Road-crossing Behavior Research Articles

Pedestrian road-crossing willingness as a function of vehicle automation, external appearance, and driving behaviour

This paper discusses whether the knowledge of the driving mode of an approaching vehicle (manual vs. automated) influences pedestrians’ decisions while crossing a street. Additionally, the paper explores how different appearances and driving behaviours of vehicles interact with driving mode in affecting pedestrians’ road-crossing behaviours. In a video-based experiment with sixty participants, two vehicles with different appearances (a BMW 3 and a Renault Twizy) were presented as either manually-driven or automated vehicles. Both vehicles displayed either yielding or non-yielding behaviour on a straight road devoid of other traffic. Participants were asked to indicate whether they would cross the street in front of the approaching vehicle, at different distances ranging from 45 m to 1.5 m. The results showed that there was no significant influence of the knowledge of the driving mode (manually-driven vs automated) on pedestrians’ willingness to cross the street at any distance. The vehicle’s behaviour (whether it is maintaining speed or yielding) played a dominant role in pedestrians’ decision to cross a road, and this was similar for both modes and both vehicles, at all distances. However, results suggested that in situations and at distances when the intent of the vehicle was not fully clear by the behaviour of the car alone, there were differences between the two vehicles at certain distances, which could be attributed to the differences in their appearance such as size, aggressiveness and novelty. A futuristic-looking vehicle inspired less confidence in road-crossing situations compared to an ordinary-looking vehicle. Additionally, a novel and futuristic-looking vehicle appeared to make it easier for people to believe that it is an automated vehicle. We conclude by discussing design implications for the development of external HMIs automated vehicles.

Beliefs and performances of elementary school students to prevent road traffic injuries, using Health Belief Model: a study from Hamadan, Iran

:Background:Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are important health problems and increasing knowledge on their prevention-related issues can be credible. This study aims to assess beliefs and performances of students to prevent road traffic injuries and their related factors, using Health Belief Model (HBM).Methods:This cross-sectional study carried out on a random sample of 500 fourth and fifth grades students of elementary schools in Hamadan city, west of Iran. The data gathering tool was a self-administered questionnaire designed on the basis of HBM constructs and also the knowledge and performance of the students in relation to prevent RTIs. To increase the accuracy of this study, the students’ road-crossing behaviors were observed in a simulated street in the school, using an observation checklist. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16.Results:The mean age of the participants was 10.51±0.50. About preventing RTIs, the mean scores of the students’ knowledge was 64.139, and regarding HBM constructs, the mean scores of their perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers and self-efficacy were 82.817, 82.453, 82.451, 89.917, 84.343 and 91.250, respectively. The mean score of the students’ self-reported performances about traffic injury prevention was 48.750 and the mean score of their observed road-crossing behavior in the simulated street was 45.000. The final model of multiple linear regressions showed that the students’ sex (p=0.001), their knowledge (p less than 0.001), perceived susceptibility (p=0.002), perceived barriers (p=0.032), self-efficacy (p=0.001), and their observed road-crossing behaviors (p=0.019) predict the students’ self-reported injury prevention performances.Conclusions:Regarding prevention of RTIs, knowledge and performance of the studied students are undesirable. The study findings can help designing more appropriate prevention programs for them.

How Does Crossing Roads with Friends Impact Risk Taking in Young Adolescents and Adults?

The goal of this investigation was to examine how crossing roads with a friend versus alone affects gap decisions and movement timing in young adolescents and adults. Ninety-six 12-year-olds and adults physically crossed a single lane of continuous traffic in an immersive pedestrian simulator. Participants completed 30 crossings either with a friend or alone. Participants were instructed to cross the road without being hit by a car, but friend pairs were not instructed to cross together. Pairs of adolescent friends exhibited riskier road-crossing behavior than pairs of adult friends. For gaps crossed together, adult pairs were more discriminating in their gap choices than adult solo crossers, crossing fewer of the smaller gaps and more of the larger gaps. This pattern did not hold for 12-year-old pairs compared to 12-year-old solo crossers. To compensate for their less discriminating gap choices, pairs of 12-year-olds adjusted their movement timing by entering and crossing the road more quickly. For gaps crossed separately, both adult and 12-year-old first crossers chose smaller gaps than second crossers. Unlike adults, 12-year-old first crossers were significantly less discriminating in their gap choices than 12-year-old second crossers. Compared to adults, young adolescents took riskier gaps in traffic when crossing virtual roads with a friend than when crossing alone. Given that young adolescents often cross roads together in everyday life, peer influences may pose a significant risk to road safety in early adolescence.

