The role of perceptual, cognitive, and motor abilities in street‐crossing decisions of young and older pedestrians

Abstract

The present study provided a multidimensional explanation of increased gap-selection difficulties with ageing, including a combination of perceptual, cognitive, as well as physical performance declines with increasing age. The findings have implications for improving older pedestrians' safety in terms of speed limits, road design, and training.

Review of safety and mobility issues among older pedestrians

“…This finding suggests that older pedestrians attempt to compensate for their slower walking speed. But several virtual-reality studies have also shown that older adults' decisions are biased by the approaching vehicle's speed and that the accepted time gap drops as speed increases, leading to smaller safety margins and more unsafe decisions when vehicle speed is high (Dommes and Cavallo, 2011;Cavallo, 2007, 2009;Oxley et al, 2005). Older pedestrians seem to use simplified heuristics based on vehicle distance: for a given available time gap, older people more often decide to cross when vehicles are moving at high speeds than at low ones because the distance of the approaching cars is also greater.…”

Communicating Awareness and Intent in Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Interaction

“…At the same time, since older pedestrians have trouble perceiving a vehicle's speed correctly, especially at higher speeds [6], providing additional cues beyond the autonomous vehicle's movement could be crucial. Our findings do not point to a specific threshold but rather emphasize the possibility of information overload for some pedestrians as additional cues are provided.…”

“…Once we begin considering a wider net of pedestrians, especially vulnerable road users such as elderly pedestrians, this challenge becomes acute. A study assessing the effect of age on crossing [6] found that declines in certain perceptual and cognitive abilities caused older pedestrians to overestimate some bad crossing opportunities while missing good crossing opportunities. Overly complicated interfaces would not be very effective for these types of pedestrians and additional cues may become disadvantageous.…”

Road safety in an aging population: risk factors, assessment, interventions, and future directions

“…Koepsell et al, 2002). While this is partly due to older adults' increased frailty, simulation studies indicate that aging affects gap selection, in particular, the ability to weigh-up estimated vehicle time of arrival and one's own walking speed when selecting a gap in the traffic to cross the road (Oxley et al, 2005;Lobjois and Cavallo, 2009;Holland and Hill, 2010;Dommès and Cavallo, 2011). Mobility-impaired older adults show additional difficulty in judging safe crossing gaps to compensate for their rate of walking (Holland and Hill, 2010).…”

“…Mobility-impaired older adults show additional difficulty in judging safe crossing gaps to compensate for their rate of walking (Holland and Hill, 2010). Age-related cognitive changes such as decline in executive functions, including decision making, and attentional control, are speculated to contribute to unsafe crossing behavior in older adults (Oxley et al, 2005;Lobjois and Cavallo, 2009;Dommès and Cavallo, 2011). The effects of neurodegenerative diseases such as AD and Parkinson's disease further increase risk for older pedestrians (Gorrie et al, 2008).…”