Different risk thresholds in pedestrian road crossing behaviour: a comparison of French and Japanese approaches

Situational social influence leading to non-compliance with conservation rules

It is well established that the decisions that we make can be strongly influenced by the behaviour of others. However, testing how social influence can lead to non-compliance with conservation rules during an individual's decision-making process has received little research attention. We synthesise advances in understanding of conformity and rule-breaking in individuals and in groups, and take a situational approach to studying the social dynamics and ensuing social identity changes that can lead to non-compliant decision-making. We focus on situational social influence contagion that are copresent (i.e., same space and same time) or trace-based (i.e., behavioural traces in the same space). We then suggest approaches for testing how situational social influence can lead to certain behaviours in non-compliance with conservation rules.

Eye image effect in the context of pedestrian safety: a French questionnaire study

Human behavior is influenced by the presence of others, which scientists also call 'the audience effect'. The use of social control to produce more cooperative behaviors may positively influence road use and safety. This study uses an online questionnaire to test how eyes images affect the behavior of pedestrians when crossing a road. Different eyes images of men, women and a child with different facial expressions -neutral, friendly and angry- were presented to participants who were asked what they would feel by looking at these images before crossing a signalized road. Participants completed a questionnaire of 20 questions about pedestrian behaviors (PBQ). The questionnaire was received by 1,447 French participants, 610 of whom answered the entire questionnaire. Seventy-one percent of participants were women, and the mean age was 35 ± 14 years. Eye images give individuals the feeling they are being observed at 33%, feared at 5% and surprised at 26%, and thus seem to indicate mixed results about avoiding crossing at the red light. The expressions shown in the eyes are also an important factor: feelings of being observed increased by about 10-15% whilst feelings of being scared or inhibited increased by about 5% as the expression changed from neutral to friendly to angry. No link was found between the results of our questionnaire and those of the Pedestrian Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ). This study shows that the use of eye images could reduce illegal crossings by pedestrians, and is thus of key interest as a practical road safety tool. However, the effect is limited and how to increase this nudge effect needs further consideration.

A Geographical and Temporal Risk Evaluation Method for Red-Light Violations by Pedestrians at Signalized Intersections: Analysis and Results of Suzhou, China

Red-light violations of pedestrians crossing at signal intersections is one of the key factors in pedestrian traffic accidents. Even though there are various studies on pedestrian behavior and pedestrian traffic conflicts, few focus on the risk of different crosswalks for the violating pedestrian group. Due to the spatio-temporal nature of violation risk, this study proposes a geographical and temporal risk evaluation method for pedestrian red-light violations, which combines actual survey and video acquisition. First, in the geographical-based risk evaluation, the pedestrian violation rate at signal intersections is investigated by Pearson correlation analysis to extract the significant influencing factors from traffic conditions, built environment, and crosswalk facilities. Second, in the temporal-based risk evaluation, the survival analysis method is developed to quantify the risk of pedestrian violation in different scenarios as time passes by. Finally, this study selects 16 typical signalized intersections in Suzhou, China, with 881 pedestrian crosswalk violations from a total size of 4586 pedestrians as survey cases. Results indicate that crossing distance, traffic volume on the crosswalk, red-light time, and crosswalk-type variables all contribute to the effect of pedestrian violation from a geographical perspective, and the installation of waiting refuge islands has the most significant impact. From the temporal perspective, the increases in red-light time, number of lanes, and traffic volume have a mitigating effect on the violations with pedestrian waiting time increases. This study aims to provide a development-oriented path by proposing an analytical framework that reconsiders geographical and temporal risk factors of violation. The findings could help transport planners understand the effect of pedestrian violation-related traffic risk and develop operational measures and crosswalk design schemes for controlling pedestrian violations occurring in local communities.

Exploring the impacts of street layout on the frequency of pedestrian crashes: A micro-level study

INTRODUCTION

Pedestrian safety has become a critical issue since walking is increasingly promoted as a sustainable transport mode. However, pedestrians are vulnerable to severe injury and mortality in road crashes. Therefore, it is important to understand the factors that affect the safety of pedestrians. This paper investigates the impacts of street layout on the frequency of pedestrian crashes by examining the interactive pattern of built environment, crossing facilities, and road characteristics.

