Crashes involving pedestrians are frequently serious in nature and many involve older adults. While the majority of older adults use the road-transport system without injurious consequences, many still experience problems as pedestrians. The growing complexity of the road environment, particularly the dominance of vehicles, high speed and traffic volumes on many roads places high demands on an older person’s adaptability, whilst ageing can diminish the capacity to cope with many traffic situations. This paper draws on a large research program on older pedestrian safety to discuss the issues surrounding older pedestrians’ safe mobility. First, the contributing factors to crash and injury risk are discussed, with a focus on the effects of functional and health declines on road crossing skills. Particular reference is made to the effects of age-related physical, perceptual and cognitive limitations, onset of medical conditions, and ability tocompensate for these changes and environmental factors including the road environment and vehicle design. Second, a number of measures to improve the safe mobility of older pedestrians are identified. The paper highlights ‘best-practice’ recommendations to increase the comfort and safety of pedestrian environments including the adoption of a system-wide approach that incorporates behaviour and education programs (such as increased awareness of age-related changes, training and adoption of safe walking practices), improvements to vehicle design (such as improved frontal design to provide ‘optimum’ pedestrian crash conditions), as well as improvements to infrastructure, road design and operation of the road-transport system in high pedestrian activity areas (such as speed reduction, separation of travel modes and reductions in traffic complexity). The knowledge gained from this research program is an important step in developing appropriate measures to reduce pedestrian trauma. Meeting the needs of older people in the future will require a comprehensive strategy, one which will encompass policy at all levels and a fundamental reconsideration of the way in which the traffic and transport system functions to ensure a safe, comfortable and convenient road environment in which to walk. (Author/publisher)
Abstract