What are traffic engineers doing to help older drivers?
The increasing needs of older motorists are becoming apparent as a greater proportion of our nation’s motorists fall into the 65 or older age group. The natural aging process results in a steady decrease in the abilities needed to perform the driving task. The affect of aging upon vision, hearing, coordination, range of movement, strength, attentiveness, and response time have been well documented through research. Concerns over how these limitations affect motorists has resulted in several research studies that document both these limitations and that (sometimes) make recommendations that could off-set these limitations. The most recent of these large studies resulted in the January 1998 publication of the Older Driver Highway Design Handbook, by FHWA. The recommendations found in this handbook were strongly reflected in the Millennium edition of the Manual On Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which became the law of the land for most Cities, Counties and States on January 16, 2001.
