A vibrotactile wristband to help older pedestrians make safer street-crossing decisions.

INTRODUCTION: Older pedestrians are overrepresented in fatal accidents. Studies consistently show gap-acceptance difficulties, especially in complex traffic situations such as two-way streets and when vehicles approached rapidly. In this context, the present research was aimed at assessing the effectiveness of a vibrotactile device and study older pedestrian's behavior when wearing the wristband designed to help them make safer street-crossing decisions. METHOD: Twenty younger-old participants (age 60-69), 20 older-old participants (age 70-80) and 17 younger adults (age 20-45) carried out a street-crossing task in a simulated two-way traffic environment with and without a vibrotactile wristband delivering warning messages. RESULTS: The percentage of decisions that led to collisions with approaching cars decreased significantly when participants wore the wristband. Benefits tended to be greater particularly among very old women, with fewer collisions in the far lane and when vehicles approached rapidly when they wore the wristband. But collisions did not fall to zero, and responses that were in accordance with the wristband advice went up to only 51.6% on average, for all participants. The wristband was nevertheless considered useful and easy to use by all participants. Moreover, behavioral intentions to buy and use such a device in the future were greater in both groups of older participants, but not among the younger adults. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: This haptic device was able to partly compensate for some age-related gap-acceptance difficulties and reduce street-crossing risks for all users. These findings could be fruitfully applied to the design of devices allowing communication between vehicles, infrastructures, and pedestrians.

Time pressure and regulations on hospital-in-the-home (HITH) nurses: An on-the-road study.

This study investigated both causal factors and consequences of time pressure in hospital-in-the-home (HITH) nurses. These nurses may experience additional stress from the time pressure they encounter while driving to patients' homes, which may result in greater risk taking while driving. From observation in natural settings, data related to the nurses' driving behaviours and emotions were collected and analysed statistically; semi-directed interviews with the nurses were analysed qualitatively. The results suggest that objective time constraints alone do not necessarily elicit subjective time pressure. The challenges and uncertainty associated with healthcare and the driving period contribute to the emergence of this time pressure, which has a negative impact on both the nurses' driving and their emotions. Finally, the study focuses on anticipated and in situ regulations. These findings provide guidelines for organizational and technical solutions allowing the reduction of time pressure among HITH nurses.

How do time pressured drivers estimate speed and time?

The purpose of this laboratory study was to investigate the influence of time pressure on the perception of speed and duration in driving situations. Participants provided estimations of speed and performed both productions and reproductions of time durations, based on traffic films. The experimental films were made from a driver's point of view within a moving car, and audio-recorded instructions invited participants to imagine that they were driving while under time pressure or while relaxed. The results obtained using this within-participant design support the hypothesis that time pressure promotes fast driving, and may induce an underestimation of speed and trip-related durations, the latter of which suggests that time pressure modulates time perception. Some of these effects were mediated by the emotional impact of time pressure. Links between time perception and speed were also observed. The discussion makes reference to internal clock models and focuses on the practical consequences of these results.