ACTS

Older Driver Tool Kit

Goal

The goal of the toolkit is to help Safe Community Coalition members and older driver advocates assess how friendly their community's roadways are toward older drivers. Are the roadways and intersections designed and engineered to be safe and easy to navigate? The toolkit will consist of a series of elements that advocates or laypersons can use to:

• Understand the key roadway engineering features elements that contribute to better older driver traffic safety.
• Assess a community's older driver roadway friendliness, and the extent of its older driver injury challenges.
• Identify resources for probing the older driver traffic safety issue more thoroughly.

Background

The focus of the Older Driver Toolkit is to help older drivers navigate the roads and highways more safely in their communities. Older drivers are more prone to visual impairments that make it more difficult to drive. They can also face challenges in their cognitive and motor skills that affect the driving process.

We have assembled several resources that advocates can use to inform community leaders and traffic engineers about the need for older driver navigational aides on their roadways. Here is the list of resources contained in this toolkit:

• An older-driver PowerPoint presentation (HTML) or (MS Power Point)
• An older-driver Roadway Friendliness assessment tool
• County-level traffic crash injury and population data to assess risk
• A contact list of engineering expertise that community members can consult for more information on roadway friendliness
• A sample of educational and other resources that communities can use to raise awareness of older driver issues

If you have any questions or comments about this toolkit, please contact: