By the year 2020, one in four Florida residents will be 65 and older. Of these almost one half will be 75 or older. For seniors, driving is the preferred method of travel - over 80 percent of trips made by those 65 and older are made in cars. While elder drivers are involved in fewer total crashes than other age groups, there are more crashes compared to the number of miles driven. This also applies to injuries, where the number of injuries is less, but the severity is dramatically higher.
Older drivers are less likely to survive a serious crash that younger drivers.
Drivers 70 and older are more than twice as likely to be involved in a fatal crash than middle aged drivers. The Department of Transportation began Florida's Elder Roadway User Program in 1992 to help seniors maintain their mobility and provide a safer system in which they can travel. The primary emphasis was to make roadway improvements that compensate for the natural effects of aging that apply to driving - especially visual and decision making. The improvements would provide better guidance along roadways, provide more legible signs and provide increased advance warning of upcoming traffic and roadway conditions. The Department began implementing the program immediately with routine maintenance activities responding to revised design standards.