A Study on the Customized Design Criteria of Pedestrians’ Specifications Using a Dimensionless Number

Abstract

Worldwide, the population is aging at a gradually increasing speed, due to a decrease in the population and the development of medical facilities and technology. Due to the rapid aging of the population, social infrastructure will also need to be transformed into convenient facilities for the elderly. Walking facilities have been manufactured based on body size measured for general adults. Accordingly, it is necessary to prepare a new design standard suitable for the characteristics of the elderly. It is very difficult to establish standardized values for the elderly because there is a large difference in gait characteristics as well as body size. Therefore, in this study, gait characteristics were measured for the elderly with the standard physique of the elderly in Korea, and the measured gait characteristic variable values were converted into dimensionless numbers to calculate coefficients with more representativeness. The calculated coefficient is expected to be more universally applied and utilized because factors that may affect it depending on the size of the body are removed. When designing a walking facility, the average body size is applied to convert it back into necessary walking attribute information (including units), and this is presented as an example from Korea. It is expected that the presented results can be used to design more suitable and safe pedestrian facilities for an aging society.

Keywords

• gait characteristics
• elderly
• ultra-aged society
• pedestrian facilities
• dimensionless number
• standards