The effects of aging on street-crossing behavior: From estimation to actual crossing

Based on an interactive road-crossing task, this study examined age-related effects on crossing decisions and whether or not age affects behavioral adjustments to the time gap. It also compared crossing-task decisions to previously observed estimation-task decisions [Lobjois, R., Cavallo, V., 2007. Age-related differences in street-crossing decisions: the effects of vehicle speed and time constraints on gap selection in an estimation task. Accident Analysis and Prevention 39 (5), 934–943]. The results showed that older adults selected a greater mean time gap and initiated their crossing sooner than the younger ones, indicating an attempt to compensate for their increased crossing time. However, older adults accepted shorter and shorter time gaps as speed increased, putting them at a higher risk at high speeds. Regarding adaptive behavior, the analyses showed that all groups adjusted their crossing time to the available time. Comparison of crossing decisions and estimations revealed that the young group had a greater number of tight fits and missed fewer opportunities on the crossing task, whereas these differences did not appear in the elderly. This suggests that the crossing decisions of younger adults are much more finely tuned to time gaps in actual crossing tasks than in estimation tasks and that older adults have trouble calibrating perception and action and perceiving possibilities for action.