The road user behaviour of school students in Iran

Exploring the Relationships between Demographics, Road Safety Attitudes, and Self-Reported Pedestrian Behaviours in Bangladesh

Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users in low- and middle-income countries, hence understanding their attitudes towards traffic safety and the pedestrian behaviours associated with those attitudes is vital. The current study identifies the factor structure of a self-report questionnaire on pedestrian behaviours and road safety attitudes and explores the relationships between them. It also assesses demographic effects. A total of 532 people were surveyed. The questionnaire sections related to attitudes and behaviours were developed for use in different, largely high-income settings, hence their suitability for use in the low-income setting of Bangladesh was first assessed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). A structural equation model was then developed to examine the relationships between attitudes and pedestrian behaviours. It was found that positive attitudes towards traffic safety were associated with safer pedestrian behaviours, and that males, younger respondents, and less educated respondents reported performing riskier behaviours and holding more dangerous attitudes to road safety. Results are discussed in terms of the factors likely to influence such behaviours, as well as a discussion on the need for validation of the research tools which have been developed in high-income settings for low-income settings.

Investigating the interaction between pedestrian behaviors and crashes through validation of a pedestrian behavior questionnaire (PBQ)

Developing countries have a high frequency of traffic incidents involving pedestrians. Given the vulnerability of pedestrians, many of these incidents result in serious or fatal injuries. The present study aimed to validate a pedestrian behavior questionnaire in Iran to investigate Persian pedestrian behaviors and to understand the relationship of these behaviors with demographic and mobility variables. A total of 520 participants (292 males and 228 females) completed a survey containing behavioral items and demographic questions. A principal component analysis showed that the data best fit in four factors of transgressions (including violations and errors), lapses, aggressive behaviors, and positive behaviors. In this study, the association of behavioral dimensions with crash history as a driver, crash history as a pedestrian, the severity of an experienced pedestrian-related crash, and the participant's relative's crash history as a pedestrian were also investigated. The present study confirms that PBQ is a useful tool with adequate reliability for investigating Persian pedestrians' safety-related behaviors. These findings revealed the need for intervention programs and improving infrastructures through the evaluation of pedestrian behaviors, which may lead to decreasing pedestrian-related crash frequency.

Vulnerable road users in low-, middle-, and high-income countries: Validation of a Pedestrian Behaviour Questionnaire

The primary aim of this study was to validate the short version of a Pedestrian Behaviour Questionnaire across six culturally and economically distinct countries; Bangladesh, China, Kenya, Thailand, the UK, and Vietnam. The questionnaire comprised 20 items that asked respondents to rate the extent to which they perform certain types of pedestrian behaviours, with each behaviour belonging to one of five categories identified in previous literature; violations, errors, lapses, aggressive behaviours, and positive behaviours. The sample consisted of 3423 respondents across the six countries. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the fit of the data to the five-factor structure, and a four-factor structure in which violations and errors were combined into one factor (seen elsewhere in the literature). For some items, factor loadings were unacceptably low, internal reliability was low for two of the sub-scales, and model fit indices were generally unacceptable for both models. As such, only the violations, lapses, and aggressions sub-scales were retained (those with acceptable reliability and factor loadings), and the three-factor model tested. Although results suggest that the violations sub-scale may need additional attention, the three-factor solution showed the best fit to the data. The resulting 12-item scale is discussed with regards to country differences, and with respect to its utility as a research tool in cross-cultural studies of road user behaviour.

The Road User Behaviours of Chinese Adolescents: Data From China and a Comparison With Adolescents in Other Countries

OBJECTIVES

Adolescents experience high rates of road traffic injuries and deaths as pedestrians and cyclists. One likely reason for adolescents' elevated traffic injury risk is their risky behaviour on the road. This study examined Chinese adolescents' road behaviour using a nationwide survey.

