Citation

Sullivan KA, Smith SS, Horswill MS, Lurie-Beck JK. Accid. Anal. Prev. 2011; 43(3): 1003-1009.

Affiliation

Clinical Neuropsychology Research Group, School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.aap.2010.11.031

PMID

21376894

Abstract

The term 'driving self-restriction' is used in the road safety literature to describe the behaviour of some older drivers. It includes the notion that older drivers will avoid driving in specific, usually self-identified situations, such as those in which safety is compromised. We sought to identify the situations that older drivers report avoiding; and, to determine the adequacy of a key measure of such behaviour. A sample of 75 drivers aged 65 years and older completed Baldock et al.'s modification of the Driving Habits Questionnaire avoidance items (Baldock et al., 2006), the Driving Behaviour Questionnaire, and open-ended items that elicited written descriptions of the most and least safe driving situation. Consistent with previous results, we found a relatively low level of driving self-restriction and infrequent episodes of aggressive violations. However, when combined with the situation descriptions, these data suggest that Driving Habits Questionnaire did not cover all of the situations that older drivers might choose avoid. We suggest that a new avoidance scale is needed and we present a new item pool that may be used for this purpose.

Language: en