through professional instruction. Regarding mobility alternatives, 89.3% of participants used at least one alternative transportation mode, with riding with family or friends being the most prevalent. Use of public transit and rideshares was higher among younger older adults (65–69) and those with higher incomes. Finally, the brief notes that while many drivers reduced driving due to health concerns, the majority had not discussed driving safety with physicians or family members, despite reporting lower self-rated driving abilities and higher frequencies of driving lapses. These findings underscore the importance of addressing functional declines and facilitating safe transitions away from driving to maintain quality of life.
Key finding
Older drivers with diminished visual, hearing, or physical abilities self-regulate their driving by avoiding challenging conditions such as night driving, high-speed roads, and unfamiliar areas to maintain safety.
Methodology
field_study
Sample size: 2990
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 (6 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 | 3 | 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.
- older drivers
- older driver retraining
- mci dementia driving
- sex gender
- exposure measurement
- age related perceptual decline
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
- Methodological Resource: dataset resource