Ropaka M., Nikolaou D., Yannis G., “Investigation of Traffic and Safety Behavior of Pedestrians Texting or Web-Surfing”, Proceedings of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 99th Annual Meeting (Washington, D.C., 12-16 January 2020).

The objective of this research is to examine pedestrians’ traffic and safety behavior while texting or web-surfing, when crossing signalized intersections. In order to achieve this objective and compare the behavior of distracted and non-distracted pedestrians, an experimental process through video recording was carried out in real road conditions, in three signalized intersections in the center of Athens in Greece. For the analysis, two multiple linear regression models were developed to investigate the association of pedestrians’ speed and distraction caused by mobile phone use. Additionally, binary logistic regression models were developed in order to determine the influence of distraction on pedestrians’ safety characteristics (near misses and conflicts among pedestrians). This research pointed out that in high pedestrian traffic, mobile phone use not only decreases pedestrians’ speed, regardless of their age, but also increases their probability of being involved in a crash with an oncoming vehicle. The results indicated that distraction caused by texting or web-surfing had a negative impact on pedestrians’ main traffic and safety characteristics.