車道横断体験用シミュレータによる高齢歩行者交通事故の誘発要因の検討

摘要

In Japan, 33.4% of traffic fatalities in 2008 were pedestrian, and 69.2% of pedestrian fatalities were over 65 year old people. Establishment of the evaluation method for the human risk factor related to traffic accident is not only useful for prevention of traffic accident but also useful for the evaluation of light decline of higher brain function that is difficult to notice symptoms by themselves. In this paper, as an application of a VR technology for a traffic safety, we developed the walking environment simulator system (Pedestrian environment simulator) that combined a motion capture system and treadmill. Using this simulator, the human factor related to elder pedestrian traffic accidents was examined. In the results, we confirmed that the rate of traffic accident of elder pedestrian was larger than that of younger pedestrian. Especially, the traffic accident rate was increased in the condition of no engine sound. It became clear that one of the risk factor of elder pedestrian's traffic accident was the decline of cognitive function related to the recognition of the approach speed. The evaluation method for elder pedestrian traffic accidents in this paper might be useful as a screening method in order to find the decline factor of total function that includes perception, cognition, estimation and action.