On October 3rd 2012, a workshop on Older People and Driving was organised by CIDAUT and the GOAL project consortium in the city of Brussels.

GOAL (Growing Older – stAying mobiLe) is a European research project in the 7th Framework Programme. From September 2011 to September 2013, the GOAL consortium is developing an action plan for innovative solutions to fulfil the transport needs within an ageing society. The project has described the physical and mental characteristics of older people and has developed profiles which represent the range of characteristics found in the older population now and in the future. These profiles are being used to explore, in a structured way, the needs of the elderly while driving, using public transport, walking and cycling and the relevant information needed before and during travel. During the project period, six workshops are being arranged which involve experts, stakeholders and project partners to discuss and agree upon the main findings at any stage of the project.

During this third workshop focused on older people and driving, the GOAL consortium was very pleased to welcome Ms. Mihaela Williams, GOAL project officer from the European Commission, Prof. Dr. Wiebo Brower and Ms. Mandy Dotzauer, from the University Medical Center of Groningen, as well as a number of experts from the driving domain to this one-day event. The workshop focused on presenting the main findings from the GOAL project about older people driver needs and interaction with in-vehicle functions, safety / assistance systems, infrastructure design and fitness to drive to relevant experts and stakeholders. It was also aimed at obtaining feedback from experts and stakeholders to be considered in an Action Plan that GOAL will delivered at the end of its activities in 2013.

The view of the European Commission about driving and elderly was presented followed by an interesting overview about researches dealing with older people driving and the effects of using ADAS (Advanced Driving Assistance Systems) assistance systems while driving. Three main presentations summarised the GOAL findings to date, corresponding to three main topics:

o Older drivers’ interaction with in-vehicle technology
o Older drivers’ interaction with infrastructure
o Screening and assessment of older drivers: fitness-to-drive

After presenting GOAL results, group discussions were held in parallel leaded by CIDAUT in order to discuss and share different opinions among experts about each of these three topics: in-vehicle technology, infrastructure and fitness-to-drive.

The results from these expert discussions will be used for the ongoing GOAL work and will be particularly relevant to elaborate the final GOAL Action Plan. All the materials (namely: agenda, presentations and pictures) from the event are now available at the GOAL project website. Next GOAL workshop will be held in Florence in February 2013.