Background

Older adults in communities make daily decisions about how to meet their transportation needs so they can access services and stay socially connected. With the aging of populations in developed countries, the travel decisions of older adults will have increasing impacts. Research studies have identified different sets of factors that contribute to certain travel decisions, but little research has been directed towards understanding how individuals select information from all available factors, what information they include in their decisions under different circumstances, and the processes they use in making their transportation decisions.

Methods

This exploratory study involved 20 men and 17 women, mean age 78.6 years (range 70–96), who drove weekly. All participants were involved in each phase of the 3-phase study. In Phase 1, a review of the literature and interviews with the participants was used to collect information, and inductive thematic analysis was employed to construct a draft conceptual model of older driver decision-making. In Phase 2, participants completed a stated preference task of written scenarios to demonstrate their decision-making strategies. Results were tabulated and used to refine a final Daily Driving Decisions model. In Phase 3, a card sorting decision task was used to test the model with participants.

Results

The final dynamic Daily Driving Decisions Model was confirmed to describe decision processes used by the participants in making decisions about how they would meet their transportation needs. The model describes three categories of factors used in decisions, labelled Motivators, Constraint/Enablers and Context, each containing four attribute themes. A significant finding was the variable use of the same item to either constrain or enable the decision to drive depending on the variation of other factors in the scenario. Participants demonstrated use of compensatory and noncompensatory (heuristic, habitual) decision processes that were accommodated by the model.

Conclusion

The proposed Daily Driving Decisions Model addresses a gap in our understanding of how older drivers make their decisions about meeting their transportation needs. The model presents a template for classifying the types of information used, ignored or discarded by older adults, and the pathways that they take to arrive at their decisions. The model provides opportunities for further research in testing the influence of other factors such as urban/rural residence, income, health status and culture on driving decisions. Further, the model can be used by practitioners to gain insight into the decision-making behaviours of individuals and to develop interventions to enhance their decision-making skills.

中文翻译：

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我今天应该开车吗？开发老年人日常驾驶决策模型

背景

社区中的老年人每天就如何满足他们的交通需求做出决定，以便他们能够获得服务并保持社交联系。随着发达国家人口老龄化，老年人的出行决策将产生越来越大的影响。研究已经确定了影响某些旅行决策的不同因素，但很少有研究旨在了解个人如何从所有可用因素中选择信息，他们在不同情况下的决策中包含哪些信息，以及他们在制定过程中使用的过程他们的交通决定。

方法

这项探索性研究涉及 20 名男性和 17 名女性，平均年龄 78.6 岁（范围 70-96），每周开车。所有参与者都参与了三期研究的每个阶段。在第一阶段，通过文献回顾和与参与者的访谈来收集信息，并采用归纳主题分析来构建老年驾驶员决策的概念模型草案。在第 2 阶段，参与者完成了书面场景的陈述偏好任务，以展示他们的决策策略。结果被制成表格并用于改进最终的每日驾驶决策模型。在第 3 阶段，使用卡片分类决策任务与参与者一起测试模型。

结果

最终的动态每日驾驶决策模型被确认为描述参与者在决定如何满足他们的交通需求时使用的决策过程。该模型描述了决策中使用的三类因素，标记为Motivators、Constraint/Enablers和Context，每类都包含四个属性主题。一个重要的发现是，根据场景中其他因素的变化，相同项目的可变使用来限制或启用驾驶决定。参与者展示了模型适应的补偿性和非补偿性（启发式、习惯性）决策过程的使用。

结论

提议的每日驾驶决策模型解决了我们对老年司机如何做出满足其交通需求的决定的理解上的差距。该模型提供了一个模板，用于对老年人使用、忽略或丢弃的信息类型以及他们做出决定所采取的途径进行分类。该模型为进一步研究测试城市/农村居住地、收入、健康状况和文化等其他因素对驾驶决策的影响提供了机会。此外，从业者可以使用该模型来深入了解个人的决策行为，并制定干预措施以提高他们的决策技能。