Driving 101 for seniors

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By Katherine Low
Thursday, September 17, 2009
No talking. No radio. No driving at night. No driving in bad weather. Don't even think about driving the 400-series highways.
 
No, this isn’t a lecture from a worried parent to a 16-year-old driver with a fresh license in his hand, it’s only some of the many rules seniors invoke upon themselves to ensure they drive safely as they age.
 
But Western Occupational Therapy professor and Associate Dean Scholarship, Jan Polgar, has some other ideas to keep seniors safe on the roads, and it all starts with her research in occupational therapy.
 
Polgar completed her B.Sc. and her PhD at the University of Toronto, with a master’s degree from the University of Southern California. Her work includes researching mobility and seating for people with physical disabilities. But lately, her focus has been on seniors and driving.
 
Seniors face a variety of unique challenges when it comes to hitting the road, she said: getting in and out of vehicles, loading and unloading walkers and wheelchairs, mobility while driving and checking blind spots, medical conditions, seatbelts, seat adjustments and even cognitive impediments. Gender plays a big role too.
 
“At this age we have people who are using assistive devices, so we’ve got people who are helping or are responsible for putting a walker or even a manual wheelchair into a vehicle on a regular basis,” she says. “Often what we are finding is that it’s women who are helping their husbands.
 
Regardless of who’s helping whom, the individual who is helping is usually an older person and they usually have some disabilities as well. Those are some of the things that we haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to.”
 
Polgar says many older women start to lose confidence in their driving skills, particularly those who drove less frequently than their husbands. Now, if their husbands are ill or unable to drive, older women find themselves doing the bulk of the driving, but lack the confidence.
 
Polgar says the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) is one organization that implements programs to help boost that confidence in driving once again.
 
As for technology in vehicles, Polgar says it can be a mixed blessing. A device such as Global Positioning System (GPS) can be very helpful as it ‘speaks’ to the driver, giving clear driving instructions. But Polgar worries such devices can also be a distraction.
 
“The older people are actually quite keen to try it and to learn how to use it,” she notes.
 
But while seniors are very keen to use the technology, computer skills in seniors are all over the map.
 
While some pick up the technology without missing a beat, others struggle to learn skills that depend on at least some computer technology like how to navigate between screens. Polgar is eager to test the technology in a driving simulator located at Lakehead University.
 
When it comes to car shopping, seniors should be extra picky.
 
“A lot of salespeople don’t really know what kinds of features might be useful for an older person and some cars are just easier,” says Polgar.
 
Drivers should consider the vehicle’s sightlines and visibility as well as comfort for getting in and out of vehicles.  
 
Polgar even recommends the idea of something similar to a booster seat – usually used for children. She points out that many seniors are around the 100-pound mark and could also benefit from that same type of product that helps to properly position the seatbelt.
 
“We’re really practical,” says Polgar of her advice to seniors to think carefully when car shopping or evaluating their driving skills. “That’s what OTs are – we’re very practical people.”
 
Polgar’s research is funded by AUTO21, A Canadian Network of Centres of Excellence.

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