It's a fact of modern life: Most of us are going to outlive our ability to safely drive a motor vehicle. This has Florida's advocates for the elderly, drivers licensing officials, and public safety officers concerned. After all, people age 65 and older make up 18 percent of Florida's population, the highest percentage in the nation, according to the United States Census Bureau.

Who's going to tell them when it's time to hand over the car keys?

Self-evaluation is highly ineffective," says Susan Samson, project director of "Getting in Gear," an older-adult driver intervention program located in the Tampa Bay area. "Just ask. They all say: 'I'm a great driver!'"

But a simple 10-minute test that requires elderly drivers to keep track of small cartoon icons of cars and trucks on a computer touch screen may soon change all that.

Last month, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DMV) officials in the Tampa Bay area began experimenting with a computer program named the Useful Field of View (UFOV) test.

The test — which measures how quickly an individual processes visual information — has already been in use for six years at the St. Petersburg Agency on Aging as part of its free, voluntary, and confidential assessment of senior citizens' driving skills.

Driving and the elderly

As baby boomers age, the number of drivers over age 70 is expected to grow from about 16.5 million to about 31 million by 2020. A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows that at the current rate, one-quarter of all fatal traffic crashes by 2030 will involve drivers age 65 and older. In 1998, Pinellas and Pasco Counties in Florida reported 387,491 residents age 60 and over — 313,494 of whom were licensed Florida motorists. During the same year in the two counties, 83 older-adult drivers were killed and 4,053 were injured in car crashes. Source: U.S. Departments of Transportation

The beauty of the test, says Samson, is that seniors are less inclined to discount unfavorable test results or to blame their adult children or DMV officials for trying to "take away" their independence.

The test is also being used by researchers to predict which seniors are more likely to fall and to measure cognitive changes in patients with Alzheimer's disease. They are also developing training programs to restore, at least partially, or further prevent cognitive deterioration.

How UFOV works

The UFOV test does not measure reaction time, says Dan Roenker, a Western Kentucky University professor who helped pioneer this research. Instead, it measures how fast the brain processes visual information. But it is all connected. "The sooner you can get the information into your brain, the faster you can react to it," he says.

The three-part test requires people to keep track of icons on the computer screen while it distracts them with visual clutter. It is different from standard on-the-road driver-assessment tests, says Samson, because "it doesn't measure whether people use their turn signals correctly, but whether they see that pedestrian when they're making a left turn. The common phrase you hear is: 'He came out of nowhere!'"

The UFOV test may one day become a tool used by DMVs to assess older drivers' roadworthiness and to revoke the licenses of those who fail. Samson, however, says its great value lies in the fact that the test can highlight cognitive problems that can be corrected, either through medical care, corrective devices, or through driver and cognitive training.

Samson says "Getting in Gear" promotes its free driving tests to seniors as a public health service. The goal is to get seniors to regularly check their blood pressure, buckle up, and have their driving ability tested. Those who fail are offered help with obtaining a more thorough assessment with an occupational therapist and/or access to memory clinics and driver remediation classes.

The program, which is in the last year of funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation, has been very successful, Samson says, because the participants don't feel as though they're being "punished." In 1999, the program provided case management services to 1,733 drivers, had 228 defensive-driving participants, performed 431 driver assessments, and sponsored 1,500 activities through the Florida Aging Driver Council.