Title

How do elderly pedestrians perceive hazards in the street?

Document Type

Conference Paper

Publication Date

2007

Subject Area

Mobility - Accessible footpaths, Modes of Transport - Pedestrian, Population - Elderly

Abstract

We investigated effects of lighting on the fixation behaviour of an elderly pedestrian. The participant was asked on a platform in the PAMELA facility, which simulated street environments and various hazards under four different lighting conditions. The hazards included obstacles, steps and combinations of vertical and horizontal gaps. In low lighting conditions, the participant fixated “hazard” objects more than “orientation” objects. For ascending steps, the duration of fixations corresponded to the step height, whereas for descending steps, the duration did not largely change according to the step height and it was less than that for ascending steps. These results suggest that pedestrians pay attention to hazards according not to actual danger but to the visual perception. Regardless of actual danger, visually obscure objects do not attract the attention of pedestrians. Further investigation should be made on pedestrians’ perception of hazard and orientation objects as well as the illuminance level below which pedestrians need more time/duration of fixation to perceive hazards (threshold).