Research On The Elderly Driving Self-Regulation

With the further deepening of the aging society,the state has liberalized the age limit of the application for the car driver ’ s license,and there will be more and more elderly drivers in the future.The number of traffic accidents and casualties caused by elderly drivers are increasing year by year.The traffic safety of elderly drivers has become a hot issue of social concern.With the increase of age,the physical function begins to decline.In order to live independently and maintain unlimited travel activities,most elderly drivers will extend their driving years as much as possible.Driving selfregulation is considered as a strategy to compensate for the health status of elderly drivers or the decline of driving ability leading to dangerous driving.When the elderly drivers realize that the changing body,cognitive function and exercise capacity will have a bad impact on driving safety,they will adjust driving behavior appropriately,such as reducing driving time and mileage,avoiding challenging driving scenarios,in order to improve their driving safety.Based on the self-report questionnaire survey method,this paper investigates the elderly driving self-regulation,establishes the prediction model of the elderly driving self-regulation,and studies the influence of various factors on the elderly driving self-regulation.First of all,on the basis of analyzing the research results of driving selfregulation of the elderly at home and abroad,and combining with the actual situation of our country,a set of questionnaires on driving self-regulation of the elderly is developed.A questionnaire survey of elderly drivers aged 60 and above is carried out online and offline,and the self-reported data of elderly drivers are collected.Then,using the self-report data of elderly drivers,the differences of social demographic variables,medical history,drug use and driving confidence on driving self-regulation were analyzed.The results showed that there were significant differences in driving exposure among elderly drivers with different ages and employment conditions,and there were significant differences in driving avoidance among elderly drivers with different educational backgrounds.the level of driving exposure and driving avoidance of elderly drivers with medical history and medication is low;the higher the driving confidence,the lower the level of driving avoidance.Finality,the structural equation(SEM)model is used to build driving avoidance and driving exposure prediction models for the elderly,and their influencing factors are analyzed.The study found that gender,age,driving age,driving ability and driving confidence all have influence on driving avoidance,and the influence of driving confidence on elderly driving avoidance is higher than other factors.Drivers with higher driving confidence tend to report lower levels of self-regulation.Both gender and age indirectly affect driving avoidance behavior by affecting driving ability.With the increase of age,driving ability begins to decline,and the older the driver is,the higher the level of driving avoidance is.Female elderly drivers generally believe that their driving ability is lower than men,and female elderly drivers have more driving avoidance behavior than men.Generally speaking,the longer the driving experience,the higher the driving confidence,and the longer the driving experience,the less the elderly drivers’ driving avoidance behavior.Age,social support,employment and perception of alternative means of transport have a significant impact on elderly driving exposure,and the impact of age on driving exposure is higher than other factors.Older drivers have less driving exposure;older drivers who do not have other people’s advice to restrict or stop driving have more driving exposure;retired elderly drivers are relatively less exposed than those who go to work full-time or part-time;elderly drivers who think they live around them are less exposed to alternative means of transportation.Gender,education,driving age,driving ability will also affect the driving exposure of elderly drivers,female,high education,long driving age,high driving ability of elderly drivers have less driving exposure.Through the research results,make clear the factors that affect the elderly drivers’ driving self-regulation,aiming at the weaknesses shown by the elderly drivers,carry out targeted training intervention or education training to improve their driving safety.