Effects of mobile phone use on pedestrian crossing behavior and safety at unsignalized intersections

Hualong Zhang, Cunbao Zhang zhangcunbao@163.com, Feng Chen, and YuanYuan Wei   Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering  -  24 October 2018

Abstract

Using mobile phones can be a source of distraction for pedestrians when crossing streets, it is especially dangerous at unsignalized intersections. To investigate the effects of mobile phone use on pedestrian crossing behavior and safety at unsignalized intersections, we carried out a field survey at three selected locations in Wuhan, China.

Then, the pedestrians’ crossing behavior characteristics were statistically analyzed, and a logistic regression model was established to quantitatively analyze pedestrian safety.

The results showed that 15.6% of pedestrians used mobile phones when crossing unsignalized intersections and 64.1% of them were young pedestrians.

Pedestrians using mobile phones while crossing unsignalized intersections were at higher risk of accident, crossed more slowly, and were less likely to look at traffic status than those not using a mobile phone.

Moreover, the probability of conflicts when watching the screen, talking, and listening to music are 2.704, 1.793, and 1.114 times greater, respectively, than those who do not use a mobile phone.