2022 Volume 24 Issue 2 Pages 24-28
Recently, traffic accidents caused by senior drivers have attracted public attention and have encouraged some senior drivers to voluntarily give up their driver licenses. On the other hand, problems have been pointed out, including a decreased motivation to live and an increased risk of needing long-term care due to giving up driving. In order to support the mobility of the senior, there is an urgent need to obtain knowledge on driving support such as effective driving aids and environmental improvements. Of the data accumulated by the Center of Innovation (COI) Program, which is a research result development project of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), the current report focuses on the questionnaire items on driving environments that senior people find reluctant. The questionnaire items ask for an evaluation on “the frequency of encounters” and “the degree to which one does not want to drive” for 24 different driving environments. Using the responses of 216 senior people (55 to 87 years old), analysis by the latent rank theory was carried out. As a result, it was possible to classify the senior into five groups. Depending on the characteristics of the senior people, their evaluation of the driving environment was different. It was found that the perception of the driving environment differed among the subgroups of senior people.
