An investigation of road crossing in a virtual environment.
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.
Simpson
Gordon
G
Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Johnston
Lucy
L
Richardson
Michael
M
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*