Socio-cognitive determinants of safe road-crossing behaviors: an application of the prototype willingness model.

:Background:Pedestrians are one of the most vulnerable groups of road users that potentially are at risk for road traffic injuries and deaths. The present paper reports an application of the Prototype Willingness Model (PWM) to the prediction of road-crossing behaviors among students from Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (KUMS) in the west of Iran.Methods:This cross-sectional study was carried out among a sample of 315 medical students who were randomly selected from seven faculties of KUMS in 2017 according to their size, and who filled out a self-administered questionnaire containing a scenario depicting a potentially hazardous road-crossing behavior, followed by items measuring the PWM constructs. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 16 at 95% significant level. Results:The mean score of safe road-crossing behaviors was 9.57 [95% CI: 9.10, 10.05], ranging from 0 to 16. Attitude, subjective norms, and prototype accounted for 15% and 9% of the variation of willingness and intention, respectively. Willingness was a stronger predictor of the safe road-crossing behaviors (P less than 0.001). The road crossing behavior of female student pedestrian was safer than that of their male counterparts (P less than 0.035).Conclusions:The results have a number of implications. In particular, PWM-based interventions should focus on willingness in order to encourage safer road-crossing behavior among pedestrians.

Beliefs and performances of elementary school students to prevent road traffic injuries, using Health Belief Model: a study from Hamadan, Iran.

Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are important health problems and increasing knowledge on their prevention-related issues can be credible. This study aims to assess beliefs and performances of students to prevent road traffic injuries and their related factors, using Health Belief Model (HBM). This cross-sectional study carried out on a random sample of 500 fourth and fifth grades students of elementary schools in Hamadan city, west of Iran. The data gathering tool was a self-administered questionnaire designed on the basis of HBM constructs and also the knowledge and performance of the students in relation to prevent RTIs. To increase the accuracy of this study, the students' road-crossing behaviors were observed in a simulated street in the school, using an observation checklist. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16. The mean age of the participants was 10.51±0.50. About preventing RTIs, the mean scores of the students' knowledge was 64.139, and regarding HBM constructs, the mean scores of their perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers and self-efficacy were 82.817, 82.453, 82.451, 89.917, 84.343 and 91.250, respectively. The mean score of the students' self-reported performances about traffic injury prevention was 48.750 and the mean score of their observed road-crossing behavior in the simulated street was 45.000. The final model of multiple linear regressions showed that the students' sex (p=0.001), their knowledge (p less than 0.001), perceived susceptibility (p=0.002), perceived barriers (p=0.032), self-efficacy (p=0.001), and their observed road-crossing behaviors (p=0.019) predict the students' self-reported injury prevention performances. Regarding prevention of RTIs, knowledge and performance of the studied students are undesirable. The study findings can help designing more appropriate prevention programs for them.

Differences in road-crossing decisions between healthy older adults and patients with Alzheimer's disease

IntroductionThis study investigated the differences in road-crossing behavior among healthy older adults and patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). MethodTwelve pedestrians with mild AD and 24 age-, gender-, and education-matched controls were examined with a battery of cognitive, visual, and motor tests. Using a simulated two-lane, one-way road-crossing situation, we determined the remaining time and safety margin for each participant in traffic situations involving different vehicle speeds (40 km/h vs. 60 km/h vs. 80 km/h), time gaps (5 s vs. 7 s vs. 9 s), and time of day (dusk vs. midday). ResultsWe found that patients with AD were more vulnerable to traffic crash while crossing the road than healthy older adults (Odds Ratio = 2.50, P < 0.05). Compared with healthy older adults, patients with AD were more severely affected by daylight conditions, faster vehicle speed, and shorter time gap. Participants in both groups had a significantly higher risk of unsafe crossing behavior if they had lower scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Complex Figure Test - recall (CFT-Recall), Trail Making Test (TMT) B-A, Useful Field of View (UFOV) - total, and Visual Form Discrimination (VFD). We also found that when given a long enough time gap (9 s), patients with AD and healthy older adults used similar safe road-crossing behaviors, independent of other factors. Practical applicationsThese results provide important suggestions for road design for patients with AD and healthy older adults during road-crossing.

