Founded in 1998 by Dr. Robert Raleigh and hosted since that time by the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration, the Maryland Research Consortium comprises participants from Federal, State, and local governments as well as research institutions, social service organizations, interest groups, industry, and private individuals, operating at the nexus of Public Health and Transportation.  The Consortium espouses the Mission Statement: Safe Mobility for Life  as it pursues four goals in support of that mission.  Those goals are:

• Identification and Assessment – To identify and assess the ability of older people to remain safely mobile.
• Remediation and Counselling – To remediate and/or counsel those with functional limitations so that they may remain safely mobile, and to identify the providers of the services necessary to support this effort.
• Mobility Options – To inventory and assess existing and potential mobility options; to develop and promote new options as needed, and to foster easy access to these services.
• Public Information and Education – To educate our citizens and care givers on the public health issues of functional decline and driving safely, and to provide information on how older people may remain safely mobile.

The MRC meets quarterly as a symposium on progress and developments on various matters related to mobility preservation for older Marylanders.  Speakers are typically regular members or invited guests, all practicioners in the fields of medicine, public health, injury prevention and safety research, alternative and complimentary transportation, planning and public service organizations.  The Maryland Research Consortium on the Older Driver  has been recognized as instrumental in the progress forged in Maryland on mobility preservation and driver safety.

Meetings of the MRC occur regularly in January, April,  October, and  optionally in July of each year.  The January meeting is usually timed to coincide with the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington D.C.  A typical meeting will involve four or five presentations and attendance by thirty-five to forty-five guests.

The next meeting of the MRC will take place on January 15, 2009.