An Investigation of Road Crossing Behaviour of Older Pedestrians at Unsignalized Crosswalk

In Korea, older pedestrian accounted for 57% of all pedestrian deaths although a ratio of older pedestrian accidents to total pedestrian accidents was only 25.9%. Though ageing population problem becomes more challenging for road safety, little is know about the behaviour of older pedestrian's behaviour. This study aimed to identify road crossing behaviour of older pedestrian at three-lane unsignalized crosswalks using video image analysis and to compare the behaviour of older pedestrian to younger one by indicators including approaching speed, the number of walking steps and other factors. The results showed that there was a difference of approaching time at kerb, waiting time at kerb, the number of glances at kerb, and the number of glances at crossing between two groups under the situation of car approaching to crosswalks. It also showed that older pedestrian usually spent 1.16 times more than younger pedestrian to walk across the crosswalk with only 84.4% of walking speed of younger pedestrian. The number of steps of older pedestrian for road crossing was 1.12 times higher with 90% shorter steps than younger pedestrian. It was concluded that older pedestrian usually decided to walk across in case of 1.67 times longer headway than younger pedestrian's decision. These results could be applied in road and facility design for better safety of older pedestrians.