ELDERLY DRIVER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1939, Page 21 (Supplement)

ELDERLY DRIVER

BENEFITS OF ABLE TUITION. | CAUTION NEEDED WITH AGE. ■ During the winter and spring the I Centre for Safety Education at New . York University offered a course in automobile driving for adults, through the division of general education of the University. Many points of interest emerged from this experiment in the training of adults to drive. The class consisted of 40 adults. Most of them were women in middle life and several were past 55 years of age. A majority, had never driven a car. The work of Ihe class as a whole was deemed successful. All but three of the 40 students mastered the control of the automobile and were driving in traffic at the end of the course. Three were found somewhat deficient in physical or emotional characteristics, and were advised to compensate for these difficulties if possible before venturing to drive alone in heavy traffic. Several of the women presented j problems of unique nature in' that they had been "mistaught” often by husbands. They received corrective lessons, and their habits were modified. In general they were poor in braking—in many cases they ‘'overbraked." They were unsteady in controlling the direction of the car. and uncertain in their gear shifting and frequently incorrect. The course showed that it takes longer to teach adults than high school students and that there is the compensating factor that adults possess qualities conducive to safe driving. They are cautious, and not prone to take chances. Age itself £lid not make much difference in efficiency of

learning among the adults. In some cases the women over 50 learned as quickly and as well as those 15 years younger. The road work—consisting of eight individual lessons of one half-hour each—was preceded by three hours of classroom work devoted to the physical qualifications of drivers. the construction and operation of the automobile, motoring rules and regulations and driver and pedestrian responsibilities.

All students had a preliminary lest to determine their previous knowledge of motoring information. The road lessons were carried out upon the principle of following a logical sequence based upon complete mastery of a simple skill before attempts were made to master the skill next in the sequence. For example, parking and turning were only taught after complete mastery had been demonstrated in the use of the clutch in straightaway driving and in backing. The experiment is held to have demonstrated that many thousands of mature persons not now driving could be taught to drive safely, and that there appears to be a real need for instruction of this sort. More than 400 applicants sought to take the course, which was open to 40 only, and many of those turned down for lack of facilities were unable, they reported, to secure proper instruction elsewhere. The centre is not interested directly in giving driving instruction, but its officers believe they have uncovered, through the course, both the existence of a large potential driving population and a real lack of facilities to meet its needs.