METHOD

A surrogate exposure variable of pedestrian crashes at the road-segment level is proposed by considering the locations of crossing facilities, distribution of points of interest (POIs), road characteristics, and pedestrian activities. A network-based kernel density technique is used to identify the pedestrian crash risk at the road segment level. Bayesian spatial models based on different exposure variables are employed and compared.

RESULTS

The results suggest that models using the surrogate exposure of pedestrian crashes provide better model fit than the ones simply using the density of pedestrians. It is also found that the presence of POIs is related to a higher risk of pedestrian-vehicle crash. In addition, a significantly higher number of pedestrian crashes are found to occur on segments with more bus stops and metro stations. Results also show that the longer the distance between the crossing facilities and road segments, the more pedestrian crashes are observed.

CONCLUSIONS

The proposed aggregated indicator can provide more efficient exposure and higher prediction accuracy than the density of pedestrians. Besides, the POIs, crossing facilities, and road types were all significantly related to pedestrian crashes.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Our results suggest that the locations of POIs and transport facilities should be planned in a way that can decrease the number of road crossed or guide pedestrians to take safe crossing path.

Collective rule-breaking

Rules form an important part of our everyday lives. Here we explore the role of social influence in rule-breaking. In particular, we identify some of the cognitive mechanisms underlying rule-breaking and propose approaches for how they can be scaled up to the level of groups or crowds to better understand the emergence of collective rule-breaking. Social contagion plays an important role in such processes and different dynamics such as linear or rapid nonlinear spreading can have important consequences for interventions in rule-breaking. A closer integration of cognitive psychology, microsociology and mathematical modelling will be key to a deeper understanding of collective rule-breaking to turn this field of research into a predictive science.

Risks to pedestrians in traffic systems with unfamiliar driving rules: a virtual reality approach

In this study, a virtual-reality (VR) pedestrian simulation method was used to evaluate the risks to pedestrians crossing streets in a traffic system with driving rules that were unfamiliar to them. Pedestrians from mainland China (which has a right-side driving (RD) system) and Hong Kong (which has a left-side driving (LD) system) were studied. Significant differences were observed between pedestrians from the different locations in terms of the direction in which the pedestrians habitually first looked before crossing. When exposed to an unfamiliar driving rule (i.e., traffic coming from an inconsistent direction in terms of participants' habitual driving system), the odds of participants from mainland China making an error in their looking behavior were 2.93 times those when exposed to a familiar driving rule. Road markings and traffic sound did not improve these participants' looking behavior. The results also show a negative correlation between inattentive looking behavior and time to collision (significant at the 1% level), as these errors lead to a shorter time to collision and increased the risk to pedestrians. The results of this study confirmed the risks for pedestrians traveling to places with unfamiliar driving rules and confirmed the existence of habitual looking behavior, and therefore provide evidence of the need for future studies to improve this problem. These may help decision makers take the risks of pedestrians from different driving rules into consideration in future traffic policymaking or traffic-facility improvements. The use of a VR simulation-based approach in this study provided a safe and controllable way to trial interventions and potential improvements without risking injury to participants, and thus may also be used for similar future studies.

The light is red: Uncertainty behaviours displayed by pedestrians during illegal road crossing

Road accidents involving pedestrians are a reality of urban life. Pedestrian risk is now well known and documented from the perspective of drivers. However, pedestrian behaviour plays a central role in road accidents, notably in terms of illegal road crossing at signalized intersections. This study focuses on pedestrians crossing illegally at a signal light, and specifically investigates uncertainty behaviour, also referred to as hesitation, which occurs when a pedestrian slows down or stops his/her crossing movement then (1) abandons the crossing by returning to the kerb or (2) accelerates to cross the road more quickly. We sought to understand the causes of this behaviour in France and Japan, two countries where interesting differences have already been demonstrated in the way pedestrians behave. The results show a longer period of uncertainty for pedestrians in Japan compared to France. Japanese pedestrians also hesitated longer when they were alone. This study demonstrates a tendency to speed up if there are a number of pedestrians already crossing the road, but abandoning behaviours were more frequently observed than acceleration. This study confirms that pedestrians may misevaluate the moment to cross and hesitate when they realise that they have made a mistake, thus increasing the risk of an accident. These results could help to find solutions that prevent illegal and dangerous road-crossing behaviours.

