Is the Driving Experience of Older Women Changing?

Abstract

Older women currently have travel patterns substantially different from those of older men even when they are licensed to drive. These differences have different safety and mobility implications for older women in the future—if they persist—but equally important consequences if they do not. This paper shows that women drivers at all ages drive less often and for fewer miles than men of comparable ages; as a result, in the next three decades most women will enter their retirement years with substantially less driving experience than their licensing status might indicate. The differences in travel patterns and driving experiences between women and men are likely to persist, and policy makers must address both their safety and mobility consequences. There is a significant need to conduct the kind of safety and mobility research that will inform intelligent policy development and planning strategies for what has been called the feminization of aging.