Risky decisions in elderly pedestrians’ street crossings: the role of vehicle speed and motion perception

The purpose of our experiment was to determine whether the influence of the approaching vehicle’s speed on the seniors’ crossing behavior is actually related to their abilities of motion perception. Twenty young participants (20-30) and 40 seniors (61-83 years) took part in a simulated street crossing experiment. An immersive and interactive street crossing simulator was used. The simulation device included a portion of an experimental road (4.2 m wide) on which the participants could actually walk. In line with earlier findings, seniors exhibited more risky behaviours when vehicles approached at high speed and missed many opportunities at low vehicles speeds. Analyses of correlation and regression indicated that perceptual abilities of motion perception played an important role in the observed street-crossing decisions. In particular, motion discrimination abilities in elderly participants were found to predict unsafe crossings at high vehicle speed as well as missed opportunities at low speeds. With regard to security, high vehicle speed appears as an important risk factor for older pedestrians: because of their declining motion perception abilities, the high speed of approaching cars is not perceived and the time available for crossing overestimated, thus leading to many unsafe decisions under these conditions. On the basis of these findings, speed limitations in urban environments can be recommended as the main countermeasure for improving older pedestrians’ safety.

• Authors:
  • Cavallo, V
  • Dommes, A
  • Boustelitane, F
  • Mestre, D
  • Vienne, F
• Conference:
  • International Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons (TRANSED), 12th, 2010, Hong Kong, China
• Publication Date: 2010-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 10p (Day 3)
• Monograph Title: 12th International Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons (TRANSED 2010), 2-4 June 2010, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aged; Highway safety; Pedestrian movement; Pedestrians; Perception; Risk management; Speed control
• Uncontrolled Terms: Safe systems (road users)
• Geographic Terms: France
• ATRI Terms: Aged person; Crossing the road; Pedestrian; Perception; Risk; Road safety; Speed control
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01382822
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ATRI
• Created Date: Aug 22 2012 1:33PM