Posts Tagged Crossing
Can child-pedestrians’ hazard perception skills be enhanced?
Posted by Tal Oron-Gilad in Hazard perception; Traffic crashes; Children; Educational intervention; Skills; Road crossing on August 2, 2015
Here is a fresh publication on Child pedestrians. We introduce here, for the first time, the Child-pedestrians Anticipate and Act Hazard Perception Training (CA2HPT), which is based on the same principles as our Act and Anticipate Hazard Perception Training (AAHPT) for young novice drivers.
Highlights
- Hazard perception (HP) is the ability to read the road and anticipate future events.
- 7–9-Year-olds’ HP skills were trained in a simulated dome projection environment.
- Training utilized a conceptually innovative approach taken from the driving HP domain.
- Trainees were found to be more aware of potential hazards related to restricted field of view relative to control
- Child-pedestrians are responsive to training and actively detecting materialized hazards may enrich their ability to cross roads.
Abstract
Objective: Traffic collisions yield a substantial rate of morbidity and injury among child-pedestrians. We explored the formation of an innovative hazard perception training intervention – Child-pedestrians Anticipate and Act Hazard Perception Training (CA2HPT). Training was based upon enhancing participants’ ability to anticipate potential hazards by exposing them to an array of traffic scenes viewed from different angles.
Method: Twenty-four 7–9-year-olds have participated. Trainees underwent a 40-min intervention of observing typical residentialtraffic scenarios ina simulated dome projectionenvironment while engaging in a hazard detection task. Trainees were encouraged to note differences between the scenarios presented to them from separate angles (a pedestrian’s point-of-view and a higher perspective angle). Next,trainees and control group members were required to perform crossing decision tasks.
Results: Trainees were found to be more aware of potential hazards related to restricted field of view relative to control.
Conclusions: Child pedestrians are responsive to training and actively detecting materialized hazards may enrich child-pedestrians’ ability to cross roads.
An example of an CAAHPT intervention scenario. (1) taken from a child-pedestrian’s POV (above) and (2) taken from a higher, less restricting angle (below). Note that in the dome facility, participants saw one perfect continuous image but here in the figure, the images are shown as three overlapping screens. White rectangle is given only for emphasis; not
Child Pedestrian Crossing Study – a few updates
Posted by Tal Oron-Gilad in human factors engineering, Transportation & Safety on September 1, 2011
We have just completed this study. Analysis of results and full report are being prepared.
The objective of the research is to lay the foundations for examining whether training child-pedestrians’ HP skills while crossing a road may improve their ability to perceive potentially hazardous situations and to predict hazards prior to their materialization.
- A first step in developing a training program is to form understanding of child-pedestrians’ traffic behavior patterns. Comparing adults and children provides a depiction of what elements in the traffic environment are crucial for the road-crossing task.
- In the present study, children and adults participant in a two-phase experiment. They observe typical urban scenarios (see Figure 1) from a pedestrian’s point of view (see Figure 2) and a required to: (1) Press a response button each time they feel it is safe to cross. (2) Describe the features that they perceive as relevant for a safe road-crossing decision, i.e., the conceptual model each group of pedestrians has. Participants’ eye-movements were recorded throughout the experiment utilizing a helmet mounted tracker (Model H6-HS, Eyetrack 6000).
- To achieve this a three dimensional database of a prototypical Israeli city was built in cooperation with b.design (http://www.b-d.co.il/) , a leading provider of 3-D content. Cars, trees, billboards and various other urban elements were also designed uniquely for this environment. Using the VR-Vantage and VR-Forces different scenarios were developed to examine crossing behavior at various conditions.
Figure 1. The generic city simulated environment presented in the Dome setting (it looks a bit awkward here because its intended to be projected on a dome screen). The Field of View is: (1) Unrestricted (above); (2) Partially obscured by the road’s curvature (middle); (3) Partially obscured by parked vehicles (below).
Figure 2. Simulated environment from a child-pedestrian’s point of view.
Human Factors Engineering 