ABSTRACT
As society ages, a large amount of human factors related research has been carried out into the subject of the safety of the elderly in their daily lives. However, most research focuses on the general elderly population and there is a serious lack of research into elderly sufferers of Parkinson’s disease, who receive a substantial amount of attention in medical circles. This research proposed pedestrian road-crossing experiment to compare of two elder groups (the ordinary vs. with Parkinson’s) to examine the relationship between medical measuring scale test results and the pedestrian road crossing behavior of the different groups. Four factors were involved in this mixed factorial experiment study, including the age (normal older vs. Parkinson’s patient; between -subjects), vehicle speed (40 km/hr vs. 60 km/hr vs. 80 km/hr; within-subjects), time gap (5 seconds vs. 7 seconds vs. 9 seconds; within-subjects) and time of day (midday vs. dusk; within-subjects). The safety margin, subjective confidence and crossing pace were collected as the dependent variables. Results showed that the Parkinson patient’s safety margin was negative than those of the normal elder and thus caused the Parkinson patient to take higher risk then crossing the road. The pedestrian made their decisions majorly based on the factor of distance. The faster the vehicle speeds, the higher risk for driver and pedestrian. In addition, drivers in the time of the dusk had longer 219response time to detect the pedestrian presence. The results of this research will clarify the correlation between medical scale test indicators and allowing the results of medical testing to be provided for further safety management and control and following related aid equipment design concepts to be provided, helping patients and improving the lives of the elderly.
