Seniors

Slovenia is a country with a lot of small and very dispersed settlements where public transport does not cover the needs of mobility. 2 million inhabitants have as many as 1.2 million cars. The proportion of older drivers (61+) is 28% and is growing. For elderly, the car is a source of autonomy, mobility and a building block of social inclusion. Drivers in this age group are the most common drivers of fatal accidents, most often in which they die themselves. During their driving career, cars, infrastructure, road rules, driving dynamics have changed and new forms of mobility have developed.

The Netherlands is a country of cycling. There, the bike is an important means of transportation and elderly people are no exception to this. Cycling helps to keep people fit and included in their communities, but elderly people are unfortunately among the most at risk on a bike. The number of elderly cyclists injured in accidents has increased dramatically in the past 25 years.

The number of cycling victims with serious injuries has risen sharply in the past 10 years (40% in the period 2013-2022).

For example, the most recent figures show that in 2022, 88,800 cyclists will end up in the emergency department in the Netherlands. Of these, 57,000 cycling victims had serious injuries (VeiligheidNL). It is expected that the number of serious road injuries among cyclists in unilateral crashes will increase by 80% over the period 2018-2040. The over-65s are regarded as an important risk target group. The group aged 65 and over is growing, the share of the over 80s is growing, they are both becoming more mobile and more opting for the bicycle as a means of transport (SWOV)

Therefore, under the motto “do not get off, but keep on pedalling”, CycleOn aims to ensure that elderly people are included in the Dutch cycle network, by motivating them to continue enjoying the health and pleasure benefits of cycling while focusing on safety.

Road safety was the main motivation for initiating the project, with a focus on behavioural change rather than infrastructure. This initial emphasis on road safety quickly transformed into a broader project of promoting cycling among the elderly for the benefit of their health, happiness and social inclusion.

In-depth accidents analysis is a unique research activity conducted by Transport Research Centre (CDV). Data from In-depth Accident Analysis provide a comprehensive view of all the factors related to a particular accident and serve to identify the characteristics leading to the crash occurrence and how they affect its consequences.
In – depth Road Accident Analysis includes following research areas:
-transport infrastructure,
-vehicle design and construction,
-human factor and psychology
-medical research.
Our activities are realized in long-term horizon and all the research is subjected to strict conditions, including personal data protection.

We conduct traffic accident research within the National Centre of Czech In-Depth Accidents Analysis (CzIDAS). One of its aims is cooperation with entities that could further use the results of research, for example road owners or administrators, vehicle designers and also researchers etc.
The CzIDAS data is used for various purposes and helps to face current road safety challenges:
- Due to its comprehensiveness, Czech in-depth crash analysis is one of the most effective tools for targeted and comprehensive decision-making on measures related to road safety and the establishment of the National Road Safety Strategy and other government documents related to road safety.
 CzIDAS is a source of unique information for targeting preventive information campaigns. The use of in-depth data allows us to influence road users using real crash scenarios with their consequences and highlights specific risky behavior.
 the database creates also a unique framework for a number of educational activities, e.g. Education on children's traffic behavior in the form of LARP, methodology for teachers of traffic education, Seniors in road traffic, e-TESTs and teaching and training methodology for the initial education of examiners and for subsequent periodic education of examiners,
 The activity contributes to the creation of safe road infrastructure (infrastructure adjustments based on the measures as a result of in-depth crash analysis).
 The project serves and has the potential to serve as a unique source of data and knowledge for further research in this area, including autonomous control systems. Data was used eg. for the development of a specific technical element of passive safety to protect the cervical spine, the development of an element of active vehicle safety to mitigate the effect of primary contact between pedestrian and vehicle, etc.).
 The data also serves fo validation of models used for accident analysis or creation of knowledge-based database for forensic experts,.
 Traffic crashes, however, result not only in physical but also the psychical health damage and serious social consequences. Every road traffic accident has the potential to be a traumatic event and may result in significant disruption to the psychological integrity of the people involved. The impact of a road traffic accident can adversely affect the quality of mental and physical health and subsequently interfere with many areas of one's social life. The contribution of the project could be seen also in psychological assistance to the traffic accident victims at the scene of the traffic accident.

