title: An investigation of road crossing in a virtual environment.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Johnston
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Richardson
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012737:Sex Factors; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D016138:Walking / Q000523:psychology*