Challenges related to pedestrian safety: a qualitative study identifying Iranian residents' perspectives

Pedestrians' unsafe road-crossing behaviors in Iran: An observational-based study in West Azerbaijan

OBJECTIVE

Pedestrians are one of the most vulnerable users in road traffic injuries (RTIs). The rate of pedestrians' fatality is high in Iran. It is worthwhile to investigate how pedestrians behave. This observational study aimed to investigate pedestrians' unsafe behaviors while crossing.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study examined the behavior of 1095 pedestrians (69.7% men) using videotaping when they crossed at two intersections and three non-intersections on a weekend and two working days in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. The information obtained was classified into 5 domains including adherence to traffic rule, violation, environmental barriers, visibility, and distraction. Data were analyzed using Stata version 17.

RESULTS

About 60% of the pedestrians ignored the crosswalk and crossed the street wherever they wanted. More than 30% ignored the vehicles passing and crossed the street inattentively. About 60% of the pedestrians committed violations. More than half of pedestrians crossed unsafe crossings diagonally or in a hurry. More than 35% wore dark clothing and had low visibility, and nearly 30% were distracted. Adolescent pedestrians did not adhere traffic rules about 6 times more than the young adult pedestrians. Pedestrians who did not adhere to traffic rules in the morning were significantly more than in the evening. Men committed a violation 1.47 times more than women. The results showed that the pedestrians committed a violation in the morning significantly more than in the evening.

CONCLUSION

The occurrence of pedestrians' unsafe behaviors in Maku was high. Unsafe behaviors were high among men and young adult pedestrians. Therefore, it's essential to implement educational interventions via different media as well as environmental interventions by different organizations to improve safe behavior among pedestrians.

Analyzing Pedestrian Behavior at Unsignalized Crosswalks from the Drivers’ Perspective: A Qualitative Study

This study investigated drivers’ perceptions of pedestrian crossing behavior at unsignalized crosswalks, which was less fruitful in quantitative and qualitative traffic research. Subjective and snow-ball sampling were used to conduct semi-structured in-depth interviews based on drivers’ daily driving experience from qualitative research. A theoretical model of pedestrian behavior at unsignalized crosswalks was constructed using the grounded theory and the theoretical saturation test. The model involved 4 three-level codes and 13 two-level codes (main category) used to obtain seven subcategories. The results show that drivers believe that pedestrian characteristics, driver characteristics, and age factors are the three factors that affect pedestrian crossing safety. Targeted improvement measures are put forward to guide the design of pedestrian crossing facilities, pedestrian management and guidance, and future research on conflicts between autonomous vehicles and pedestrians.