Senėjanti visuomenė: iššūkiai, užtikrinant eismo saugumą

Abstract

Siekiant užtikrinti saugų vyresnių eismo dalyvių judėjimą, būtina įvertinti jų su amžiumi atsirandančius fiziologinius pokyčius. Vyresnio amžiaus eismo dalyviams atsiranda įvairių fizinių, jutiminių ir kognityvinių apribojimų, kurie turi įtakos saugiam dalyvavimui eisme.

The demographic aging in Europe has been observed for several decades already. These changes will increase the number of older road users in the future and the safe management of older people's mobility will become an increasingly important issue. Physical, sensory, and cognitive limitations can increase accident risk, whereas a higher physical vulnerability increases injury severity. The in-depth analysis of accidents by the Road Research Institute of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University revealed that one road traffic fatality out of four is aged 65 or over in Lithuania. The risk of fatalities for older road users is one fifth higher than the average for all age groups, with pedestrians playing the most dangerous role. In order to improve the road safety and mobility of the older pedestrians, more attention has to be paid not only for road safety educational activities and enforcement measures, but also certain traffic management solutions have to be applied. One of the main solutions is to reduce the length of pedestrian crossing by applying various traffic calming measures as much as possible. These measures would partially compensate the reduced eyesight, hearing and mobility of older pedestrians by reducing the speed of vehicles. This would make the pedestrians more visible and mitigate the consequences of accidents.