Seniors drive worse when they can see better
Rather than driving more cautiously with brighter nighttime street lighting, older drivers tend to be overly relaxed and less cautious behind the wheel when they can see better than normal, according to a Canadian study.
“No one has studied older drivers’ driving behavior and performance at night before in great detail, despite the fact that this is the fastest growing group of drivers,” says the study’s co-author, Professor Said Easa, who has published numerous papers on road safety.
In the Canadian province of Ontario, for example, drivers age 60 and older make up 13% of the licensed drivers.
All drivers, including seniors, became less cautious under brighter road conditions. They exceeded the speed limit and drove onto the shoulder of the highway more often. Older adults also were less accurate and precise in following road curves.
Ryerson Univeristy’s Professor Reed suggests that older drivers may pay less attention to their driving under brighter driving conditions.
“In the lower light situation, they are slowing down and driving more carefully because they are having difficulty seeing objects and processing what’s going on. With the higher light intensity, they felt they didn’t need to be as attentive,” she said.
The researchers also found that older drivers who rarely drove or avoided driving at night were less accurate and braked faster when they were driving with more light. They were also more cautious and stayed within their lanes more often under low light conditions.
Overall, they found that participants who reported they drove less frequently, or avoided driving all together, had the most driving problems at night.
Professor Easa recommends that lighting should be only increased around highway signs to help older drivers see this information and have time to react more quickly.
However, he says the light intensity should remain unchanged in other areas of roads and highways, including areas that require extra caution such as around curves.
