This page gives useful links to various older driver projects and research which help develop and support the mature motorist and older road user to remain active, healthy and get around whether by car, cycling, walking or public transport.
Older Drivers Task Force Report
With an ageing population, the Older Drivers Task Force believes it vital to take steps to give older drivers the support and confidence they need to ensure they retain their independence, while dismantling the stigma wrongly attached to elderly motorists
In November 2021, the Older Drivers Task Force via Road Safety Foundation published a review of older driver road safety updating their previous report from 2016. Supported by the Department for Transport, they have looked at the recommendations of the National Older Drivers Strategy, and considered the developments and progress in the five years since it was published. The report makes various recommendations for supporting safer driving into older age.
To download the 2021 Summary report – click here
To download the 2021 Technical report – click here
To read more about the 2016 report see the links below.
To read more on 2016 report, Click here
To see the full report from 2016, Click Here
The Older Drivers Task Force continue to meet yearly to help address emerging issues and continue to help and support the Older Driver
Older Mobility
We live in a country where, by 2040 nearly one in seven will be 75 or over. In just 5 years’ time the number of drivers over 85 will double to 1 million. The demographic imperative is that we do everything possible now to ensure that the increasing numbers of those who live to old age make the transition as smoothly and as safely as possible. We have focused on transport, specifically safe mobility. Older Mobility brings together research and evidence to help address these needs for an ageing population
Click here to visit the web site
In 2019, the Department for Transport awarded a grant to the leading road safety charity, RoadSafe, to develop a knowledge transfer programme to take forward the work on older drivers by widening its scope to address the risks to older road users, concentrating on the most vulnerable. The website combines a series of reports created specifically for the project and a library of research evidence. OlderMobility.com is a valuable resource for those working in road safety, public health, transport planning, civic leadership and age-related charities.
PACTS – Fitness to Drive report 2016
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) is an All-Party Parliamentary Group and a regis- tered charity. Its charitable objective is “To protect human life through the promotion of transport safety for the pub- lic benefit”.
It is reasonable to expect that every road vehicle operator, whether driver or rider, should be fit to drive. “Fitness” can be defined as being physically and mentally fit to hold a licence and being unimpaired whenever driving or riding. This report summarises the research evidence on how the various sources of lack of fitness are related to the risk of being involved in a crash. It identifies where there are evidence gaps, and it further identifies gaps in how the various deficits are currently managed in the UK. Its particular aim is thus to focus the attention of policy-makers and the managers of the road transport system on how we can improve the handling of fitness to drive, so as to deliver safer use of the roads.
Click here to open the report
RAC Foundation
Driving Choices for the Older Motorist 2013
The role of self assessment tools
This report investigates whether self-assessment tools can help older drivers make the right choices about their driving. It tells us something about how our abilities change with age and how this impacts on driving skills, how you can go about testing for these, and whether self-assessment tools can help drivers self- regulate. Most importantly this report tells us what self-assessment tools can do, what they cannot do and what they should include if they are to be helpful.
Click here to read the report
Gender differences in the behaviour of Older Drivers
This report uses National Travel Survey data for 2014–16 to show that older women drive less in darkness than do older men. The survey is also used to examine how activities influence the amount of driving women need to do, and how this is affected by their area of residence. Reports of appraisals from the Hampshire County Council Driving Skills 60+ scheme are used to compare the risk events noted against older male and female drivers, with any associated comments. The outcomes of five years of Fitness to Drive assessments by the Wessex DriveAbility driving mobility centre show that of the participants aged over 70 women are more likely than men to be assessed as ‘unsafe’. The reasons for unsafe assessments for the women are likely to be impaired perception; for the men, impaired decision-making/judgement. Of the clients assessed as ‘unsafe – review’, almost half were assessed as ‘safe’ after a course of driving tuition.
Click here to read the report
Older Drivers Forum 