IFSTTAR, French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks, Laboratory for Road Operations, Perception, Simulators and Simulations, 25 allée des Marronniers, 78000 Versailles, France.
IFSTTAR, French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks, Laboratory for Road Operations, Perception, Simulators and Simulations, 25 allée des Marronniers, 78000 Versailles, France.
Accid Anal Prev. 2017 Dec;109:1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2017.09.024. Epub 2017 Oct 4.
Older pedestrians are overrepresented in fatal accidents. Studies consistently show gap-acceptance difficulties, especially in complex traffic situations such as two-way streets and when vehicles approached rapidly. In this context, the present research was aimed at assessing the effectiveness of a vibrotactile device and study older pedestrian's behavior when wearing the wristband designed to help them make safer street-crossing decisions.
Twenty younger-old participants (age 60-69), 20 older-old participants (age 70-80) and 17 younger adults (age 20-45) carried out a street-crossing task in a simulated two-way traffic environment with and without a vibrotactile wristband delivering warning messages.
The percentage of decisions that led to collisions with approaching cars decreased significantly when participants wore the wristband. Benefits tended to be greater particularly among very old women, with fewer collisions in the far lane and when vehicles approached rapidly when they wore the wristband. But collisions did not fall to zero, and responses that were in accordance with the wristband advice went up to only 51.6% on average, for all participants. The wristband was nevertheless considered useful and easy to use by all participants. Moreover, behavioral intentions to buy and use such a device in the future were greater in both groups of older participants, but not among the younger adults.
This haptic device was able to partly compensate for some age-related gap-acceptance difficulties and reduce street-crossing risks for all users. These findings could be fruitfully applied to the design of devices allowing communication between vehicles, infrastructures, and pedestrians.
老年人在致命事故中所占比例过高。研究一致表明，老年人在接受间隙时存在困难，尤其是在复杂的交通情况下，如双向街道和车辆快速接近时。在这种情况下，本研究旨在评估一种振动触觉设备的有效性，并研究老年人佩戴旨在帮助他们做出更安全过街决策的腕带时的行为。
20 名年轻老年人（60-69 岁）、20 名年长老年人（70-80 岁）和 17 名年轻成年人（20-45 岁）在模拟双向交通环境中进行了过街任务，同时佩戴和不佩戴腕带进行了过街任务。
当参与者佩戴腕带时，导致与接近汽车碰撞的决策百分比显著下降。当参与者佩戴腕带时，好处往往更大，尤其是非常年长的女性，在远车道和车辆快速接近时，碰撞减少。但碰撞并没有降到零，并且符合腕带建议的反应平均仅上升到 51.6%。然而，所有参与者都认为腕带是有用和易于使用的。此外，未来购买和使用此类设备的意愿在两个老年组中都有所增加，但在年轻成年人中没有增加。
这种触觉设备能够部分弥补一些与年龄相关的间隙接受困难，并降低所有使用者的过街风险。这些发现可以成功应用于车辆、基础设施和行人之间通信设备的设计。
