[A survey of the improvement of public transportation for the elderly. Reasons for giving up driving by retired automobile workers living in in Kanagawa Prefecture]

Abstract

In order to improve the adequacy and safety of transportation for elderly people, the reasons for, and the after-effects of stopping driving by elderly people were analyzed. The subjects consisted of 500 car manufacturing retirees, aged 60 years old and over, living in Kanagawa prefecture. Of the 500 people questioned, 298 people (59.6%) responded. Of these 196 currently held licences. In this group, 149 still drove, 9 intended to stop driving soon, and 38 had already stopped. Of the 38 people who had already stopped driving, 7 quit before age 55. These people were omitted from analysis because factors other than aging possibly contributing to their stopping driving. We were interested in the 31 people older than 55 and the 9 people who intended to quit soon. The results were the following: I) The main reasons why they had stopped driving were the following: a) anxiety felt because of decreased driving ability and the feeling to need to walk in order to improve their health; b) the needlessness of driving because of availability of other means of transportation; II) The anxiety from decreased driving ability correlated with difficulty with narrow roads and imparied vision making it difficult to observed road signs; III) The reasons for stopping driving correlated with the effects: the needlessness of driving because of use of other means of transportation correlated with decreased frequency of going out for hobby and group activities. These results show that stopping driving also affects the social activities of the Japanese elderly. It was concluded that we should inform the elderly drivers of the effects of stopping driving as well as improving conditions on roads and comfort in automobiles.