Negotiation and Decision-Making for a Pedestrian Roadway Crossing: A Literature Review

The interaction among pedestrians and human drivers is a complicated process, in which road users have to communicate their intentions, as well as understand and anticipate the actions of users in their vicinity. However, road users still ought to have a proper interpretation of each others’ behaviors, when approaching and crossing the road. Pedestrians, as one of the interactive agents, demonstrate different behaviors at road crossings, which do not follow a consistent pattern and may vary from one situation to another. The presented inconsistency and unpredictability of pedestrian road crossing behaviors may thus become a challenge for the design of emerging technologies in the near future, such as automated driving system (ADS). As a result, the current paper aims at understanding the effectual communication techniques, as well as the factors influencing pedestrian negotiation and decision-making process. After reviewing the state-of-the-art and identifying research gaps with regards to vehicle–pedestrian crossing encounters, a holistic approach for road crossing interaction modeling is presented and discussed. It is envisioned that the presented holistic approach will result in enhanced safety, sustainability, and effectiveness of pedestrian road crossings.

Decision-Making Processes Underlying Pedestrian Behaviors at Signalized Crossings: Part 2. Do Pedestrians Show Cultural Herding Behavior?

Followership is generally defined as a strategy that evolved to solve social coordination problems, and particularly those involved in group movement. Followership behavior is particularly interesting in the context of road-crossing behavior because it involves other principles such as risk-taking and evaluating the value of social information. This study sought to identify the cognitive mechanisms underlying decision-making by pedestrians who follow another person across the road at the green or at the red light in two different countries (France and Japan). We used agent-based modelling to simulate the road-crossing behaviors of pedestrians. This study showed that modelling is a reliable means to test different hypotheses and find the processes underlying decision-making when crossing the road. We found that two processes suffice to simulate pedestrian behaviors: personal motivation and imitation. Importantly, the study revealed differences between the two nationalities and between sexes in the decision to follow and cross at the green and at the red light. Japanese pedestrians showed a greater mimetic behavior at the red light but the process takes into account both the number of crossing and waiting pedestrians, contrary to French citizens. Finally, the simulations are revealed to be similar to observations, not only for the departure latencies but also for the number of crossing pedestrians and the rates of illegal crossings. The conclusion suggests new solutions for safety in transportation research.

Decision-Making Processes Underlying Pedestrian Behaviors at Signalized Crossing: Part 1. The First to Step off the Kerb

Pedestrians are ideal subjects for the study of decision-making, due to the inter-individual variation in risk taking. Many studies have attempted to understand which environmental factors influence the number of times pedestrians broke the rules at road-crossings, very few focused on the decision-making process of pedestrians according to the different conditions of these variables, that is to say their perception and interpretation of the information they receive. We used survival analyses and modeling to highlight the decision-making process of pedestrians crossing the road at signalized crossings in France and in Japan. For the first pedestrians to step off the kerb, we showed that the probability to cross the road follows three different processes: one at the red signal, one just before the pedestrian signal turns green, and one after the signal has turned green. Globally, the decision of the first pedestrian to cross, whether he or she does so at the green or at the red signal, is influenced by their country of residence. We identify the use of cognitive processes such as risk sensitivity and temporal discounting, and propose new concepts based on the results of this study to decrease the incidence of rule-breaking by pedestrians.

Evaluation of pedestrian crossing behavior and safety at uncontrolled mid-block crosswalks with different numbers of lanes in China

This study aims to investigate pedestrian crossing behavior and safety at uncontrolled mid-block crosswalks with different numbers of vehicle lanes. For this purpose, twelve uncontrolled mid-block crosswalks in Wuhan, China were selected to collect data via field investigation. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze pedestrian crossing behavior, and the distribution of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts on different vehicle lanes was given. Three ordered probit (OP) models for pedestrian-vehicle conflicts analysis (PVCA) were established to measure the effects of various factors on pedestrian safety. Descriptive statistical results showed that crosswalks with different numbers of lanes have diverse impacts on pedestrian crossing behavior and safety. As the number of vehicle lanes increases, the proportion of pedestrians adopting the rolling gap crossing mode, crossing the street with others, and changing the speed or path increase accordingly. Moreover, the number of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts at two-way six-lane crosswalks is 5.96 times higher than that of two-lane crosswalks, and 2.04 times higher than that of four-lane crosswalks. From the results of OP models, it was found that pedestrian behavioral characteristics such as rolling gap crossing mode, crossing with others significantly increased the possibility of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts.

