French National Institute for Transport and Safety Research (INRETS), Laboratory of Driver Psychology, Versailles, France.
Accid Anal Prev. 2012 Jan;44(1):42-7. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2010.12.012. Epub 2010 Dec 30.
International accident statistics indicate that elderly pedestrians make up an extremely vulnerable road-user group. Past research has shown that older adults make many unsafe street-crossing decisions and adopt insufficient safety margins, especially when vehicles are approaching at high speed. Apart from studies on road design and speed-limit countermeasures, there is surprisingly no road-safety research on behavior-based measures to improve older pedestrians' safety. In this line, the present study was aimed at (i) assessing the effectiveness of a training program for older pedestrians that combined behavioral and educational interventions, and (ii) examining whether and to what extent age-related differences in street-crossing safety could be reduced after training older adults. Twenty seniors were enrolled in a training program. Before, immediately after, and six months after training, street-crossing behavior was assessed using a simulated street-crossing task. Twenty younger participants performed the same simulated task to obtain a baseline measure. The results showed that the training produced significant short- and long-term benefits, due to a shifting of the decision criteria among the older participants towards more conservative judgments. When compared with the younger group, the older participants improved their behavior considerably so that significant differences in the mean safety-related indicators were no longer observed. However, the older participants' ability to take the oncoming car's speed into account did not improve. Even after training, and contrary to younger adults, older participants were found to make more and more unsafe decisions as the car's speed increased, putting them at a higher risk at high speeds. This finding may reflect age-related perceptual and cognitive difficulties that cannot be remedied by a behavioral or educational training method. The present findings underline that high speed is an important risk factor for elderly pedestrians that should be handled by effective speed reduction measures (i.e. speed ramps, road narrowing).
国际事故统计数据表明，老年人是极其脆弱的行人交通参与者群体。过去的研究表明，老年人在过马路时做出许多不安全的决定，并且安全余量不足，尤其是当车辆高速行驶时。除了道路设计和限速对策的研究外，令人惊讶的是，没有基于行为的措施来提高老年人行人安全的道路安全研究。在这方面，本研究旨在：（i）评估结合行为和教育干预的老年人行人培训计划的有效性；（ii）检验和确定在培训老年人后，是否以及在何种程度上可以减少与年龄相关的过街安全差异。20 名老年人参加了培训计划。在培训之前、之后立即以及培训六个月后，使用模拟过街任务评估过街行为。20 名年轻参与者执行相同的模拟任务以获得基线测量。结果表明，由于老年人的决策标准向更保守的判断转移，培训产生了短期和长期的显著效益。与年轻组相比，老年组的行为有了显著的改善，因此不再观察到与安全相关的指标的均值存在显著差异。然而，老年参与者考虑迎面而来的汽车速度的能力并没有提高。即使经过培训，与年轻人不同，老年人发现随着车速的增加，他们做出的不安全决策越来越多，这使他们在高速行驶时面临更高的风险。这一发现可能反映了与年龄相关的感知和认知困难，这些困难无法通过行为或教育训练方法来弥补。本研究结果强调了高速度是老年人行人的一个重要风险因素，应通过有效的限速措施（即减速带、道路变窄）来处理。