METHODS

Across 7 Chinese provinces, 4,794 adolescents completed the Chinese version of the Adolescent Road User Behaviour Questionnaire (ARBQ). Results from t-tests and ANOVAs described the road behaviours of Chinese adolescent subgroups, and meta-analytic techniques and Kendall's correlation analysis compared adolescent road behaviours between China and other countries (Iran and a high-income country composite).

RESULTS

Replicating previous reports from other countries, male adolescents in China generally reported more risk-taking on the road than females, and adolescents aged 15 years and over behaved in a riskier manner than younger ones. Adolescents in rural China reported more risky road behaviours than those who lived in cities, and adolescents who lived only with grandparents behaved more riskily than those who lived with parents only or with parents and grandparents. Adolescents previously involved in a traffic injury also reported riskier road behaviours. In cross-national comparisons, Chinese adolescents' scores on unsafe road behaviours were lower, and scores on safe road behaviours were higher, than those in other nations. However, there were also several commonalities in how adolescents across countries ranked the frequency of engaging in specific risky road behaviours.

CONCLUSIONS

Gender, age, living environment, and traffic injury experience affect adolescents' reports of their risky road behaviour. Chinese adolescents reported more cautious behaviour than those in high-income countries and in Iran. Traffic injury interventions for adolescents should consider adolescent development as part of pedestrian safety training; results also have implications for guiding parents on how to supervise adolescents near traffic and on what infrastructure development strategies might best protect adolescents in traffic situations.

Analysis of Provincial Mortalities Among Bus/Minibus Users Over Twelve Years, East Azerbaijan, Iran

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiological features of bus/minibus users' road traffic injury mortalities during 2006-2017, in the East Azerbaijan province of Iran. Methods: All 245 bus/minibus users' mortalities, registered in the forensic medicine database, were analyzed by STATA 13 statistical software package. Results: The majority of victims (mean age: 41.5±18.6 years) were men (70%), adults (79.18%), illiterate (22.4%) and self-employed (25.3%). Passersby and police played an almost null role in transporting victims since 2014. A decreasing trend of bus/minibus users' fatalities was observed over the study time. Head-neck-face trauma was more common among those who died prior to hospitalization. Rollover was significantly prevalent among bus users and falling among minibus users. Lorries, vans, and trailers as crash counterpart vehicles caused 59% of deceases, excluding the cases when no other vehicle was engaged. Victims were more likely to die at the hospital when crashes happened in the city's inner roads (OR: 4.17; 95%CI:1.7-9.9). The elderly were 2.78 times more likely to die at the hospital when compared to the other age groups (95%CI: 1.23-6.26). Conclusions: To identify a target group for interventions on traffic-related knowledge, attitude and behaviors, male adults, illiterate and self-employed bus/minibus users could be of priority. Type vehicles involved in the crash should be considered as an important factor affect on crash fatalities. Further investigations are needed in this regard in the future.

Relationship between religion and school students' road behavior in southern Iran

PURPOSE

Unsafe behaviors are an important cause of accidents in adolescent age groups. This study was designed to examine the behaviors of adolescent pedestrians in southern Iran.

METHODS

This is a descriptive analytical cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of high school students in Shiraz, capital city of Fars Province, Iran. Five hundred and sixteen students were selected by multi-stage sampling. Data were collected by the use of three questionnaires, which included Persian copies of adolescent road user behavior questionnaire (ARBQ), Duke University Religious Index (DUREL), as well as the context and independent variables questionnaire.

RESULTS

The results showed that a decrease in dangerous behaviors on the road resulted in an increase in respondents' intrinsic religiosity. Also, engagement in unsafe crossing behavior in the road decreased with increasing respondents' intrinsic religiosity. Another finding showed that female students were less involved in dangerous play and planned protective behaviors on the road.

CONCLUSION

Findings clearly indicate that intrinsic religiosity has a significant role in reducing the risky road behaviors of students. Hence, religion may improve road safety in school students' road behavior in Iran.