Pedestrian crossing behavior in areas with unfamiliar driving rules

Abstract

Both left-driving (LD) and right-driving (RD) rules are used across nations around the world. When traveling to places with unfamiliar driving rules, pedestrians are more likely to exhibit various crossing behaviors and make mistakes. With increased international travel owing to rapid globalization in the modern era, pedestrian-related risks faced by foreign visitors have become a major concern. To address this problem, this thesis comprehensively investigates pedestrian crossing behaviors, especially looking behaviors and risks, under unfamiliar driving rules. To investigate the looking habit and maladaptation of pedestrians under different driving rules, a face-to-face survey was conducted with 581 respondents at seven locations in Hong Kong, which follows the LD rules. The results revealed that hometown driving rules and length of stay had positive effects on the right-looking habit, and hometown driving rules had a direct negative effect on maladaptation. The right-looking habit partially mediated the effect of hometown driving rules and fully mediated the effect of the length of stay on maladaptation to the Hong Kong LD system. Moreover, it was found that when foreign pedestrians were in areas with unfamiliar driving rules, they tended to practice their hometown looking habits, especially foreign pedestrians who had stayed in Hong Kong only for a short time; this behavior differed significantly from those of local pedestrians, and it led to more severe maladaptation. Furthermore, a VR pedestrian simulation method was used to evaluate the risks faced by pedestrians crossing streets in a traffic system with unfamiliar driving rules. Pedestrians from mainland China (which has an RD system) and Hong Kong (which has an LD system) were studied. Significant differences were observed between pedestrians from the different locations in terms of the direction they habitually first looked before crossing. When participants from mainland China were exposed to an unfamiliar driving rule (i.e., traffic coming from a direction different from that customary in mainland China), the odds of them making an error in their looking behavior were 2.93 times those of participants exposed to a familiar driving rule. Finally, an experiment involving alcohol-impaired pedestrians was conducted based on the developed VR pedestrian simulator. Pedestrians with higher breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) tended to have higher odds of adopting the looking behavior corresponding to their hometown driving rules and had a lower time-to-collision (TTC) difference; thus, they were exposed to higher risks of having a collision. This thesis explores the patterns of pedestrian-looking behavior before crossing streets under unfamiliar driving rules. The findings reveal the effects of demographic factors, habit factors, traffic environment factors, and drinking factors on pedestrian crossing performance. The results demonstrate pedestrians’ habitual-looking behaviors, maladaptation, and risks in areas with unfamiliar driving systems. The findings have significant implications for improving the safety of foreign pedestrians in terms of the traffic policy, traffic facility improvements, and alerting them to unfamiliar driving rules.