Do We Allow Elderly Pedestrians Sufficient Time to Cross the Street in Safety?

Abstract

The timings of pedestrian crosswalk signals are usually determined by traffic engineers, based on data from gait-speed trials, which might not take into consideration environmental factors or the special needs of elderly pedestrians. The authors carried out a study on a selected population of elderly south Florida residents (mean age 82.7 years) that showed slower crossing times with an outdoor simulated street crossing than with an indoor crossing. The gait-velocity trials indicate that timing of crosswalk signals might be inappropriate and might need readjusting to improve pedestrian safely for the elderly.