Introduction


As the global population continues to age, more older adults will navigate the roadway as pedestrians. Older pedestrians represent an increasing and overrepresented proportion of road fatality statistics (Australian Automobile Association [AAA], 2022). Understanding how decisions are made when crossing the road is vital in reducing pedestrian fatalities. Two decision making skills required to cross the road safely are hazard perception (HP; involves the identification and response to a potential hazard; Rosenbloom et al., 2015), and gap acceptance (GA; involves judging when a sufficient gap appears in traffic to cross safely; Cœugnet et al., 2019). This research used an established virtual reality (VR) protocol (see Bennett et al., 2025) to investigate HP and GA in older adult pedestrians.


Purpose


To understand the role of walking speed, visual perceptual and visual exploration factors in predicting key decision-making behaviours of GA and HP in older adult pedestrians.


Methods


100 healthy older adults were recruited (Mage = 68.83, SDage = 5.25). Participants completed a walking speed, visual acuity (VA) and contrast sensitivity (CSC) task. Participants completed a VR GA and HP task using a 360-degree roadway scene; head and eye movements were measured using VR. Response time (in seconds) was the outcome variable for HP and GA.


Results


Two separate hierarchical regressions were computed. For HP, the full model was significant (R² = .27, p < .001); total fixations (β = -.39) and CSC (β = -.24) predicted lower response times over and above walking speed. For GA, the full model was not significant (R² = .09, p = .46).


Conclusion


Fixations - a marker of visual attention - and CSC predict better responses to HP but not GA. Training protocols could increase HP skills by incorporating fixation guides. Road infrastructure could implement sharper contrasts between light and dark to help HP.