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Better than one in seven U-S drivers is over age sixty-five… and it's estimated that number will surge to one in four by the year twenty-twenty-nine.
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Now new research from the University of Florida finds that subtle improvements in roadway intersection design could keep older drivers safer and on the road longer.
U-F researchers and seventy-one individual drivers took to the streets to test five kinds of improved intersections, comparing them with five that were unimproved. Helpful modifications include wider road shoulders, right-turn lanes that allow drivers to merge into traffic without stopping and intersections with turn angles no greater than ninety degrees. These yielded improved driver performance.
Dr. Sherrilene Classen / UF public health researcher
"We can show that if we make adaptations to the environment… for instance if we in this case improve the driving environment through improvement of the roadways, then we can actually enhance driver performance."
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The U-F study is the first to test the federal highway administration's proposed guidelines for highway design to increase the safe driving ability of older drivers. About half of the test subjects were over age sixty-five, while the other half were ages twenty-five to forty-five. And just as older drivers navigated improved intersections more easily, researchers noted that younger drivers also benefited from the driver-friendly road improvements. Researchers say the study findings should interest traffic planners.
Dr. Sherrilene Classen / UF public health researcher
"I think this is an important message. Although it's early evidence in support of the guidelines… it's an important message for city planners and traffic engineers to start considering the implementation of these improved intersection design guidelines in certain roads."
Voice-over:
At the University of Florida Health Science Center, I'm Mike Garrison