In Belgium, as in Europe and large parts of the Western world, life expectancy is ever increasing. While this "aging" is made possible by very comprehensive preventive or curative health care, this certainly does not eliminate all the cognitive or motor impairments associated with aging. In addition, older people are also becoming increasingly mobile, and more specifically, they are using their own vehicle or car up to a higher age.

As people age, two risks that are often used in the context of road safety become important:
- Accident risk: the likelihood to be involved in an accident.
- Injury risk: the likelihood of injury, given an accident has occurred.

With this product, the senior selfTest, we focus on the triggers for accident risk with senior drivers.

Safe participation in traffic, in the context of an ageing population, presupposes two things: "driving skills" and "fitness to drive". Driving skills are strongly linked to learning processes, gaining experience, vehicle control and traffic insight. Fitness to drive has more to do with the physical and mental abilities of the driver: health, sensory and cognitive abilities, influence of alcohol, drugs or medication, etc.

Older road users usually have a very extensive mobility and traffic experience, and associated with that generally overall good driving skills. However, as drivers age, some of the mental and/or physical capacities needed to put those skills to good use gradually decrease. In other words, fitness to drive decreases. Examples are: reduced vision (sharpness, night blindness, etc.), poor hearing, higher reaction times, reduced muscle control or muscle strength, etc.

This decline in capacities is likely to proceed in two speeds. For most people it can be expected that this is a gradual process, which may also be partially absorbable or slowed down. Barring sudden illness and accidents, the decline in physical or mental functionality is a process of several decades. However, when looking at the oldest age categories, it can be expected that a quicker decrease in physical or mental functionality occurs as a result of (a higher likelihood of) more grave illnesses.

Although road users compensate for this natural decline in capacities to some extent (e.g. by driving less at night, driving slower, etc.), there is still a general risk that one's own skills and fitness to drive will be overestimated, or that a decline in skills and suitability will eventually go too fast. In other words, if a self-regulating compensation mechanism is used, it may not be enough to continue to drive “safely”. Different supporting measures need to be developed if we wish senior drivers to truly remain independently safely mobile.

With the SelfTest we present a product that aims at increasing awareness with senior drivers on the importance of psycho-cognitive factors and their own capacities in relation to accident risk, and therefor safe and comfortable driving.

The SelfTest, its development and use is described in the paragraph “project activities”.
The relevance towards improving road safety, compared to other actions taken to support safe driving by senior drivers, is described in the paragraph “evaluation”

The main issues our practice addresses are the following:
1. Proper body position on the motorcycle
2. Proper method of braking
3. Proper eye focus while riding
4. Proper motorcycle riding behaviour (other road users)
5. Developing confidence and overcoming fears when on the motorcycle

The aim of my project is to design a portable device or app to detect fast moving objects.

Approximately 2.2 million people globally are vision impaired.

As a vision impaired person, I have difficulty seeing oncoming vehicles and other hazards, such as electric cars or e-scooters.

For these reasons, I developed VIPMOD: Vision Impaired Person's Moving Object Detector.

Vision impaired people are not the only group of people with this difficulty.

People with other access needs, such as mobility disabilities, or people who are hearing impaired, will also benefit from VIPMOD, helping them to live safer and more independent lives.

Classic road safety equipment has always been passive, waiting for drivers to lose control, leave the road and suffer an accident against it. In that moment, they are necessary to contain and redirect the vehicle, as well as to reduce its severity and consequences. However, despite their generalized deployment in our roads, we still face deaths and severe injured.
PLUG&META® technology brings a new paradigm for road equipment, allowing the infrastructure to be proactive, to start talking to users and prevent accidents from happening. It also gathers road safety data and events for the road administration.
It is a digital system that can be integrated both into new or existing equipment, for example guardrails, bridge parapets, noise barriers or acoustic wall cladding for tunnels, crash cushions and others.
This worldwide innovation, patented and fully developed by Metalesa, provides active road safety to infrastructure, that is to say, the connected and smart infrastructure will have the capability to autonomous and continuously identify risks on the road (ex: ice, bad visibility, cyclist/pedestrians/animals on the road, excessive speed...) and activate in real time an adaptative LED signalling system to make drivers aware of the risk, and hence, allowing them to anticipate safer decisions. Thanks to PLUG&META® technology, key variables of risk detection, signalling and data collection can be configured from an open intuitive management platform, called PLUG&META® TRACE.