Unsafe behaviours in Iranian adult pedestrians

Highlights

• The most common high-risk behaviour was not looking left, right, and left.

• No significant difference was observed between males and females in risky behaviours.

• Each pedestrian displayed 4.8 (±2.2) high-risk behaviours on average.

• Crossing the street along with others was more prevalent in the evening than in the morning.

• The pedestrians indicated more risky behaviours at roundabouts compared to streets.

Introduction

Pedestrians are the most vulnerable street users and unsafe traffic behaviour may endanger their lives. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of unsafe behaviours and their predictors among pedestrians in a city according to gender, time of day, and location.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, unsafe behaviours of 391 pedestrians in 17 locations were observed directly using recorded videos. The samples and locations were randomly selected. Two trained observers recorded behaviours using a 15-item checklist. Chi-square test, independent t-test, and ANOVA were used to examine the differences among independent variables. In addition; binary logistic regression was utilized to investigate the relationship between high-risk behaviours and independent variables.

Results

Each pedestrian exhibited an average of 4.8 (±2.2) high-risk behaviours. The most frequent unsafe behaviours included not looking left, right, and left [NLLRL] (84.7%), not using pedestrian bridges (63.5%), as well as crosswalks (60.9%). Pedestrians displayed more risky behaviours at roundabouts (P < 0.001). The category “unsafe crossing behaviour” put pedestrians at greater risk at roundabouts. The likelihood of not crossing at crosswalks, diagonal crossing, crossing between cars, and running was 5.14, 3.1, 3.6, and 2.23 times higher at roundabouts compared to intersections. The probability of pedestrians crossing the street along with others was 2.2 times higher in the evening than in the morning.

Conclusion

Pedestrians in cities may be engaged in risky behaviours which endanger their lives. These behaviours should be explored for designing and implementing targeted interventional programs to reduce injuries and deaths among pedestrians.

Introduction

About 1.35 million people die on the world's roads each year – i.e. more than 3600 people every day - and tens of millions are injured (World Health Organization, 2020). In addition, based on the WHO report, traffic collisions are considered as the second cause of death across the world allocating 23% of the victims (World Health Organization, 2018).

According to the United States Traffic Safety Facts, 17% of road deaths and 3% of traffic injuries occur for pedestrians by which one pedestrian is killed every 84 min in the US (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration USA, 2020). In Iran, based on the recent studies, 30% of traffic collisions involve pedestrians and, overall, 23% of traffic victims are pedestrians (World Health Organization, 2018; Saffarzadeh et al., 2011). Several risk factors are identified for pedestrians’ vulnerability. The high-risk behaviour of pedestrians is one of the most important factors that puts them at risk. Zhuang and Wu (2011) reported that 65.7% of the pedestrians entered the street without checking for vehicles. Another study showed that 64.6% of the pedestrians crossed at marked crosswalks displayed high-risk behaviours. The prevalence of behaviours like talking, using mobile phone, and using earpieces/headphones was 33.4, 16.2, and 9.8% in the subjects, respectively (Ojo et al., 2019). Rosenbloom et al. (2004) found that crossing during the red light (16.4%) and at inappropriate places (6.3%) are considered as the most common behaviours. Furthermore, some studies have shown that pedestrians tend to follow others and cross in groups (Şimşekoğlu, 2015; Wang et al., 2018). According to Wang et al., when one pedestrian jaywalks, others may follow resulting in many pedestrians jaywalking (2015). A large number of studies have found that conformity is one of the reasons for pedestrian violations (Şimşekoğlu, 2015; Wang et al., 2018; Zhou et al., 2014). In addition, when pedestrians cross the street accompanied by other people, they do not pay attention to traffic flow accurately since they think someone else has already done so.

Another factor is non-use of pedestrian infrastructure such as pedestrian designated crosswalks, lights, and bridges. According to Iran's traffic police statistics in 2006, 38% of the collisions in Tehran were related to the pedestrians' behaviour such as not using the pedestrian overpass (Nikoumaram et al., 2009).

Some studies have shown that gender affects pedestrian behaviours and traffic collisions, and men violate traffic rules more and are more likely to run at red light (Rosenbloom, 2009). On the other hand, some indicated that men displayed less risky behaviours compared to women (Hamed, 2001; Yannis et al., 2013). However, the difference in risky behaviours between men and women can be studied in future work.

Time of the day is another factor affecting pedestrians’ behaviour. Bukova-Zideluna et al. (2018) found that 69.9% of the pedestrians were involved in collisions during the twilight period or in dark hours. It seems that pedestrians exhibited more risky behaviours in the evening and at the beginning of the night, compare to the morning.

Location is a major contributor to collisions in addition to gender, time of day, and unsafe behaviour of pedestrians. Some studies indicated that 79.8% of collisions in Tehran (Moradi et al., 2017) and 60% of the road accidents in Poland occurred on highways and direct roads, respectively (Pawłowski et al., 2019). In Beijing, 48, 48, and 4% of the collisions in 2015 occurred at mid-blocks, intersections, and roundabouts, respectively (Chen et al., 2019). Based on the literature review, roundabouts are safe locations for drivers (Candappa et al., 2014; Chen et al., 2013). There is no sufficient information about other vulnerable road users, especially pedestrians.

Regarding pedestrians’ safety, crosswalks have been considered in roads where traffic must stop to allow pedestrians to walk across. Some crosswalks are equipped with signalized lights. Other safety measures included reducing the exposure of pedestrians to drivers, as well as building protective barriers, overpasses, underpasses, and middle islands. Regarding traffic calming, speed limits were set at 60, 50, 30 and 30 km/h on the arterial streets, sub-arterial roads, local streets, and roundabouts. Furthermore, safe crossing is taught to children and adolescents (Aghdam et al., 2020), and information/educational campaigns have been conducted for pedestrians. Despite all these measures, the rate of collisions is still high for pedestrians.

Previous studies provided a great deal of information about pedestrian collisions and their behaviours around the world, which gives researchers a good insight into factors affecting pedestrian vulnerability. However, there is no comprehensive study on pedestrians and their behaviours, especially in the city under study. In addition, a few surveys have investigated risky behaviours among pedestrians comprehensively by providing information about the prevalence of risky behaviours. Therefore, the present study aimed to create a snapshot of risky behaviours among pedestrians by evaluating the number of high-risk behaviours among pedestrians while crossing the street on average, the prevalence of their high-risk traffic behaviours, and the difference in the prevalence of high-risk behaviours based on independent variables such as gender, time of day, and location. Finally, the predictors of unsafe behaviours among pedestrians are considered.