AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety E-Newsletter, Issue 18

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COMPLETED: North American Driver Licensing Policy Workshop

Senior Safety and Mobility is one of the AAA Foundation's priority areas for long-term research emphasis. The AAA Foundation views issues surrounding the licensing of the aging population as a key component of ensuring the safe mobility for everyone. Notwithstanding AAA Foundation research and outreach in diverse areas from driver refresher training to supplemental transportation programs, "How do we decide when a driver is no longer fit to drive?" is and will remain a key question for which there are no easy answers.

To begin to seriously address this issue, the AAA Foundation hosted an expert workshop on December 6 and 7 to:

Synthesize the present state of knowledge regarding the identification of high-risk drivers as it relates to the ability of aging drivers to continue to drive safely, methods or criteria for screening or assessing drivers, and interventions (including, but not limited to, licensing actions) appropriate for drivers identified as high risk.
Develop a consensus-based set of recommendations that could be used by policymakers and stakeholders to inform the development of licensing policies based upon the best available science.
Identify the most important knowledge gaps and research needs related to older driver safety, particularly with regard to questions of licensing and recommend specific lines of research that the AAA Foundation and others could pursue over the next several years to address them.

By all accounts the workshop was very successful, and among other things, it highlighted the need to develop a synthesis of existing practices for license renewal in each state. The workshop proceedings will include a summary of the workshop, several in-depth background papers written for the workshop, a consensus-based set of criteria that could be used to inform the development of licensing policies based on the best available science, and a number of additional research needs for the AAA Foundation and the broader safety community to pursue. Workshop proceedings, as well as a brief summary report will be released in the summer and will be available on the Foundation's Website: www.aaafoundation.org/reports. Also available is the list of workshop participants.

Workshop participants:

Names, Affiliations, and Roles of Workshop Participants
Name	Affiliation	Role
Michel Bédard	Lakehead University	Discussant
Keli Braitman	Insurance Institute for Highway Safety	Discussant
David Carr	Washington University at St. Louis	Presenter/Paper Author
Neil Chaudhary	Preusser Research Group	Discussant
Sherrilene Classen	University of Florida	Paper Author
Lori Cohen	AARP	Discussant
Peter Delahunt	Posit Science	Discussant
Ann Dellinger	Centers for Disease Control and Prevention	Discussant
Anne Dickerson	East Carolina University	Facilitator
Bonnie Dobbs	University of Alberta	Presenter/Facilitator
Jamie Dow	Société de l’Assurance Automobile	Presenter
David Dunn	British Columbia Automobile Association	Discussant
David Eby	Univ. of MI Transportation Research Institute	Workshop Manager
Dan Foley	US Department of Health and Human Services	Discussant
Barbara Freund	Eastern Virginia Medical School	Discussant
David Hennessy	California Department of Motor Vehicles	Discussant
Peter Kissinger	AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety	Discussant/Sponsor
Jim Langford	Monash University	Presenter
Richard Marottoli	Yale University	Presenter/Paper Author
Dennis McCarthy	University of Florida	Discussant
Thomas Meuser	University of Missouri	Presenter/Paper Author
Kit Mitchell	Institution of Highways and Transportation	Discussant
Lisa Molnar	Univ. of MI Transportation Research Institute	Workshop Manager
Scott Osberg	AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety	Discussant/Sponsor
Cynthia Owsley	University of Alabama	Discussant
Elin Schold-Davis	American Occupational Therapy Association	Presenter
Dannielle Sherrets	AAA National	Discussant
Kathy Sifrit	National Highway Traffic Safety Administration	Discussant
Nina Silverstein	University of Massachusetts, Boston	Presenter/Paper/ Facilitator
Kim Snook	Iowa Department of Motor Vehicles	Presenter
Carl Soderstrom	Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles	Presenter
Loren Staplin	TransAnalytics	Presenter/Paper Author
Jane Stutts	University of North Carolina	Discussant
Brian Tefft	AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety	Note Taker/Sponsor
Gudmundur Ulfarsson	Washington University at St. Louis	Discussant
Bill Van Tassel	AAA National	Discussant

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