Effect of different assistive systems on elderly pedestrians’ road-crossing decisions

ABSTRACT This study seeks to explore the road-crossing behavior of elderly pedestrians and whether time cues can effectively reduce the risk of crossing. Past studies on road-crossing decision-making mostly focus on the increased risk in older pedestrians due to diminished cognitive functions but often overlooked the impact of providing information about time. Therefore, this study examined the effects of assistive systems providing two different types of time information, namely, remaining time and arriving time, on road-crossing in older pedestrians under different traffic situations. The results showed that both assistive systems reduced the road-crossing response time and collision rate in older adults. In general, the “remaining time system” was more effective, especially in the combination of short vehicle gap and high vehicle speed. Remaining time was found to be more intuitive for road-crossing decision-making. These findings contribute to effective ways to reduce the risk of road crossing in elderly pedestrians.