Pedestrian-vehicle crashes: risk perception and responsibility attribution among children, adolescents and adults

Abstract

Background: Child pedestrian injuries in China result from crashes not just with cars. We considered how Chinese youth and young adults perceive pedestrian risk from four vehicle types-bicycles, electric bicycles, cars, buses-evaluating perceptions for two factors that may influence pedestrian behavior and risk-taking, perception of road environment risk and responsibility to avoid crashes. Understanding how pedestrians perceive risk, and how these perceptions change as children grow older, could guide prevention efforts. Methods: 383 children (grades 3-4, 5-6, 8) and university students completed self-report surveys. We analyzed overall responses, plus age/gender differences in risk perception and responsibility attribution, across vehicle types and number of vehicles approaching, using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and generalized estimating equation (GEE) models. Results: Overall, larger vehicles were perceived as riskier (p less than .001). Compared to children, university students perceived bicycles and electric bicycles as less risky (Mean=2.66 vs. 3.69, 3.34 vs. 3.62, respectively, p less than .05). Cars and buses were perceived as equally risky across age groups. Across all vehicle types and number of vehicles traversing the road, both children and young adults perceived more pedestrian responsibility to avoid collisions relative to drivers (p less than .001). Children attributed less personal responsibility to avoid pedestrian-vehicle crashes than university students (e.g., buses odds ratio (OR)=0.20, p less than .001; OR=0.26, p less than .01; OR=0.28, p less than .01 for third/fourth, fifth/sixth, eighth graders, respectively). University students and fifth/sixth graders also identified greater pedestrian responsibility to avoid collisions with multiple vs. one vehicle approaching (e.g., university students/cars OR=4.17, p less than .001). Conclusions: We discuss cognitive and perceptual development factors in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood that may contribute to differences in risk perception and responsibility attribution among Chinese pedestrians and suggest future research should explore those processes and subsequently develop evidence-based interventions to reduce pedestrian injury risk.

Understanding and addressing populations whose prior experience has led to mistrust in healthcare

“…The greater likelihood of younger adults (age 65 and under) to hold Israeli health authorities responsible for the treatments may reflect an increased tendency among the younger generations to criticize authorities and identify them as responsible for failures. Such a coeval tendency correlates with the findings of Yu et al that identify accountability patterns in China toward government policies on road accidents, especially among youth [ 53 ].…”

“…Moreover, some applicants might have been directed by lawyers and other consultants, including non-profit organizations with agendas, who were managing the claims for compensation. Such interventions impact claimants' statements—for example, through overstatement of harms, due to financial or political motives [ 53 ]. The existence of a law for compensation of scalp ringworm victims puts a certain amount of responsibility—even if not legally acknowledged—on healthcare authorities, and thus may affect participants' attitudes.…”

Cross-culturally approaching the cycling behaviour questionnaire (CBQ): Evidence from 19 countries

“…On the one hand, road risk perception (CV1) has consistently shown to be negatively associated with risk-taking behaviours among several groups of road users, including motor vehicle drivers (Ventsislavova et al, 2021), pedestrians ( McIlroy, Useche, & Gonzalez-Marin, 2022Useche, Hezaveh, Llamazares, & Cherry, 2021c;Yu et al, 2020), e-scooter riders (Fonseca-Cabrera et al, 2021) and, of course, bicycle riders (López, Arroyo, & García, 2021;O'Hern, Stephens, Young, & Koppel, 2020). Accordingly, the results of Brown-Forsythe tests have shown how, whilst riding behaviours (F1 and F2) uniformly tend to be worse among cyclists with lesser risk perception, scores on positive behaviours (F3) are significantly greater among riders over the 50th percentile of the distribution.…”

Not gendered… but different from each other? A structural equation model for explaining risky road behaviors of female and male pedestrians

“…Finally, some studies performed with non-motorized users in the last years have documented the importance of risk perception for preventing aberrant road behaviors, as well as the existence of key differences between users, as it happens (for instance) between male and female road users (Useche et al, 2018b;Barić et al, 2018;Yu et al, 2020).…”