Effect of Qatar-based law amendment on pedestrians' behavioral intentions: A PLS-SEM based analysis

Pedestrian violations are among the biggest concerns for administration as they contribute to increased frequency and severity of pedestrian-related crashes. Typically for ensuring pedestrian safety, law enforcement measures such as pedestrian penalties are used. To assess the efficacy of such enforcements, pedestrian sentiments towards these law enforcements need to be determined. There is a general lack of studies assessing the effect of pedestrian law enforcement on pedestrians' behavior. Using Qatar based data, this study assessed the effectiveness of a recent law amendment in State of Qatar to improve pedestrians' behavioral intentions. Based on 645 survey responses, a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to verify quantitative relationships among law amendment, risk perception, safety effectiveness perception, and pedestrians' behavioral intentions. The results indicate that the pedestrians' behavioral intentions are strongly influenced by law emphasis, risk perception, and safety effectiveness perception. Moderating role of respondent attributes such as their demographics, personal experiences of respondents with traffic issues, and experience regarding law enforcement are also determined. The structural path between risk perception and behavioral intentions was significantly moderated by gender and jaywalk frequency. Further, nationality and education showed moderating effects on structural path between behavioral intentions and law effectiveness and safety effectiveness perception. Findings from this study contribute to the theoretical understanding of pedestrians' behavior and can be used for planning and implementation of targeted law enforcement to improve pedestrian safety.