The study found that young pedestrians who had previous experience of vehicle-collision were still careless and repeated their risky behaviors while crossing the street. These findings are in line with the scientific literature that is summarized in the following quote: “personal experience is a complex determinant of self-protective behaviors” [20].
The present study results suggest that in addition to previous unpleasant experiences, other attitudinal and motivational factors also contribute to the pedestrians’ decision making while crossing the street in potentially risky situations.
The results revealed the role of perceived risk as the attitudinal factor that predicts road-crossing behavior. We found that pedestrians who reported having been involved in a vehicle-collision perceived risk of unsafe road-crossing as less risky compared with those who had not, and reported more risky behaviors in road-crossing.
This finding is consistent with health behavior theories such as the Health Belief Model and Protection Motivation Theory. According to these theories, the low perceived risk leads to higher risk-taking behavior [21]. Hence, we would expect that persons who decide to cross the street in potentially risky situations are more likely to perceive this behavior as positive and easy to do; they are, therefore, more exposed to dangerous decisions. This may indicate that this is because they had become unrealistically optimistic when judging their injury risk. This interpretation is consistent with research in risky driving showing that drivers are illusory optimistic when judging their driving competency and traffic-crash risk [22].
According to the decision-making perspective that explains the relationship between perception of risk and the adoption of protective behaviors, if individuals perceive their vulnerability to the risk take protective behaviors [18]. A study in China about individuals’ intention to drive after drinking showed that feeling of invulnerability influenced intention by promoting favorable attitudes toward driving after alcohol use [23].
Moreover, the present study showed perceived severity was a significant predictor of pedestrians’ unsafe road-crossing behaviors. Accordingly, fewer perceived severity of involvement in an accident was associated with higher risky road crossing behaviors. This finding suggests that perceived severity is influenced by previous experience to violate traffic laws and a belief that, if one has had previous non-fatal traffic injuries, he is likely to repeat risky road-crossing behaviors. This interpretation is consistent with research showing that successful past experience to violate traffic rules would potentially prompt the probability of repeating offenses [24].
The present study also examined the role of attitudes towards traffic rules and regulations. According to findings, pedestrians with previous experience of vehicle-collision indicated more negative attitudes towards traffic rules and regulations than individuals without such experience. These groups were also more likely crossing the street in potentially risky situations than the other group. According to the theory of planned behavior, attitudes predict future behaviors [13].
In a study of pedestrian intention to violate traffic regulations, Diaz found that people who had a positive attitude towards illegal road-crossing reported more violations and errors as pedestrians [25].
This finding also is in line with previous studies on pedestrian behaviors showing that pedestrians with negative attitudes toward traffic safety facilities, show more risky pedestrian behaviors [26]. In general, the findings support the view that attitudes towards traffic rules and regulations predict the involvement in risky road-crossing behaviors.
In examining the constructs of the TPB, there are significant differences in some components of the TPB between individuals with and without a history of vehicle-collision. Based on the results, individuals who had experience of vehicle-collision had low perceived behavioral control and thought it would easy to cross the street in potentially risky situations. A possible explanation is that those persons who consider it easy to cross the street in potentially risky situations have less perceived risk. This interpretation may be inconsistent with Evans & Norman’s study which found that there was a link between perceptions of control and perceived risk in as much as those road crossing behaviors which are seen to be easy to perform may be associated with low perceptions of risk [27].