Risks to pedestrians in traffic systems with unfamiliar driving rules
Date:
Ye, Y.* (2019, December 14-16). Risks to pedestrians in traffic systems with unfamiliar driving rules [Oral Presentation]. The 24th International Conference of Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies, Hong Kong, China.
Abstract: This study used a virtual reality (VR) pedestrian simulation method to evaluate the risks to pedestrians crossing streets in a traffic system with unfamiliar driving rules. Pedestrians from mainland China (which has the RD system) and Hong Kong (which has the LD system) were studied. Significant differences were observed between pedestrians from the different locations in terms of their habitual first looking direction before crossing. When exposed to an unfamiliar driving, the odds of making an error in looking behavior for mainland Chinese participants was 2.93 times that when under a familiar driving rule. Road markings and traffic sound did not significantly improve their looking behavior. The results also showed a negative correlation between inattentive looking behavior and time-to-collision (significant at the 1% level), and thus these errors lead to less time-to-collision and increase the risk to pedestrians.