The importance of reaction time on children and drivers during safely crossing phase

Road safety in urban areas is one of the major critical points for both evaluation, prevention and mitigation actions. In general, traffic safety related to geometry of an intersection at grade is defined by indirect indicators, such as the number of conflict points and also by direct indicators, such as the number of road accident and the severity value. In order to make the direct road safety indicators comparable. Before and after reconstruction it is necessary to analyzed the context of the intersection with traffic flow. The desired trend in traffic accident statistics is, particularly, influenced by the subjective experience of each road users, driver cyclist or pedestrian. The assessment of the criticalities connected to the road infrastructure can be studied in a different scale (micro, meso and macro) and through the use of traffic micro-simulation tools and dedicated tools. These last consider the trajectories performed by vehicles and pedestrian components to understand the potential points of conflict according to the manoeuvres performed (crossing, turning right, turning left). These tools also make it possible to highlight the type of possible collision, adopting specific solutions to the problem beforehand. In order to understand how sample is to perceive traffic context and traffic light by children and drivers in the urban context of Enna, a satisfaction questionnaire is administered referring to the interspersed road intersection very closed to kindergarten and elementary school monitored. The times of perception and reaction are evaluated considering the traffic light phases through the use of a dedicated tool on the Tablet. This analysis is conducted in order to investigate the trend variations of the value explored on the future and proceed to the comparison real and simulated data. Reaction time of ach member of the target group is studied using the benchmark test and the sample obesrvation was chosen as heterogeneous. The time values of perception/reaction of the different traffic components are used for the implementation of the models that are at the base of the traffic micro-simulators and therefore through an appropriate calibration allow to obtain reliable results and, at the same time, to simulate scenarios in a preventive way with true and realist values.