As the Roads Turn Gray, Ways to Make Driving Safer

Sara D. Davis for The New York TimesMargaret Fallers getting advice from an occupational therapist at a CarFit session in North Carolina.

IT’S called the gray tsunami, the great wave of aging baby boomers nearing retirement, making older adults the fastest growing segment of the population. And by 2030, the roads will be full of them.

Skip to next paragraph Sara D. Davis for The New York TimesVibeke Talley, standing, helps Debbie Coplin during a CarFit program.

According to the Census Bureau, the number of people 65 and older is expected to double, growing from 35 million in 2000 to more than 71 million in 2030. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety projected that by then one in four drivers will be 65 or older, statistics that have safety experts studying how cars and the drivers themselves will need to adapt as the roads turn gray.

At the AgeLab at M.I.T. in Cambridge, Mass., for example, there are at least 20 aging studies looking at such factors as driver fatigue, the impact of technology inside the vehicle and how emotions and medications affect driving. States are also redesigning intersections to make them less confusing for older drivers. And organizations like AAA and AARP are advising older drivers about how to measure their abilities and are evaluating their cars to determine what adjustments need to be made to counter a driver’s physical limitations.

Loren Staplin, a managing partner of TransAnalytics, a consulting firm specializing in transportation safety research and development, said that older people were usually superb drivers because of their lifetime of experience. But as a consequence of aging, vision, mental and physical abilities often decline, Dr. Staplin said, making it “more difficult for them to drive safely.”

Many of these factors are being studied at the AgeLab. Miss Rosie, a Volkswagen New Beetle, is a mobile lab used for research into how flexibility and strength affect driving performance. Miss Daisy, another New Beetle, and the AwareCar, a Volvo, are wired to track eye movements and to measure pulse, alertness and stress levels, as a measure of the kind of physical changes older people undergo while driving.

Joseph F. Coughlin, founder of the lab and director of the Department of Transportation’s New England University Transportation Center at M.I.T., said the findings could change how cars are designed. Cars of the future, he said, may have computerized dashboard displays where the driver could choose a type size and font that was easier to read, and could be customized to show only the information the driver found useful. There may also be collision notification systems and a way to route medical records ahead to the ambulance after a crash. A computer inside the car may someday adjust how it operates, depending on the physical weaknesses and range-of-motion limitations of the driver.

“The driving experience is about to become profoundly personal,” Dr. Coughlin said.

Anne McCartt, senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, cautioned that not all technology is appropriate for older drivers. She said technologies like lane departure warning systems; cruise control that maintains a set distance from the vehicle ahead; and systems where the driver receives a warning from a flashing light or a vibrating steering wheel (like blind-spot warning systems) may not work well with older drivers.

“There is concern that if systems require a response or attention, it may cause cognitive overload or distraction,” she said.

What many experts do agree would help older drivers is changing the design of roads, especially intersections, where drivers often have problems judging speed and distance. So some states are redesigning them. They are installing left-turn lanes, left-turn signals, street signs well before the intersection and replacing eight-inch traffic lights with 12-inch ones.

The Road Improvement Demonstration Program, started by AAA Michigan and financed by state, county and local governments, made some of these changes at nearly 400 intersections. An analysis of the first 84 completed in the Detroit area showed the injury rate over a two-year period for older drivers was cut by more than half, compared with the rate for drivers 25 to 64 years old. And the rate of left-turn collisions involving seniors dropped 73 percent when a left-turn signal was installed.

Bella Dinh-Zarr, the North American director of Make Roads Safe, a nonprofit organization based in London, said making roads more senior-friendly had been “scientifically proven to save lives,” adding, “Many are simple, inexpensive things that can be done when updating.”

Of course, cars can change and roads can be improved, but older drivers also need to assess themselves and know when it’s time to stop, or limit, driving. Dr. Staplin of TransAnalytics said many older drivers self-regulate by reducing their driving at night, in bad weather or in heavy traffic.

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