IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i17p7927-d1741279.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Attention Allocation and Gaze Behavior While Driving: A Comparison Among Young, Middle-Aged and Elderly Drivers

Author

Listed:
  • Anamarija Poll

    (Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture (FGPA), University of Maribor, Smetanova 17, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia)

  • Tomaž Tollazzi

    (Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture (FGPA), University of Maribor, Smetanova 17, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia)

  • Chiara Gruden

    (Faculty of Civil Engineering, Transportation Engineering and Architecture (FGPA), University of Maribor, Smetanova 17, 2000 Maribor, Slovenia)

Abstract

In 2023, 95.5 million Europeans were aged over 65, falling within the definition of the “elderly population”. According to statistics, this number will rise to 129.8 million by 2050, making Europe the oldest continent in the world. One of the consequences of such growth is a sharp increase in the number of elderly drivers. Although they have more experience, which can positively impact road safety, their performance and health generally decline, limiting some of the physical and mental abilities required for safe vehicle control. The main objective of this research was to shed light on the behavior of elderly drivers by comparing three different drivers’ age groups: young, middle-aged and elderly drivers. Based on analysis of road accidents involving elderly drivers, the road safety situation for elderly drivers in Slovenia was highlighted, a questionnaire was developed to understand how elderly drivers perceive traffic, and an experiment was conducted where 30 volunteers were tested using a driving simulator and eye-tracking glasses. Objective driving and gaze behavior data were obtained, and very different performance was found among the three age groups, with elderly drivers having poorer reaction times and overlooking many elements compared to younger drivers.

Suggested Citation

  • Anamarija Poll & Tomaž Tollazzi & Chiara Gruden, 2025. "Attention Allocation and Gaze Behavior While Driving: A Comparison Among Young, Middle-Aged and Elderly Drivers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-24, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:7927-:d:1741279
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7927/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7927/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:7927-:d:1741279. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.