PEDESTRIANS ROAD-CROSSING BEHAVIOUR
AND THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON SOCIAL
INFORMATION USAGE
6th GIFTS Symposium
Tokyo, 26 November 2020

SUSANNA ZAMMATARODIRECTOR GENERAL
www.irfnet.ch

The International Road Federation
Independent, Not-for-profit Organisation established in 1948.
Based in Geneva, Switzerland and operating globally
Membership: public sector, private sector, academia, NGOs

72 Years of Action
3 Strategic Pillars of Activities
1. Knowledge & Expertise 2. Connections 3. Advocacy

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IRF WORLD ROAD STATSThe IRF World Road Statistics•Edited yearly since 1964 (57 years).

•

Covering 208 countries, 56 indicators, 11sections.

•Data collected from primary statisticalsources (Ministries, Road Authorities,National Statistical Offices)•Definitions based on the Glossary ofTransport Statistics•

Data used by Governments, Investment &Development Banks, Public & Private
Companies, Academia, NGOs,
International Organizations, etc.

www.worldroadstatistics.org
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IRF GLOBAL ROAD DATAWAREHOUSE

The size of the problem• 54% of the 1.3 million road traffic deaths
are “vulnerable road users”• Wide variation in location (city versusrural) from one country to the other.

• One common point: most pedestriancollisions occur when pedestrians arecrossing the road.
Every minute somebody dies in urban
traffic.
www.irfnet.chPedestrians Safety in Japan
Road fatalities by road user group in percentage of total, 2018

 In 2018, 1’482 pedestrians were killed
on Japanese roads.
 About 70% of all pedestrian fatal
accidents in Japan occur while crossing
the road.

Source: IRTAD Road Safety Annual Report2020

 A third of these crossing death
accidents occur while using apedestrian crossing.
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IRF GLOBAL ROAD DATA
Roads are getting more risky for seniors
WAREHOUSE
Mortality rate by age group
Road deaths per 100 000 inhabitants in a given age group, 2018

Source: IRTAD Road Safety Annual Report
2020

www.irfnet.chSafety in Japan

Road fatality rate by age and road user group, 2017
Fatalities per 100 000 population

https://www.vaccinesforroads.org/business-case-for-safer-roads/
Source: IRTAD Road Safety Annual Report
2020

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Risk factors


SpeedDistraction
Alcohol….

Pedestrian behaviour has
become an importantresearch area as the size ofhuman population living in
big cities increases.
www.irfnet.ch10Pedestrians roadcrossing behaviours
A better understanding of how
human beings behave and theidentiﬁcation of mechanisms
underlying behaviouraldifferences between individualsof different genders, ages andcultures, provide a better basis
for prevention and education.

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Cultural influence of social information use inpedestrian road-crossing behaviours.
A study assessing how pedestrians use social information to crossthe road in cities of two countries with different social norms:
France and Japan.
The use of social information and the probability of rule breaking
are strongly correlated with the culture and the country ofpedestrians, with each country having its own principles ofconformism and social norms.
Marie Pelé, Caroline Bellut, Elise Debergue, Charlotte Gauvin, Anne Jeanneret, et al.. Cultural influence of social information use in pedestrian road-crossing behaviours. Royal Society OpenScience, The Royal Society, 2017, 4, pp.160739. ff10.1098/rsos.160739ff. ffhal-01487812f https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.160739

www.irfnet.ch12The role ofsocial informationin decision-making

The observation of road- crossing behaviours
in the presence of other individuals is anideal means to study the influence of social
information on decision-making.
The study scored the collective crossing ofpedestrians at four locations in Nagoya(Japan) and three locations in Strasbourg(France).

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Collectiveroad-crossing
behaviours

This study attempts to identify the mechanisms
underlying collective road-crossing behaviours
and investigates how these mechanisms andthe use of social information are affected bydifferent factors such as the number ofpedestrians, their time of arrival at the crossing
point, their gender, age and culture.

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IRF GLOBAL ROAD DATAWAREHOUSE
Decision-making process
Three major constraints:
1. the time it has to decide,
2. the information concerning each alternative (on which the decision accuracydepends)
3. the risk involved in each alternative.
Information an individual obtains from its environment can be:
1. Social
2. non-social (i.e. gained from personal observations)Social information can help to adpat to environment but can also play tricks!
www.irfnet.chSocial information use
Information cascades:
A pedestrian observes action ofothers and does the same.
Amplification process:probability to cross with red lightincreases with the number ofindividual crossing.

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IRF GLOBAL ROAD DATAWAREHOUSE
Why France and Japan?
Western cultures – individualistic:More risky behaviour, less tolerance for
hierarchical relationships or for following
rules, and more individualism than in Asiancultures. Individualistic culture tends to makepeople more autonomous.
Asian cultures – collectivist:
Societies seem to drive individuals to be morecautious: follow rules and take less risk.

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IRF GLOBAL ROAD DATAWAREHOUSE
 4 sites in Nagoya and 3 in Strasbourg Same traffic speed and number of pedestrians

The test in anutshell Rule breaking rate and time of crossing
according to:
1. Environment (color, lanes)
2. Gender/age/time of arrival at the kerb
3. Social variables: country, number ofpedestrian waiting, accompanies or notand behaviour of others.

www.irfnet.chIndividual crossing
at red light• Among 5445 road crossings analysed(3814 in France, 1631 in Japan) 30% ofcrossings were illegal.
• However, this rate of rule-breaking isdifferent for France (41.9%) and Japan(only 2.1%).
• when Japanese and French data are
combined, the rate of rule-breaking isaffected by gender.

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IRF GLOBAL ROAD DATAWAREHOUSE

Collective
crossing at
red light

 French and Japanese pedestrians havedifferent behaviours when following
other pedestrians who are crossing
against the red light.
 Japanese follow faster.
 Social influence is strong: “grouppressure”.

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Study’s findings
1. Great impact of country ofresidence.
2. Japanese people tend to use
more social information thanFrench people who rely more on
personal information.
3. Number of waiting pedestrians
and gender are also important.

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Conclusion
Tailoring the right strategies toreduce pedestrians’ fatalities
requires solid understanding of theirdecision-making processes, meaning
how they perceive and interpret
information they receive.

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SUSANNA ZAMMATARODIRECTOR GENERAL

Tel: +41 22 306 0260
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