Parking and manoeuvring among older drivers: A survey investigating special needs and difficulties

•A postal survey investigated driving and parking activity of 698 older French drivers.•The most frequent type of parking manoeuvre was different between parking at home and elsewhere.•An approach inspired by the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire was adopted to study parking behaviour.•Four types of aberrant parking behaviour were identified.•Accident history was the strongest predictor of parking difficulties. A postal survey was conducted among 698 older French drivers in order to identify their special needs and difficulties encountered during parking. Their most frequent manoeuvres were back parallel and front perpendicular parking. A questionnaire, inspired by the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire, was developed to identify the psychological origins of parking errors and to examine its relative predictive value with respect to self-reported parking difficulties. Four types of aberrant parking behaviour were identified: slips or lapses, execution errors, anticipation errors and violations. Accident and/or incident history and reported aberrant parking behaviours are the strongest predictors of difficulties encountered during parking manoeuvres.