Researchers at the UCSD School of Medicine will share a $12 million grant with institutions across the United States to better understand the factors that influence the safety of older drivers, such as physical and cognitive functions, medical conditions, medications and adoption of vehicle technologies.
The study, called the Longitudinal Research on Aging Drivers (LongROAD) project, is funded by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and led by Guohua Li, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. As the largest research initiative of the AAA Foundation, the LongROAD project represents a long-term commitment by the agency to support the well-being of older drivers.
A total of 3,000 active drivers aged 65 to 79 years will be recruited from five study sites in California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan and New York and follow these drivers through annual assessments and interviews. To learn about their driving patterns, researchers will fit each driver’s vehicle with a GPS device.
“By 2029, more than one in five Americans will be over the age of 65. Understanding their driving patterns, health and transportation needs is a matter of public health and safety for all drivers,” said preventive medicine specialist Linda Hill. “Yet we have very limited observed data about the dynamic interplay between health and driving safety during the process of aging – a knowledge gap identified by the National Institute on Aging as a key strategic research priority. This project aims to close that gap.”
Participating institutions in the LongROAD project include Columbia University, University of Michigan, the Urban Institute, Bassett Research Institute, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Colorado at Denver.