Aging: Older Adults’ Driving Behavior Using Longitudinal and Lateral Warning Systems

Souders, Dustin J.; Charness, Neil; Roque, Nelson A.; Pham, Hellen · 2020 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1177/0018720819864510

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged

Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study investigates how older adults’ driving behavior is affected by the concurrent use of forward collision warning (FCW) and lane departure warning (LDW) systems, addressing concerns that multiple advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) might increase cognitive workload or reduce safety benefits. Previous research with younger drivers suggested that adding an LDW to an FCW could diminish the longitudinal safety benefits of the FCW, such as increased following distance, due to divided attention. The current research aimed to determine if these adverse interactions occur in older drivers, who may have greater difficulty managing distraction and workload. The researchers conducted a driving simulator study with 128 community-dwelling older adults (mean age 75.03 years) using a 2×2 between-subjects design. Participants were assigned to one of four conditions: control (no warnings), FCW only, LDW only, or both FCW and LDW. All participants also used a smart speedometer. The experimental task involved a ~25-minute simulated drive through varied terrain, culminating in a critical event where a lead vehicle stopped suddenly. Driving performance was measured via time-to-collision (TTC), headway distance, and lane position standard deviation. Subjective workload was assessed using the NASA-TLX. Data were analyzed using linear mixed effect models to account for repeated measures within data collection regions. Results indicated that there were no significant differences in headway distance among the different warning system combinations. However, drivers using the FCW system showed significantly longer time-to-collision (TTC) when approaching the critical event compared to those who did not use FCW. In contrast, the use of LDW did not result in reduced standard deviation of lane position. Furthermore, analyses of subjective workload revealed no significant differences between the conditions, suggesting that the concurrent use of both systems did not increase perceived mental or physical demand. These findings suggest that FCW can improve older drivers’ longitudinal safety by increasing TTC during critical events, and that pairing FCW with LDW does not adversely affect longitudinal performance or subjective workload in this population. This contrasts with previous findings in younger samples, where concurrent use of both systems sometimes led to reduced following distances or lower user satisfaction. The study implies that older drivers may be able to manage the dual alerts of FCW and LDW without significant performance degradation or increased workload, supporting the potential utility of combined ADAS for this demographic.

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.

Summary generated by qwen3.8-27b-gittensor on 2026-08-23; verification: pending re-verification.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• older drivers