Background: Driving is a complex activity that requires sensory, motor, and cognitive skills. These abilities may decline with age, which can affect the fitness to drive. Other characteristics of an individual such as age, gender, personality traits, attitudes toward driving, self-image, compensatory strategies and health status are also associated with driving behavior. The present study aims to investigate associations between these person characteristics and driving behavior and to identify possible risk factors for impaired driving competence and increased risk of accidents.

Methods: In this study, 377 older drivers (66-78 years of age) completed a driving simulator ride, from which a risk index for driving behavior was determined. Subjects also completed questionnaires on traffic safety-related topics (e.g., driving habits, driving motivation, self-image, attitudes toward driving) and performed various tests to assess cognitive functions (e.g., different facets of attention, traffic-specific comprehension).

Results: Four main variables contribute to the explanation of variance in person-specific risk index: Gender, self-attribution of driving competence (offensive driving), overview acquisition, and constancy of attentional focus. Age and emotional stability/lability (neuroticism) also appear to be related, albeit to a lesser extent, to driving behavior, particularly to significant violations of traffic rules in the driving simulation.

Discussion: Overall, the current analysis revealed potential risk factors for driving behavior of senior drivers. Whether these factors and their correlation to driving behavior are stable over time will the topic of a longitudinal evaluation (currently not yet completed), which will provide information about possible traffic safety-related changes in the aging process.