A novel approach for estimating densities of secretive species from road-survey and spatial-movement data

Context Accurate estimates of population density are a critical component of effective wildlife conservation and management. However, many snake species are so secretive that their density cannot be determined using traditional methods such as capture–mark–recapture. Thus, the status of most terrestrial snake populations remains completely unknown. Aim We developed a novel simulation-based technique for estimating density of secretive snakes that combined behavioural observations of snake road-crossing behaviour (crossing speed), effort-corrected road-survey data, and simulations of spatial movement patterns derived from radio-telemetry, without relying on mark–recapture. Methods We used radio-telemetry data to parameterise individual-based movement models that estimate the frequency with which individual snakes cross roads and used information on survey vehicle speed and snake crossing speed to determine the probability of detecting a snake, given that it crosses the road transect during a survey. Snake encounter frequencies during systematic road surveys were then interpreted in light of detection probabilities and simulation model results to estimate snake densities and to assess various factors likely to affect abundance estimates. We demonstrated the broad applicability of this approach through a case study of the imperiled southern hognose snake (Heterodon simus) in the North Carolina (USA) Sandhills. Key results We estimated that H. simus occurs at average densities of 0.17 ha–1 in the North Carolina Sandhills and explored the sensitivity of this estimate to assumptions and variation in model parameters. Conclusions Our novel method allowed us to generate the first abundance estimates for H. simus. We found that H. simus exists at low densities relative to congeners and other mid-sized snake species, raising concern that this species may not only have declined in geographic range, but may also occur at low densities or be declining in their strongholds, such as the North Carolina Sandhills. Implications We present a framework for estimating density of species that have traditionally been considered too secretive to study at the population level. This method will greatly enhance our ability to study and manage a wide variety of snake species and could be applied to other secretive wildlife species that are most frequently encountered during road surveys.

Pedestrian environment and behavior in Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract In 2015 out of total road traffic crashes in the metropolitan city of Lahore, 25% fatalities involved pedestrians. In 2016 almost forty-five thousand crashes took place in the city. Seventy percent of victims from these crashes were rendered unstable, 55% involved motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians, 25% were related to over-speeding and 10% each for underage and distracted drivers. City Traffic Police attributes this high rate of pedestrian deaths to their unsafe walking behavior, especially at busy intersections. This study was carried out in an attempt to understand and investigate existing side-walking and road-crossing behavior of pedestrians at intersections in the second most populous city of Pakistan. This study also investigated the behavior of drivers with respect to pedestrians at intersections. For this purpose, 1040 pedestrians and 974 drivers were observed through video recordings at eight different intersections and differences in side-walking and road-crossing behavior was investigated based on their gender, age group, land-use characteristics of the neighborhood and according to the presence of traffic signal at the intersection. Driver behavior with respect to pedestrians was also investigated for the same factors excluding land-use characteristics of the neighborhood. Children and older pedestrians showed significantly different behavior in contrast to adolescent and middle-aged pedestrians. Results showed that pedestrians’ behavior was safer at sites located in more highly developed commercial areas and higher-income residential neighborhoods. Driver behavior was safer at intersections where the traffic signal was present. Driver behavior differed by gender and age group.

