• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.73-82
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to understand motion characteristics of older drivers during reaching seat belt compared to young drivers and to provide design guidelines in order to reduce discomfort for the elderly. The whole body kinematics of each subject was captured using 12-camera motion analysis system. Subjective ratings on discomfort levels were obtained simultaneously using a questionnaire. This paper first presents the result of motion characteristics of elderly drivers' reach motion to seat belt. Compared to young drivers, older drivers performed seat belt reach motions less efficiently and moved slower due to mostly the movement error. Older drivers also made use of reduced joint range of motion in cervical left rotation, lumbar left rotation and right shoulder adduction, which can be explained by their reduced active range of motions (AROMs). To compensate for their reduced joint range of motion, older drivers rotated pelvis more.

• 한국노년학
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.1087-1099
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• 2012

The purpose of this paper is to examine how visuospatial ability affects the situation awareness for older drivers while driving. For this study, the Rey-Osterrith Complex Figure (ROCF) was used to measure the visuospatial ability of older drivers. The ROCF is used to measure visuospatial construct and memory abilities, and Real-Time Probes were used to measure the situation awareness with UC-win/Road simulation. Sixty drivers participated in this research (N = 30 older drivers, median = 70 years old and N = 30 younger drivers, median = 27 years old). Based on the results of this analysis, a repeated measure ANOVA was used to analyze the effect on each level of situation awareness related to visuospatial ability in driving. The results indicate that the visuospatial ability of older drivers serves as a crucial factor in determining the potential for older drivers to safely continue to drive. The results also imply the necessity of ROCF development to support and improve the visuospatial ability of older drivers.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.288-291
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• 2011

Recommendations for older driver-friendly automobile interior design have been determined by taking into account older people's physical and cognitive characteristics. Twenty three older people (aged from 54 to 78) and five younger people (from 20 to 29) performed several tasks in actual driving conditions, in which their reaction times and performance errors were recorded. Some design factors were found to be related to older drivers' visibility and controllability. Several design recommendations were proposed in terms of cluster color and font, display location, and HVAC control type. Proposed recommendations are expected to satisfy a wider range of older drivers as these will facilitate automobile interior designs which are fitter to older drivers' visual, cognitive, and manual capabilities.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.59-72
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• 2018

PURPOSES : This study was conducted to develop expressway safety treatments based on the analysis results of older driver behaviors through literature review, surveys, and driving simulator experiments. METHODS : In this study, three analyses were conducted: surveys of 700 older drivers to find the risk segments they recognized, driving simulator experiments with older and younger drivers to investigate driver behaviors, and expert surveys to find the priority of expressway safety treatments for older drivers. RESULTS : Through survey results it was found that merging areas and tunnels were identified as the most dangerous areas, and more dangerous older driver behaviors were observed on those expressway segments in the driving simulator experiments. In addition, the priorities of safety treatments for each segment of expressways were decided based on expert surveys. CONCLUSIONS : It was concluded that choice and concentration strategies of expressway safety treatments for older drivers should be applied as perceptions regarding dangerous spots and older driver behaviors, including geometric designs, safety facilities, regulation, and institutes to improve expressway safety.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.129-142
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• 2015

PURPOSES : The purpose of this study is to suggest a basis for setting appropriate safety goals specifically related to the threshold zone luminance in a vehicular traffic tunnel. METHODS : In the test, drivers were divided into two groups. One group consisted of all drivers (average drivers) group with an age ratio of drivers holding domestic driver's license and driver group by age to produce threshold zone luminance in the tunnel. The threshold zone luminance produced as a result was used to analyze how it affects the safety level of each driver group and provide a basis for setting an appropriate safety criterion that can be used to determine threshold zone luminance. We used test equipment, test conditions, and ananalysis of threshold zone luminance identical to that reported by ChoandJung(2014) but the values of adaptation luminance in our analys is were expanded to range from100 to $10,000cd/m^2$. RESULTS : Adaptation luminance and threshold zone luminance are found to be related by a quadratic function. The threshold zone luminance needed by older drivers to ensure a certain safety level is significantly higher than that for drivers of other age brackets when adaptation luminance increases. 56% of older drivers are at an increased risk of an accident at the same luminance for which the safety level of average drivers is 75%. The safety level that can be achieved for older drivers increases to above 60% when threshold zone luminance level is set with the goal of attaining a safety level of more than 85% for average drivers. The safety level that can be attained for average drivers is above 90% when the threshold zone luminance is high enough to ensure over 75% in the safety level of older drivers. Results of this study are applicable to highways and others whose designed speed is 100 km/h. CONCLUSIONS : Threshold zone luminance determined on the basis of drivers having average visual ability is of limited value as a performance standard for ensuring the safety of older drivers. Hence, safety level for older drivers should be considered separately from safety levels for drivers with an average ability to avoid risk. Upward adjustment of older drivers' safety level in the process of determining appropriate threshold zone luminance in a vehicular traffic tunnel may bring both tangible and intangible benefit as a result of reducing accidents. However, there is an associated dollar cost arising from installing and operating lights. As a result, the economic impact of these trade-offs should also be considered.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.43-52
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• 2008

