This study set out to investigate the road crossing practices of older adults relative to younger adults in order to determine whether: (1) they experience particular problems making traffic judgements; and (2) whether their road crossing behaviour might render them more vulnerable to crashes because of declines in physical, sensory, perceptual, and cognitive abilities. An initial "blackspot" accident analysis highlighted the types of crashes in which older and younger pedestrians were involved. From this a number of specific road crossing actions were identified that were investigated in more detail in two observational studies. Road crossing behaviours were measured from video recordings of individual road crossings of younger and older pedestrians. On two-way roads, older adults were observed to interact more with the traffic and left less time between completing the cross to the middle of the road and time-of-arrival of the closest near-side vehicle than younger pedestrians. The findings suggest that age-related perceptual and cognitive deficits may contribute to many of the crashes in which older pedestrians are involved.
Samenvatting