Individuals matter: predicting koala road crossing behaviour in south-east Queensland

The ability to predict the frequency with which koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) cross roads is an important step in developing mitigation strategies aimed at maintaining metapopulation viability for this species. In south-east Queensland, Australia, rapid urban development, including fragmentation and vehicle-related mortality, has contributed to a dramatic decline in local koala populations. Assessment of wildlife crossing structures that mitigates the impact of roads demonstrates these to be beneficial for many species. However, building enough structures to enable animals to move freely across impacted landscapes may be prohibitive in complex urban landscapes. The focus for this study was to consider the role of differing characteristics for species at risk. We examined the frequency of road crossings by individual koalas among six subpopulations in south-east Queensland. We explored the influence of potential predictor variables including: age, sex, and distance from roads. We established that road crossings were limited to a subset of individuals, with only 18 of 51 (~35%) koalas studied ever crossing a road. We found that koalas were disproportionately more likely to cross a road if they had initially been found within a distance of 100 m of that road. Males were more likely to cross roads than females, as were koalas aged less than five years. We suggest that successful wildlife road mitigation can be improved by better understanding the road-crossing behaviour of species such as the koala.

Cultural influence of social information use in pedestrian road-crossing behaviours.

Social information use is common in a wide range of group-living animals, notably in humans. The role it plays in decision-making could be a key to understanding how social groups make collective decisions. The observation of road-crossing behaviours in the presence of other individuals is an ideal means to study the influence of social information on decision-making. This study investigated the influence of culture on social information used by pedestrians in a potentially dangerous scenario, namely road crossing. We scored the collective crossing of pedestrians at four locations in Nagoya (Japan) and three locations in Strasbourg (France). French pedestrians cross against the lights much more often (41.9%) than Japanese ones (2.1%). Individuals deciding to cross the road were strongly influenced by the behaviour and the presence of other pedestrians, especially in Japan, where a stronger conformism was noted. However, Japanese pedestrians were half as likely to be influenced by social information as their French counterparts when crossing at the red light, as they were more respectful of rules. Men show riskier behaviour than women (40.6% versus 25.7% of rule-breaking, respectively), deciding quickly and setting off earlier than women. Further related studies could help target specific preventive, culture-specific solutions for pedestrian safety.

Differences between the Grade of Children in Road-Crossing Behavior in Learning Setting

Differences between the Grade of Children in Road-Crossing Behavior in Learning Setting

Child pedestrian safety knowledge, behaviour and road injury in Cape Town, South Africa

Pedestrian injuries are a leading cause of death among South African children, and young children residing in low-income communities are more at risk, due to various factors such as inadequate road infrastructure, exposure to traffic due to reliance on walking as a means of transport, and lack of supervision. This study used a cross-sectional, non-randomized self-report survey to assess pedestrian safety knowledge, road-crossing behaviour and pedestrian injuries of primary school children in selected low-income settings in Cape Town. The survey focused on three primary schools that had joined the Safe Kids Worldwide Model School Zone Project and was administered to 536 children aged 6–15 years, in their home language of isiXhosa. Descriptive and bivariate analyses as well as multivariate regression analyses were conducted to investigate potential predictor variables for pedestrian collision severity and unsafe road-crossing behaviour. Walking was the sole form of travel for 81% of the children, with a large proportion regularly walking unsupervised. Children who walk to or from school alone were younger and reported riskier road-crossing behaviour, although children who walk accompanied tended to have higher pedestrian collision severity. “Negligent Behaviour” related to road-crossing was significantly associated with higher pedestrian collision severity, with predictors of “Negligent Behaviour” including the lack of pedestrian safety knowledge and greater exposure to traffic in terms of time spent walking. More than half of the reported pedestrian collisions involved a bicycle, and older boys (10–15 years) were most at risk of experiencing a severe pedestrian injury. The findings substantiate emerging evidence that children in low-income settings are at greater risk for child pedestrian injury, and emphasise the need for evidence-based safety promotion and injury prevention interventions in these settings.

Putting Up a Big Front: Car Design and Size Affect Road-Crossing Behaviour.

