Where do pedestrians look when crossing? A state of the art of the eye-tracking studies

Abstract

It has been widely shown in the literature that analysing eye movements and positions can provide useful information for a better understanding of human perception and cognition. The eye-tracking technology, as a process of measuring where people look, has established itself as a widespread means of studying visual information processing in several domains, including in the study of human walking. Street-crossing can be defined as a particular form of walking. Indeed, several elements have to be considered in the decision-making process, such as the distance headway, traffic density, vehicle speed, etc. It is also a very risky aspect of walking as pedestrians are considered one of the most vulnerable road users. In this article, we present an up-to-date comprehensive review of existing eye-tracking experiments in the literature, from the pedestrian’s point of view, with a view to study the effects of both internal (e.g., age) and external (e.g., road environment) factors on pedestrians’ road crossing gaze behaviour. Furthermore, the current gaps in the literature are then discussed in order to open up some future perspectives in the field, such as the forthcoming introduction of automated vehicles on the roads.