IPA’s O’Hanlon Presents Research About Delaware’s Older Drivers to AAAAt the request of the American Automobile Association (AAA) National Office in Washington, D.C., IPA assistant policy scientist Julia O’Hanlon made a presentation based on research on older drivers in Delaware. The presentation was made to the AAA Aging & Mobility Roundtable, which was hosted by AAA’s National Office and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety on June 3.
The recommendations contained in the report “Assessing the Needs of Delaware’s Older Drivers,” co-authored by O’Hanlon and prepared by IPA for the Delaware Center for Transportation and the Delaware Department of Transportation, were presented to the group as a means of responding to the increasing number of older drivers expected in the years ahead.
“IPA has been working with the Roadway Safety Foundation to develop and carry out a ‘Senior Safety and Mobility’ campaign to help get the word out about why this is an important topic in Delaware and to help seniors and their families, as well as the entire motoring public, understand and appropriately address safe-driving issues,” O’Hanlon noted.
Why are safe-driving issues important for Delaware? O’Hanlon says, “The number of drivers in Delaware over age 65 will continue to increase over the next couple decades. By 2030, Delaware is projected to have the 6th largest ratio among all states of seniors to its general population.”
Representatives from the Federal Department of Transportation, the Transportation Research Board, the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials, the Roadway Safety Foundation, American Association of Retired People and the 3M Corporation were in attendance.
Accompanying O’Hanlon was Bernard Dworsky, IPA policy scientist and assistant professor of the School of Public Policy & Adminstration, who co-authored the report. The report and recommendations are available on the UD Institutional Repository.
