Safe mobility is essential to continued engagement in civic, social, and community life, and to the human interactions necessary for health, well-being, and quality of life. When safe driving is no longer possible for older adults, safe and practicable alternative transportation must be available. Furthermore, older adults are individuals; they have specific needs, abilities, and resources. Not all older adults will have difficulty meeting their transportation needs and no single transportation solution will work for all people. Research and countermeasures intended to help meet the transportation needs of older adults will likely also benefit younger users of the transportation system, particularly those with disabilities. The issues surrounding the maintenance of safe transportation for older adults will require an interdisciplinary research approach if we are to make significant progress in the next decade as the baby boomers begin to reach age 70.

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Continuing research on the extent to which older drivers appropriately self-regulate their driving is warranted. Future studies should focus on objectively measuring self-regulation, possibly through instrumented vehicle studies, and comparing these measures with clinically determined functional abilities and driving performance. It is also important to take into account differences in self-regulation by sex, as well as the effects of confidence in driving ability and insight into functional impairments on self-regulation.