The effects of mobile phone use on pedestrian crossing behaviour at unsignalized intersections – Models for predicting unsafe pedestrians behaviour

Abstract With the rapid rise of the use of mobile phones worldwide, the traffic safety experts have considered effects of mobile phone use on pedestrian crossing behaviour. This study sought to find out how the use of mobile phones (talking, texting and listening to music) affects the behaviour of pedestrians while they are crossing the street. Using field observation the data have been collected concerning the demographic characteristics and behaviour of the pedestrians from the target group (the pedestrians who use mobile phones) and from the demographic-matched and time-matched control group (the pedestrians who did not use mobile phones). For predicting the unsafe types of behaviour the logistic regression models were constructed and it included the next predictor variables: gender, age, number of accompanying pedestrians, the manner of using mobile phones and location of intersection. The results of the research have shown that the pedestrians who use mobile phones while crossing the street behave less safely than the pedestrians who do not use mobile phones and that their safety depends on the way they use mobile phones. Mobile phone talking has the greatest effect on the unsafe behaviour of pedestrians; texting/viewing content on mobile phone also influences the pedestrians’ behaviour though less than speaking, while listening to music has the smallest impact.