Pedestrians aged 60 years or more have a fatal and serious casualty rate relative to their numbers in the population that is more than twice that of other adults. In an attempt to explain this difference a large scale study of age effects on adult road crossing behaviour has been undertaken. The results showed that compared with other adults, the elderly were more likely: (i) to delay before crossing, (ii) to spend more time at the kerb, (iii) to take longer to cross the road, (iv) to make more head movements before and during crossing. However in absolute terms these and other differences were small, and provided little explanation for the differences in casualty rates. The results indicated that the elderly employed a different crossing strategy from that of other adults, but in general the elderly do not appear to form a distinct sub-group within the pedestrian population. (Author/publisher)
Abstract