How Do Attitudes, Personality Traits, and Driver Behaviors Relate to Pedestrian Behaviors?: A Turkish Case

Abstract

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the role of pedestrian attitudes and personality traits (social conformity and empathy) on pedestrian behaviors in a Turkish sample. An equally important aim of the study was to examine the association between pedestrian and driver behaviors.

Method: The sample included 289 road users including pedestrians and drivers (169 females and 120 males). The participants’ age ranged from 15 to 78 years (M = 32.00, SD = 13.89). Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire.

Results: A regression analysis showed that increased age, high level of satisfaction with traffic infrastructure and environment, safer attitudes toward pedestrian violations, and empathy were negatively related to risky pedestrian behaviors, whereas social conformity was positively related. Attitudes were the strongest predictor of pedestrian behaviors. In addition, bivariate correlation analysis showed that all dimensions of pedestrian and driver behaviors were positively correlated with each other, which indicates that a tendency to take risks remains the same regardless of the road user role (i.e., driver vs. pedestrian).

Conclusions: Attitudes are strong predictors of pedestrian behaviors. A tendency to take risks as a pedestrian and as a driver is correlated. Results are discussed for their implications to traffic safety campaigns targeting increased pedestrian safety.

Keywords:

• pedestrian attitudes
• conformity
• empathy
• pedestrian behaviors
• driver behaviors
• Turkey