Previous research suggests that people tend to see faces in car fronts and that they attribute personality characteristics to car faces. In the present study we investigated whether car design influences pedestrian road-crossing behaviour. An immersive virtual reality environment with a zebra crossing scenario was used to determine a) whether the minimum accepted distance for crossing the street is larger for cars with a dominant appearance than for cars with a friendly appearance and b) whether the speed of dominant-looking cars is overestimated as compared to friendly-looking cars. Participants completed both tasks while either standing on the pavement or on the centre island. We found that people started to cross the road later in front of friendly-looking low-power cars compared to dominant-looking high-power cars, but only if the cars were relatively large in size. For small cars we found no effect of power. The speed of smaller cars was estimated to be higher compared to large cars (size-speed bias). Furthermore, there was an effect of starting position: From the centre island, participants entered the road significantly later (i. e. closer to the approaching car) and left the road later than when starting from the pavement. Similarly, the speed of the cars was estimated significantly lower when standing on the centre island compared to the pavement. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show that car fronts elicit responses on a behavioural level.

LANDSCAPE AND TRAFFIC FACTORS AFFECTING ANIMAL ROAD MORTALITY

Roadkill is a significant indicator in realizing the impacts of roads on adjacent ecosystems. This study undertakes a comprehensive survey of roadkills in Kinmen (Taiwan) and analyzes their causes. Two models, Traffic Flow Model and Geometric Model, combined with animal road-crossing behaviors, are used to derive survival probability. Survey results and model predictions yield similar results for moderate traffic flow and agree in bird and small mammal roadkill frequency prediction. It is found that traffic volume, adjacent landscape and road condition are the major contributing factors related to roadkills. Higher traffic volume near habitats always augments the probability of roadkill; however, roadside trees, adjacent landscapes, and road longitudinal slope also affect the probability of successful crossing by small animals, especially birds. This study also proposes measures, to be applied to future road planning and design, aimed to lower roadkill probability.

The role of Body Mass Index in child pedestrian injury risk

The goal of the current investigation was to examine obesity as a potential risk factor for childhood pedestrian injury. A racially diverse sample of 7- and 8-year-old children completed a road-crossing task in a semi-immersive virtual environment and two pedestrian route selection tasks. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that children with a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) waited less before crossing, had a smaller temporal buffer between themselves and oncoming traffic while crossing, and had more collisions with traffic. Girls were more cautious than boys when crossing the virtual roadway. Unlike the results from the virtual road-crossing task, BMI was not associated with risky route selection. Instead, race emerged as the strongest predictor, with African–American children selecting riskier routes for crossing. Together, these findings suggest overweight and obese children may be at increased risk for pedestrian injury. The discussion considers explanations for why obese children may exhibit riskier road-crossing behavior.

Social network and decision-making in primates: a report on Franco-Japanese research collaborations.

Sociality is suggested to evolve as a strategy for animals to cope with challenges in their environment. Within a population, each individual can be seen as part of a network of social interactions that vary in strength, type and dynamics (Sueur et al. 2011a). The structure of this social network can strongly impact upon not only on the fitness of individuals and their decision-making, but also on the ecology of populations and the evolution of a species. Our Franco-Japanese collaboration allowed us to study social networks in several species (Japanese macaques, chimpanzees, colobines, etc.) and on different topics (social epidemiology, social evolution, information transmission). Individual attributes such as stress, rank or age can affect how individuals take decisions and the structure of the social network. This heterogeneity is linked to the assortativity of individuals and to the efficiency of the flow within a network. It is important, therefore, that this heterogeneity is integrated in the process or pattern under study in order to provide a better resolution of investigation and, ultimately, a better understanding of behavioural strategies, social dynamics and social evolution. How social information affects decision-making could be important to understand how social groups make collective decisions and how information may spread throughout the social group. In human beings, road-crossing behaviours in the presence of other individuals is a good way to study the influence of social information on individual behaviour and decision-making, for instance. Culture directly affects which information - personal vs social - individuals prefer to follow. Our collaboration contributed to the understanding of the relative influence of different factors, cultural and ecological, on primate, including human, sociality.