It's declining the number of deaths in total traffic accidents, but the death of elder drivers has increasing than younger drivers. So this paper wish to prevent the traffic accident of the elder drivers using driving simulator. It can help to make better policies and planning for elder drivers.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.619-624
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• 2010

The traffic accidents of the aged are increasing because old people generally experience a decline of physical functions and judgment but their dependence on automobiles increases. In order to investigate the older drivers' response to traffic signs and surrounding environment according to changing driving brightness, this study measured the visual cognitive behavior, driving behavior, and subjective evaluation while the driving brightness was changed using a driving simulator. Furthermore, the drivers who recognized traffic signs and those who did not were compared. As a result, it was found that some older drivers had declined ability of cognition, some failed to adapt to rapid brightness change even if sufficient attention was given to traffic sign, and some could not safely control the vehicle when approaching intersections. Therefore, the development of support systems for aged drivers in traffic environment is necessary in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Data Analysis Society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.3185-3199
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• 2018

Middle- and old-aged driver's capability in recognition for driving scene elements was compared. Central and ambient stimuli were selected from natural driving scene and sensitivity, bias and reaction time were measured as dependent measures. The results are as follows. First, in general, older drivers showed lower sensitivity than middle-aged drivers. In particular, the older drivers' sensitivity was significantly lower for the ambient stimuli than central stimuli, whereas the middle-aged drivers showed no significant difference between the two types of stimuli. Second, the older drivers tended to show more lenient responses whereas the middle-aged drivers responded more conservatively. Third, the older drivers showed longer reaction time than the middle-aged drivers, in particular, in the responses of miss and correct rejection. This results suggested that the older drivers' retention for driving scene elements in their working memory may not be stable, which can be resulted in difficulties in rapid and accurate responses in a real life driving.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.153-165
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• 2017

PURPOSES : With the increasing number of older drivers in an aging society, there is a growing need for research and planning on traffic safety for the older drivers using an improved road geometry design. This study also proposed a modified urban road interchange design, which aims to keep the older drivers away from accident-prone and high-traffic areas of the city. METHODS : In this study, we examined accident data records of older drivers to identify accident-prone zones and intersections; we studied the road geometry at these zones and analyzed if it was an underlying cause for higher number of accidents. Based on the research and subsequent analysis, we suggested plans for improvement of road geometry design at these intersections. RESULTS :By studying historic data and analyzing factors that affect the likelihood of accidents of vehicles driven by older drivers and after studying suitable traffic accident prediction models, we identified the major variables that need to be modified at accident-prone intersections, such as the width of a left turn lane at an intersection and the radius of the right turn lane at a street corner. The results have a significance probability of less than 0.001 and a 95% confidence level. To improve safety at the identified intersection, this study suggests the installation of a left-turn-lane-shaped Positive Offset and a right-turn-lane-shaped Slip Lane concept and an adjustment of intervals between intersections.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.141-158
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• 2022

Currently, there are some aptitude test systems for older drivers in Korea. However, there are no methods and systems to evaluate the real driving ability for older drivers based on filed driving test. This study was conducted to investigate the availability to use the driving course test used for driving license for identifying difference in driving ability of older and non-older drivers. For the research purpose, filed experiments were conducted using the real driving course test site and evaluation times used in the field. In particular, driving behavior data that obtained from the experiments for two driver groups, older and non-older drivers, were analyzed and compared. From several statistical analyses of driving ability and vision and cognitive ability, it was found that the currently used driving course test site and evaluation times were not appropriated to identify driving ability deficiency of older drivers. To solve the problem, this study developed five evaluation items to identify driving ability deficiency of older drivers using the currently used driving course test site. It was also found that the developed five evaluation items have statistically significant correlation with vision and cognitive ability.