Still careless: findings from a cross-sectional study of young pedestrians’ risky road crossing behaviors

Abstract

Background: Pedestrian-vehicle collision is one of the most common traffic injuries worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the determinants of pedestrians' road crossing beliefs and behaviors in potentially risky situations using the Theory of Planned Behavior among Iranian young adults. Methods: This was a population-based study on a sample of 562 young adults aged 18 to 25 years living in Tehran, Iran. Data were collected by using a self-administered validated questionnaire including constructs of the theory of planned behavior and items of perceived risk and severity. The data were analyzed using independent t-test, analysis of covariance and multivariate analysis of variance. Results: From all the respondents, 17.8% reported that they had previous experience of vehicle-collision. Among the participants, those who had previous experience of vehicle-collision reported less safety behaviors in crossing the road than those who had not experience an accident. It was found significant differences between participants with and without a history of vehicle-collision for perceived risk (mean difference, adjusted multivariate P-value: − 5.77, 0.027) and perceived severity (− 6.08, 0.003), attitude toward traffic regulations (− 6.34, 0.006), attitude toward behavior (− 7.56, 0.005), perceived behavioral control (− 5.20, 0.018), behavioral intention (− 5.35, 0.046) and road crossing behavior in potentially risky situations (− 5.37, 0.004). Conclusions: Previous unpleasant experience of vehicle-collision is not the only determinant of self-protective behaviors in road-crossing which indicate the role of cognitive and motivational factors such as, subjective norms, attitudes towards risk, feelings of invulnerability in case of facing with vehicle collision.

Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior in Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Interaction

“…It was interesting to find that older people are reluctant regarding the safety perception of AVs. This finding supports previous research [53,54] that young people have more safety awareness than other age groups. The analysis shows that young people will be early adopters and will be more frequent users of AVs than other age groups.…”

“…The pedestrian expectation was found as the most dominant factor. Hashemiparast's [53] research was based on roadcrossing behavior in potentially risky situations; data of 562 young adults were collected using a questionnaire; 18% of participants were selected who had previous experience of a vehicle collision. Those who had previous experience of vehicle collision showed fewer safe behaviors in crossing the road than those who had not experienced an accident.…”

The perception of public transport drivers (PTDs) on preventing road traffic injury (RTIs) in Vanuatu: a qualitative study

“…This behaviour is increasing in Vanuatu where there are no traffic lights, no pedestrian crossings and drivers make their own decisions to give way for pedestrians to cross roads. People who ignore traffics had previous unpleasant experience of vehicle-collision thus developed self-protective behaviours in road-crossing (Hashemiparast et al, 2020 ).…”

Investigating the Critical Characteristics of Pedestrian-Vehicle Game Modes at Unsignalized Crosswalks: Based on MCMC and BP Network

“…A significant amount of previous research has used cameras (Marisamynathan and Vedagiri, 2013, Marisamynathan and Vedagiri, 2018, Manthirikul et al, 2023, GPS devices (Bella and Nobili, 2020), video recordings (Li et al, 2013, Tezcan et al, 2019, unmanned aerial vehicles (Zhao et al, 2019), and other technological devices to observe the natural behavior of pedestrians crossing streets. Multivariable regression (Aghabayk et al, 2021), planned behavior (Hashemiparast et al, 2020), and critical gap (Kathuria and Vedagiri, 2020) theories have been used to establish pedestrian crossing decision models. Cameras have been used to collect video footage of pedestrian motion analysis of the behavior characteristics of pedestrians and motor vehicles and their interaction relationships.…”