Quantitative analysis of pedestrian safety at uncontrolled multi-lane mid-block crosswalks in China

A lot of pedestrian-vehicle crashes at mid-block crosswalks severely threaten pedestrian's safety around the world. The situations are even worse in China due to low yielding rate of vehicles at crosswalks. In order to quantitatively analyze pedestrian's safety at multi-lane mid-block crosswalks, the number of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts was utilized to evaluate pedestrian's accident risk. Five mid-block crosswalks (Wuhan, China) were videoed to collect data of traffic situation and pedestrian-vehicle conflicts, and the quantity and spatial distribution of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts at multi-lane mid-block crosswalk were analyzed according to lane-based post-encroachment time(LPET). Statistical results indicate that conflicts are mainly concentrated in lane3 and lane6. Percentage of conflict of each lane numbered from 1 to 6 respectively are 4.1%, 13.1%, 19.8%, 8.4%, 19.0%, 28.1%. Conflict rate under different crossing strategies are also counted. Moreover, an order probit (OP) model of pedestrian-vehicle conflict analysis (PVCA) was built to find out the contributions corresponding to those factors (such as traffic volume, vehicle speed, pedestrian crossing behavior, pedestrian refuge, etc.) to pedestrian-vehicle conflicts. The results show that: pedestrian refuge have positive effects on pedestrian safety; on the other hand, high vehicle speed, high traffic volume, rolling gap crossing pattern, and larger pedestrian platoon have negative effects on pedestrian safety. Based on our field observation and PVCA model, the number of conflicts will rise by 2% while the traffic volume increases 200 pcu/h; similarly, if the vehicle speed increases 5km/h, the number of conflicts will rise by 12% accordingly. The research results could be used to evaluate pedestrian safety at multi-lane mid-block crosswalks, and useful to improve pedestrian safety by means of pedestrian safety education, pedestrian refuge setting, vehicle speed limiting, and so on.

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.

Road crossing behavior under traffic light conflict: Modulating effects of green light duration and signal congruency

A large number of pedestrians and cyclists regularly ignore the traffic lights to cross the road illegally. In a recent analysis, illegal road crossing behavior has been shown to be enhanced in the presence of incongruent stimulus configurations. Pedestrians and cyclists are more likely to cross against a red light when exposed to an irrelevant conflicting green light. Here, we present experimental and observational data on the factors moderating the risk associated with incongruent traffic lights. In an observational study, we demonstrated that the conflict-related increase in illegal crossing rates is reduced when pedestrian and cyclist green light periods are long. In a laboratory experiment, we manipulated the color of the irrelevant signals to expose participants to different degrees of incongruency. Results revealed that individuals' performance gradually varied as a function of incongruency, suggesting that the negative impact of a conflicting green light can be reduced by slightly adjusting its color. Our findings highlight that the observation of real-world behavior at intersections and the experimental analysis of psychological processes under controlled laboratory conditions can complement each other in identifying risk factors of risky road crossing behavior. Based on this combination, our study elaborates on promising measures to improve safety at signalized intersections.

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.

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.

Development and decline of upright gait stability

Upright gait is a peculiar characteristic of humans that requires the ability to manage upper body dynamic balance while walking, despite the perturbations that are generated by movements of the lower limbs. Most of the studies on upright gait stability have compared young adults and the elderly to determine the effects of aging. In other studies, the comparison was between healthy subjects and patients to examine specific pathologies. Fewer researches have also investigated the development of upright gait stability in children. This review discusses these studies in order to provide an overview of this relevant aspect of human locomotion. A clear trend from development to decline of upright gait stability has been depicted across the entire lifespan, from toddlers at first steps to elderly. In old individuals, even if healthy, the deterioration of skeletal muscle, combined with sensorial and cognitive performance, reduces the ability to maintain an upright trunk during walking, increasing the instability and the risk of falls. Further, the pathological causes of altered development or of a sudden loss of gait stability, as well as the environmental influence are investigated. The last part of this review is focused on the control of upper body accelerations during walking, a particularly interesting topic for the recent development of low-cost wearable accelerometers.