The impact of age-related functional impairments on the ability to cross roads safely.

Older pedestrians are over-represented in serious injury and fatal crashes. The task of making gap judgements in order to cross roads safely may place high demands on older pedestrians and it is possible that they are at increased risk as a result of age-related sensory, cognitive and physical limitations.

This paper describes an experiment conduced to investigate the effect of age and agerelated changes in functional performance on crossing decisions. The findings suggest that age and age-related declines in physical, perceptual and cognitive function are associated with an increased likelihood of making an incorrect (unsafe) crossing decision. These findings have practical implications for behavioural and engineering road safety countermeasures for reducing older pedestrian crashes.