Risky bicycling behavior among youth with and without attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Injury risk from car-bicycle collisions is particularly high among youth with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Here, we capitalized on advances in virtual environment technology to safely and systematically examine road-crossing behavior among child cyclists with and without ADHD. Sixty-three youth (26 with ADHD, 37 non-ADHD controls) ages 10-14years crossed 12 intersections with continuous cross-traffic while riding a high-fidelity bicycling simulator. Traffic density (i.e., temporal gaps between vehicles) was manipulated to examine the impact of varying traffic density on behavioral indices of road crossing, including gap selection, timing of entry into the roadway, time to spare when exiting the roadway, and close calls with oncoming cars. In addition, parents filled out questionnaires assessing their child's ADHD symptomatology, temperamental characteristics, bicycling experience, and injury history. ADHD youth largely chose the same size gaps as non-ADHD youth, although ADHD youth were more likely to select smaller gap sizes following exposure to high-density traffic. In addition, youth with ADHD demonstrated poorer movement timing when entering the intersection, resulting in less time to spare when exiting the roadway. Hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms were specifically associated with selection of smaller gaps, whereas timing deficits were specifically associated with inattention and inhibitory control. Findings highlight two related yet potentially dissociable mechanisms that may influence injury risk among youth with ADHD and provide a foundation for development of injury prevention strategies.

Pedestrian Road-Crossing Behaviours: A Protocol for an Explanatory Mixed Methods Study.

Background:Pedestrian crossing is an important traffic safety concern. The aim of this paper is to report the protocol for a sequential explanatory mixed methods study that set out to determine the pedestrians’ traffic behaviors, the associated factors and exploring the perception of young people about the traffic risky behaviors in crossing the road. The ultimate purpose of the study is to design a preventive and cultural based strategy to promote young people’s health.Methods:This is a sequential explanatory mixed methods design. The study has two sequential phases. During the first phase, a population-based cross-sectional survey of a sample of young people will be conducted using the proportional random multistage cluster sampling method, in Tehran, Iran. Data will be collected by a questionnaire including items on socio-demographic information, items on measuring social conformity tendency, and questions on subjective norms, attitudes, and perceived behavioral control based on the Theory of Planned behavior. In the second phase, a qualitative study will be conducted. A purposeful sampling strategy will be used and participants who can help to explain the quantitative findings will be selected. Data collection in qualitative phase will be predominately by individual in-depth interviews. A qualitative content analysis approach will be undertaken to develop a detailed understanding of the traffic risky behaviors among young pedestrians.Conclusion:The findings of this explanatory mixed methods study will provide information on traffic risky behaviors in young pedestrians. The findings will be implemented to design a cultural based strategy and intervention programs.

The influence of traffic signal solutions on self-reported road-crossing behavior.

Injury to pedestrians is a major safety hazard in many countries. Since the beginning of the last century, modern cities have been designed around the use of motor vehicles despite the unfavourable interactions between the vehicles and pedestrians. This push towards urbanization resulted in a substantial number of crashes and fatalities involving pedestrians every day, all over the world. Thus, improving the design of urban cities and townships is a pressing issue for modern society. The study presented here provides a characterization of pedestrian safety problems, with the emphasis on signalized crosswalks (i.e. traffic signal) design solutions. We tested the impact of seven different traffic light configurations (steady [green, yellow, and red], flashing [green, yellow, and red], and light off) on pedestrian self-reported road-crossing behavior, using a 11-point scale -ranging from 0 ("I never cross in this situation") to 10 ("I always cross in this situation"). Results showed that mandatory solutions (steady green vs. steady red) are the best solutions to avoid unsafe pedestrian behaviors while crossing controlled intersections (frequency of crossing: Mgreen = 9.4 ± 1 vs. Mred = 2.6 ± 2). These findings offer important guidelines for the design of future traffic signals for encouraging a pedestrian/transit-friendly environment.

Dynamic characteristics of traffic flow with consideration of pedestrians’ road-crossing behavior

Pedestrians’ road-crossing behavior can often interrupt traffic flow and cause vehicle queueing. In this paper, we propose some moving rules for modeling the interaction of vehicles and pedestrians. The modified visual angle car-following model is presented for the movement of vehicles with consideration of the lateral effect of waiting pedestrians. The pedestrians’ behavior is summarized as consisting of three steps: pedestrian arrival, gap acceptance, and pedestrian crossing. Some characteristic parameters of pedestrians are introduced to characterize pedestrians’ behavior. Simulation results show that the interaction of vehicles and pedestrians lowers the traffic capacity and increases delays to both vehicles and pedestrians.