• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.4D
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• pp.497-509
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• 2011

Walking is basic and important means of transportation for human. Although recently safety for pedestrians relating to traffic safety is considered to be important, efforts and interest for pedestrian safety are very unsatisfactory. Thus, it is needed to develop a pedestrian safety index which could be used to plan pedestrian safety program and to reduce/prevent pedestrian accidents. In this study, the Pedestrian Safety Index about 10 cities in Gyeongnam Province was developed using 5 factors highly influencing on pedestrian safety, which are the five year average pedestrian accidents per 100,000 population, the year 2009 pedestrian accidents per 100,000 population, crosswalk signal obey rate, jaywalking rate, and the year 2009 pedestrian accidents for children under 14 years and the elderly over 65 years. The perfect score for the index is 100. As the score becomes nearer to 100, pedestrian safety becomes better. The pedestrin safeties of Changwon, Gimhae and Masan are good and those of Sachon and Tongyong are bad. Tongyong's low score at the index is due to high pedestrian accidents rate only and Sachon's low score is due to high pedestrian accidents rate and jaywalking. At the pedestrian safety index of 10 counties of Gyeongnam Province, the pedestran safeties of Hamyang and Hapchon are good and those of Haman, Hadong and Gosung are bad.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.499-510
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• 2017

Traffic accident fatalities in Korea in 2016 was 4,292 and 1,732 cases were deaths of elderly people. In spite of this, the researches on behaviors of the elderly when crossing roads, are rather limited. The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze road crossing behavior characteristics of the elderly, when crossing roads, especially focusing on the characteristics of pedestrians and vehicles. Cross-sectional data was collected from six different sites in two regions and the following results was identified. First, at road crossings, 528 cases(84.3%) out of 626 conflict situations of the elderly and 303 cases(63.3%) out of 478 conflict situations of the non-elderly pedestrians were found to be dangerous, respectively. The elderly tend to face a statistically significant risk of 3.11 times higher than that of non-elderly people. Second, 519 cases(82.9%) of jaywalking occurred in 626 conflict cases of the elderly and 375 cases(78.5%) of jaywalking in 478 conflict events of non-elderly persons, which indicates the elderly's 1.34 times higher trend compared with the non-elderly's. Third, the pedestrian safety margin (PSM) analysis showed that the PSM of the elderly and the non-elderly were 3.33 seconds and 4.04 seconds respectively, which is 17.5% high. Fourth, the difference in pedestrian safety interval was examined by dividing the speed of approaching vehicle into less than 30km/h, above 30km/h and less than 50km/h, and over 50km/h. There was no significant difference between the PSM of coming vehicles with the speed less than 30km/h and the PSM of approaching with the speed 30km/h~50km/h, but the conflicts with vehicle of the speed above 50km/h show significantly lower PSM than with vehicle speed of 30km/h~50km/h. Finally, when the risk threshold is set to less than 2.5 seconds, the analysis shows that older pedestrians tend to cross roads dangerously 1.59~2.53 times than younger pedestrians. The results set forth here can be used as a basis for constructing the elderly safety measures at present and a potential basis for autonomous vehicle safety application in the future for solving the issue of the difference in crossing behavior between elderly and non-elderly pedestrians.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.255-260
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• 2017

In Korea, traffic accidents between pedestrians and vehicles in 2015 account for 38.8% of all accidents. This study proposes a system design that can measure the risk of conflict between a vehicle and a pedestrian. Firstly the systemdetect and estimate the position, speed, and directional data of the vehicle and the pedestrian. And then it estimate the conflict point between a vehicle and a pedestrian. The risk of conflict is quantified by estimating the pedestrian safety margin (PSM), which is the time difference between the arrival of the pedestrian at the crossing point to the point of conflict and the vehicle approaching the point. In this system each data is acquired through an external monitoring based evaluation module and an individual wearing module. In the future, such a system can be used for decision making such as the design of road hazard improvement facilities and the designation of the elderly protection area.

• 한국노년학
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.843-853
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to find out the characteristics of elderly pedestrian accidents and to suggest policy implications to enhance the level of elderly pedestrian safety. Although much efforts has made to enhance traffic safety environment, pedestrian traffic accidents among elderly population are not significantly decreased. This is mainly because current traffic safety measures do not much consider the characteristics of elderly pedestrians in the aspects of physical and psychological conditions. Main findings from vehicle-pedestrian traffic accident data and survey are as follows. First elderly pedestrians have high probability of traffic accident near crosswalks or cross streets rather than on crosswalk or cross streets. Second they need more green light time for crossing the streets. Third, they feel motor cycles running on the side walk and parked vehicles on the side walk are the most dangerous factors. Forth, general drivers do not have reasonable understanding for the walking behaviors of elderly pedestrians. Fifth, elderly pedestrians frequently need to rest while walking. Sixth, elderly people do not see clearly or understand traffic signs. Finally, many elderly pedestrians experience accidents or inconvenience while walking on the sidewalk.