BEI's Driver Skill Enhancement Program (D-SEP): Brief Review of Experimental Mini-Program and Conclusions

The BEI Driver Skill Enhancement Program (D-SEP) had its beginnings in a local group meeting to provide input to the White House Commission on Aging about 6 years ago. At this meeting, the author became acutely aware of the problems older people had with driving. Building on the author's 25 years of activities with driver education programs on high-speed road tracks, he started a research program which continues today. Research was initiated into other driving schools and their methods, and study of the fundamental elements of driving (from may sources). The research was supplemented by data gathering on the "process of driving" (by discussions with many experts). There is general agreement that driving is a combination of several skills; and there are three basic elements of driving: (a) information gathering, primarily visual; (b) cognitive processing, during which the large amount of data obtained visually is sifted to separate out what is crucial for the driving experience; and (c) physical activities of the arms and legs, to carry out the decisions reached in the cognitive process. This process is repeated continuously as one drives, since driving is a "dynamic" process. The BEI program is based on two premises: (1) P + A = a good driver. P is Preparation: what the drivers, in their cars, can actually do. A is Anticipation: the visual-cognitive process which buys time to carry out the physical activities involved in making a car perform. Anticipation is usually not consciously practiced, although carried out in some form for all driving. (2) "Training and practice" will, in most cases, considerably enhance the skills required for driving.