posted on 2015-10-27, 11:46authored bySukru Karali
There is a growing population of older people around the world and the population of
older drivers is increasing in parallel. UK government figures in 2012 reported that
there were more than 15 million people with a driving license aged over 60; more
than 1 million of these were over 80. The aim of this thesis is to determine the
requirements of older users for an improved driving experience leading to
recommendations for the automotive industry.
Initially it was necessary to understand some of the key issues concerning the driving
experiences of older drivers; therefore a questionnaire survey of drivers of all ages
(n=903) was conducted supplemented by interviews with drivers aged ≥ 65 years
(n=15). Areas covered included: musculoskeletal symptoms, the vehicle seat, driving
performance and driving behaviour. Respondents reported that they were dissatisfied
with adjusting specific seat features, for example the head rest height and distance
from the head; females reported more difficulty than males. Reaching and pulling the
boot door down to close was difficult for 12% of older females. Older males and
females also reported more difficulties with parallel parking and driving on a foggy
day than younger drivers (p<0.01). Nearly half of the sample (47%) reported that
other drivers lights restrict their vision when driving at night.
An in depth study was conducted to compare participants own vehicle (familiar) and
a test vehicle (unfamiliar) to understand how design of the vehicle cab impacts on
posture, comfort, health and wellbeing in older drivers (n=47, ≥50 years). The study
involved functional performance assessments, seat set-up process evaluation
(observations and postural analysis), ergonomics and emotional design based
evaluations of car seat controls. Many issues were identified related to the seat
controls such as operating, accessing, reaching and finding, particularly for the head
rest height and lumbar support adjustments. Approximately 40% of the participants
had difficulty turning their head and body around to adjust the head rest height, and
the majority of these were over 80.
This led to a series of workshops (including a participatory design exercise) with 18
participants (4 groups, ≥ 65 years).The aim was to explore the optimum positioning
and operation of controls for older drivers. This research has provided foundational
data and makes design recommendations for the automotive industry with a focus on
making seat controls more inclusive (operation, location, type, size, colour and
materials) and meet the requirements of older drivers.
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Publication date
2015
Notes
A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.