Understanding distracted pedestrians’ risky behaviour: The role of walking and visual characteristics through a field study
Use of mobile phones while crossing the road has become a growing safety concern among pedestrians. Though recently, some studies have attempted to understand risky behavior of distracted pedestrians by analyzing impacts of distraction on pedestrians’ walking and visual characteristics, the impacts were measured individually. Moreover, most of the existing findings are based on lab-based experiments, whereas the real-world conditions are quite dynamic in nature. Hence, to overcome these gaps, the current study aims to understand to what extent different potential factors (such as distraction, walking characteristics, visual behavior, etc.) affect the risk of unsafe pedestrian-vehicle interactions in real-world settings. For this purpose, a field experiment was designed to understand the impact of distraction on pedestrians’ risky behavior using an eye-tracker at an unsignalized intersection in Delhi. The risk assessment was done using Post-Encroachment Time (PET) measure. The results indicate that the use of mobile phone while crossing the road increased the chances of unsafe (PET < 1.5 s) pedestrian-vehicle interactions by approximately eight folds. Surprisingly, pedestrians who crossed the intersection at high speed had higher chances of unsafe interactions, whereas their increased crossing initiation time reduced the probability of unsafe interactions. Moreover, increased pupil diameter and fixating more on vehicles approaching from the right side resulted in a reduced probability of unsafe interactions. However, the high frequency of saccades and higher fixations on the crosswalk's right side negatively affected unsafe interactions. This study highlights that it is important to consider visual characteristics along with demographic and walking and traffic characteristics as they can provide in-depth insights into pedestrians’ road crossing behavior that are required to design and implement effective countermeasures and policies.
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/13698478
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Supplemental Notes:
- © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
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Authors:
- Krishna, Kudurupaka Vamshi
- Kapruwan, Rudra
- Choudhary, Pushpa
- Publication Date: 2024-2
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Web
- Features: References;
- Pagination: pp 111-129
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Serial:
- Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour
- Volume: 101
- Issue Number: 0
- Publisher: Elsevier
- ISSN: 1369-8478
- Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13698478
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Behavior; Distraction; Eye movements; Pedestrian movement; Pedestrian safety; Pedestrian vehicle interface; Risk taking
- Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01908211
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Feb 14 2024 2:42PM