Characteristics of older drivers who adopt self-regulatory driving behaviours
DOI: 10.1016/j.trf.2006.06.006
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Summary
This study addresses the inadequacy of existing measures for assessing driving self-restriction in older adults, a strategy where drivers avoid specific situations to maintain safety as physical or cognitive abilities decline. The authors argue that the widely used Driving Habits Questionnaire (DHQ) and its adaptations, such as the Driver Mobility Questionnaire (DMQ), may no longer adequately capture the full range of situations older drivers avoid due to changes in the traffic environment and driver behavior. The research aimed to identify the specific driving situations older adults perceive as unsafe and to determine if current scales cover these scenarios, ultimately proposing a new item pool for a more comprehensive avoidance scale. The study involved 75 community-recruited drivers aged 65 and older (mean age 71.15) with valid licenses and normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Participants completed the DMQ avoidance items, an extended Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) assessing lapses, errors, and violations, and open-ended questions describing their safest and least safe driving situations. Responses to the open-ended questions were coded by two researchers into thematic categories to identify specific situational factors. Results indicated that the sample exhibited relatively low levels of driving self-restriction, with 31% reporting no avoidance of difficult situations. The most frequently avoided situation on the DMQ was driving in the rain at night. DBQ data showed that older drivers rarely engaged in aggressive violations, with lapses being the most common behavioral issue. Analysis of open-ended responses revealed that while there was overlap with existing scale items, participants identified numerous unsafe situations not covered by the DMQ or DBQ. Key themes for unsafe driving included traffic density, road characteristics (e.g., roundabouts, tunnels, roadworks), weather conditions beyond rain (e.g., fog, sun glare), and the behavior of other drivers. Conversely, safest situations were associated with familiar roads, low traffic density, and specific road classes. The study concludes that current measures fail to capture the breadth of situations older drivers avoid, particularly those related to complex road engineering features and other drivers' behaviors. The authors propose a new, systematically generated item pool for a driving avoidance scale that incorporates these identified themes. This updated measure is intended to provide a more accurate assessment of self-regulatory behaviors, facilitating better research into the effectiveness of self-restriction as a road safety countermeasure for older adults. The findings highlight the need for updated psychometric tools that reflect contemporary driving environments and the specific safety perceptions of aging drivers.
Key finding
Standard driving avoidance scales do not adequately capture the full range of situations that older drivers perceive as unsafe and choose to avoid, necessitating the development of a new measurement tool.
Methodology
survey
Sample size: 75
Provenance
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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
- dbq psychometrics
- decision making risk perception
- human error taxonomy
- older driver retraining
- sex gender
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
- Methodological Resource: validation psychometrics, dataset resource