Elderly drivers in Germany--fitness and driving behavior.

During the period between 1985 and 2000 the number of elderly people (65 years and older) holding a driver's licence will probably double in Germany. Under the broadly accepted assumption that the elderly drive less safely than other age groups, it is suspected that this will negatively affect traffic safety. The central topic of the study concerns the results of driving tests with 80 elderly drivers (60-82 years old), compared with a reference group of 30 middle-aged motorists (40-50 years), and their relation to laboratory performance data. In the laboratory marked differences were found concerning visual acuity by daylight (even when deficiencies were corrected by visual aids) and in the dark, performance in a traffic-related tachistoscopic perception test, and notably in the amount of time needed in tracking and reaction tests. The performance of elderly drivers proved worse in all of these laboratory tasks. On the other hand, in driving tests in the overwhelming number of traffic situations the elderly did not differ unfavorably from the middle-aged drivers. Possible explanations for these findings are considered.