Are older drivers different in the US and Italy?

The behavior of older drivers has been receiving increasing attention over the last few years in the safety community. Large numbers of over 65 year-olds continue to drive into their old age mainly because of the advances in medicine and a longer active working life. This paper aims to examine the potential driver behavior differences between two samples of older drivers from two countries (Italy and USA) with very different driving habits, driving regulations and road infrastructure conditions. In particular, we examined four maneuvers (merging from a ramp, changing lanes, turning left and night driving) for which interviewees were asked to describe how they would react. The data gathered were analyzed using multidimensional techniques that enabled to identify groups having homogeneous behavior in each sample. The findings indicate that drivers of the same age exhibit different driving habits and in different driving environments react differently and are thus confronted with different situations in terms of safety. This demonstrates that, generally speaking, the older drivers in US and Italy are similar but they have a different perspective of risk that varies depending on several factors including medical conditions, driving habits, driving conditions.