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Road Crossing at Unmarked Mid-Block Locations: Exploring Pedestrians’ Perception and Behavior

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Abstract

Violations, risky behaviors and perceptions may largely contribute to crashes involving pedestrians, particularly at unmarked mid-block locations. The likelihood and severity of crashes at mid-block locations are higher compared to intersections. This study explores pedestrians’ behaviors at and perceptions about unmarked mid-block locations. The data were collected through an online questionnaire survey that included 24 questions with 5-point Likert-type responses on behaviors, mobility patterns, preferences, perceptions and attitudes of pedestrians along with demographic questions. Two hundred and twenty responses were collected from various regions (developing and developed countries). Exploratory factor analysis was performed, and four underlying factors, namely “risk-taking,” “wrong-perceptions,” “walking-for-pleasure,” and “walking-pattern,” that describe perceptions and behaviors associated with unmarked mid-block crossings were identified. The influence of demographic parameters on the factor scores was also examined. Males displayed higher wrong-perceptions about crossing the road at unmarked mid-block locations as compared to females. The region was found to have a significant impact on wrong-perceptions between developing and developed countries. Further, cluster analysis on the factor scores resulted in four distinct clusters of pedestrians, namely; non-risky walkers, non-walkers, risk-takers and unaware walkers. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into pedestrian behavior and perceptions towards crossing at unmarked mid-block locations and could be useful in enhancing pedestrian safety at such locations.

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This study received no funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, 54770, Pakistan

    Muhammad Abdullah

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan

    Muhammad Abdullah

  3. Qatar Transportation and Traffic Safety Center, Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University, P.O. Box: 2713, Doha, Qatar

    Charitha Dias

  4. Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 153-8505, Japan

    Takashi Oguchi

Authors
  1. Muhammad Abdullah
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  2. Charitha Dias
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  3. Takashi Oguchi
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Contributions

The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: study conception and design: Abdullah, Oguchi and Dias; data collection: Abdullah, Dias and Oguchi; analysis and interpretation of results: Abdullah and Dias; draft manuscript preparation: Abdullah and Dias. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Muhammad Abdullah.

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Abdullah, M., Dias, C. & Oguchi, T. Road Crossing at Unmarked Mid-Block Locations: Exploring Pedestrians’ Perception and Behavior. Iran J Sci Technol Trans Civ Eng 46, 1681–1698 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40996-021-00701-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40996-021-00701-z

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