The Relations Between Age and Aggressive and Risky Driving Habits

Certain age groups have been identified to be more aggressive and risky in their overall driving habits. The purpose of this study is to evaluate drivers and to determine how habits, occurrences of moving violations, and reckless driving differ for numerous age groups. Ichikawa (2015) identified lowered rates of competency among elderly drivers. This is not the only age group that has been associated with aggressive and risky driving tendencies. Other age groups, such as young drivers and some experienced drivers have encountered similar struggles. By examining patterns in transportation safety, this study will focus on young (18-24 years), experienced (25-65 years), and elderly drivers (66+ years) and their aggressive and risky driving habits. Participants (n=60) will be solicited from a variety of Dominican University of California undergraduate students, friends, friends of the family, and Atria Tamalpais Creek senior residents. Participants who choose to participate will be sent an email link in order to fill out an online survey on surveymonkey.com. They will voluntarily respond to a combined 32 questions from the Propensity for Angry Driving Scale (Hu, 2012), the Self-Reported Risk Behavior in Traffic and Attitudes Towards Road Traffic Safety Revised Survey (Eiksund, 2009), and demographic questions regarding age, gender, ethnicity, highest level of education, how long one has had their license, and how many tickets and accidents one has had in the last three years. It is hypothesized that: 1) as people gain experience, aggressive and risky driving habits will decrease when operating a motor vehicle; 1a) young adult drivers will have more aggressive and risky driving habits compared to experienced drivers; 1b) elderly drivers will experience an increase in their risky driving habits or accidents compared to experienced drivers; and 2) there will be a positive correlation between aggressive and risky driving habits and increased accidents and motor vehicle violations within the last three years. Data collection will be gathered for this study in February and March of 2016. The significance of this study is to help increase awareness for aggressive and risky driving habits along with its implications to others on the road