Understanding pedestrians' road crossing decisions: an application of the theory of planned behaviour

This paper reports a study applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to the prediction of pedestrians' road crossing intentions. Respondents (N = 210) completed questionnaires which included scenarios of three potentially dangerous road crossing behaviours, followed by measures of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control, self-identity and intention. The results indicated that the social psychological variables under consideration were able to explain between 39 and 52% of the variance in intentions to cross the road in the manner depicted in the scenarios. The perceived behavioural control component of the TPB emerged as the strongest predictor of pedestrians' intentions, suggesting that perceptions of control have an important role to play in road safety behaviour. The results are discussed in relation to the predictive utility of the TPB in this area and possible interventions to encourage safe road crossing behaviour.