Evaluating pedestrian behavior at crosswalks: Validation of a pedestrian behavior questionnaire for the US population

The aim of this study was to develop and validate a self-reporting Pedestrian Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ) for the U.S. population to measure frequency of risky behaviors among pedestrians. The PBQ includes 50 survey items that allow respondents to rate the frequency with which they engage in different types of road-using behaviors as pedestrians. The validation study was conducted on 425 participants (228 males and 197 females) between the ages of 18 and 71. Confirmatory factor analysis differentiated pedestrian behaviors into five factor categories: violations, errors, lapses, aggressive behaviors, and positive behaviors. A short version of the PBQ with 20 items was also created by selecting four items with high factor loadings from each of the five factor categories. Regression analyses investigated associations with scenario-based survey behavioral responses to validate the five-factor PBQ subscale scores and composite score. For both long and short versions, each of these five individual factor scales were found to be reliable (0.7 < Cronbach's alpha (alpha) < 0.9) and valid (significant association with p < 0.0001), except in the case of positive behaviors (alpha < 0.6) which requires further expansion. The effects of gender and age on the PBQ scores were investigated and found to be consistent with previous research. This PBQ can serve as an instrument of pedestrian self-assessment in educational and training contexts as well as can be useful to all researchers investigating pedestrian safety for all age groups.