Toward a Driving Competency Assessment Encouraging Elderly's Automobility: A French Point of View

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a methodology for approaching French elderly driver assessments. More precisely, the objective is to evaluate the impact of visual and cognitive declines in older drivers on real road driving performances. A case control study was conducted with 40 senior drivers (aged between 61 to 80 years old) recruited via their insurance company: 20 case volunteers who had caused 3 or more accidents during a three-year period and 20 control volunteers who had caused no accidents during the same period. The experiment consisted of non-driving laboratory tests, including visual and cognitive tests, and a driving assessment in a real traffic situation. Results showed that, compared to the control group, elderly drivers with a history of accidents, have poorer performance on the cognitive tests. Moreover, data from the multiple regression analysis showed that the two measures entering the model were Zazzo time and movement perception (age and group being controlled). Some considerations that shape construction of a driving assessment are discussed. The authors discuss the fact that such an approach can be used to estimate the driving skills of drivers, not to deliver an aptitude or inaptitude certificate, but to adapt the advice given to drivers.