Citation

Simpson G, Johnston L, Richardson M. Accid. Anal. Prev. 2003; 35(5): 787-796.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12850080

Abstract

The reported study employed a virtual reality (VR) system, using a head mounted display (HMD), to investigate road crossing behavior in children and young adults. Younger children (aged 5-9 years) made the greatest number of unsafe road crossings and the oldest participants (aged >19 years) the fewest. Overall performance was better (fewer unsafe road crossings) in uniform speed than uniform distance trials, consistent with previous research suggesting that pedestrians base road crossing decisions on inter-vehicle distance rather than vehicle speed. Results are discussed in terms of road crossing behavior and the use of VR simulations in the study of pedestrian behavior.