The trade-off between safety and time in the red light running behaviors of pedestrians: A random regret minimization approach

Pedestrian safety has been a major concern in Hong Kong, where walking is an important access mean to urban transportation services and pedestrian-vehicle conflicts are prevalent. Red light running violation of pedestrians is a leading cause of pedestrian-vehicle crashes at the signal intersections. It is necessary to examine the possible factors including personal characteristics and road environments that affect the propensities of red light running violation of pedestrians. Therefore, effective traffic control and enforcement measures can be implemented to deter against the red light running behaviors of pedestrians. This study attempts to examine the roles of trade-off between safety and time, as well as situational features and personality traits, in the red light running behaviors of pedestrians using a stated preference survey method. Then, a regret-based panel mixed multinomial logit model is established for the association measure between propensities of red light running violation and possible factors, with which the effects of unobserved heterogeneity and correlation in the choices between different scenarios of the same person are considered. Results indicate that the choice decision of pedestrians are more sensitive to a reduction in time loss, as compared to the equivalent increase in safety risk. In addition, the safety versus time trade-off may vary between pedestrian groups. Furthermore, presence and type of another violator also significantly affect the propensities of red light running violation. Such findings are indicative to effective policy interventions that can deter against the red light running behaviors of vulnerable pedestrian groups. Therefore, overall pedestrian safety level can be improved in the long term.