The driving skills of the elderly are the subject of a study soon to be released by a group of Iowa State professors.

The leader of the ISU research team, Cletus Mercier, an associate professor of engineering, said a license is important to the livelihood of the elderly.

“A license says, ‘Even if I don’t want to drive most of the time, I can because I have a license,'” he said. He said this is especially true in Iowa because there are no other choices for transportation in many of the state’s cities.

The research was done in an attempt to find a fair away to determine the driving abilities and the cognitive skills of the elderly. Mercier said the research group does not want to arbitrarily say, “You can’t drive because you’re over 85.”

Instead, the study looks at the cognitive skills of all drivers in order to determine appropriate tests for the cognitive skills necessary for driving.

“Most people drive because they have a license to drive,” he said.

Mercier said the group wants people who go to the Department of Transportation to be able to get a test for the skills if they need one.

The research began in 1992. The group tested 100 drivers over 65 years of age and found that some drivers had lost part of their cognitive skills. However, the research group needed to discover if the loss was due to the drivers’ age.

He said, “Each of us has certain cognitive skills, and regardless of age we have people whose cognitive skills may be below the norm.”

Last summer the group tested 64 drivers between 20 and 64 years of age and found that “cognitive skill levels did relate to performance regardless of age.”

Mercier said the group discovered that “there is a greater likelihood of cognitive skills loss above a certain age.”

The research group is currently working on the first draft of the report. Mercier estimates that the first draft will be finished in late May or early June. The group will the work on a final draft, which will be sent to the Iowa DOT and the federal DOT. Both departments funded the research project.

Exactly what the DOT will do with the report is not known. Mercier said the research group will add the information from the report to their body of knowledge so policy-makers will be well informed if they want to find ways to determine the cognitive skills of the elderly before issuing driver’s licenses. “If they say, ‘Give me the test for these skills,’ well, here’s the test for those skills,” Mercier said.