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Pedestrian protection systems, both active and passive systems, are being introduced in the EU and Japan to comply with regulatory requirements. Their designs are specific and, in general, reflect an accident scenario of the pedestrian being struck on the side by a vehicle traveling at a maximum travel speed of 40 kph. The present study is an effort to quantify the effects of pedestrian reaction prior to an accident and identify characteristics that may help minimize or prevent the pedestrian to vehicle interaction. Accident situations were simulated with volunteers using a non-impacting methodology. Fifty one reactions from 23 volunteers of two age groups were observed. Most of the volunteers were found to run, step-back or stop in fright in a dangerous situation. Volunteer speed was an important parameter which could help in differentiating these reactions. Age related differences were also observed, both for reaction strategy and reaction times.

An experiment was designed to observe balance recovery movement of standing volunteers in public transportation situations, and attempt to predict it. A perturbation corresponding to a typical emergency breaking situation was applied to the platform on which the subjects were standing. The effect of three different postures, three acceleration profiles and two external constraints were studied. Movements were reconstructed using a three dimensional whole body kinematic model. The reconstructed kinematic data were reduced prior to the movement analysis. The simplified representation obtained showed that the balance recovery movement consists of a succession of four basic phases, and also allowed to highlight the influence of the experimental parameters. In order to evaluate whether the data generated can be used to predict the motion in arbitrary conditions, the response of the intermediate acceleration level tests was predicted by interpolation between the two extreme conditions.