Determining the Effect of Smartphone Alerts and Warnings on Older-Adult Street-Crossing Behavior

Research has shown that older pedestrians have more difficulty making road-crossing decisions than younger adults. This presents an opportunity for vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) communication to assist older adults’ street-crossing decisions. We developed ability-based permissive alerts (safe to cross) and prohibitive warnings (not safe to cross) for a smartphone in a virtual street-crossing environment. We conducted a between-subjects study with 66 participants ages 65-84 to understand the effects of these alerts and warnings. We found differences between the permissive alerts and prohibitive warnings: (1) permissive participants were more likely to take smaller gaps than control participants (prohibitive had no effect); (2) permissive participants were more compliant with alerts (Cohen’s Kappa: .80) than prohibitive participants (Kappa: .50); and (3) 10/22 prohibitive participants reported the warnings as annoying (none for permissive). These findings give insights into V2P design and raise questions about how V2P alerts affect older-adult street-crossing behavior