Pedestrian behaviors at and perceptions towards various pedestrian facilities: an examination based on observation and survey data

This paper presents findings from an observational study of pedestrian behaviors at various urban crosswalks and a pedestrian user survey which sought pedestrian perceptions toward various pedestrian facilities in a divided urban boulevard located next to a large university campus, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA. Such facilities included signalized and unsignalized intersection crosswalks, unsignalized marked and non-striped midblock crosswalks, physical barriers (vegetation and two-foot high concrete wall), midblock crosswalk shelters, colored paving (red brick pavement) at medians and curbs, and pedestrian warning signs at midblock crossing locations, messaging “cross only when traffic clears.” Pedestrian behavior data were obtained from the reduction of video images of pedestrian movements recorded throughout the study site. Pedestrian perceptions information was obtained through a user survey completed by pedestrians using the study site. It was found that unsignalized midblock crosswalks were the treatment of preference to pedestrians (83% reported a preference to cross) and also showed high crossing compliance rate of pedestrians (71.2%). It was also evident that the crosswalk location, relative to the origin and destination of the pedestrian, was the most influential decision factor for pedestrians deciding to cross at a designated location (90% said so). Proper traffic control can further encourage pedestrian crossings at designated locations since the effect of the availability of pedestrian signal to influence pedestrians’ decisions to cross at a specific location was quite high (74% said so). Moreover, vegetation and concrete barriers influenced the decision to cross of a significant number of pedestrians surveyed (65%). It is expected that the findings from this study will help traffic engineers, urban planners and policy makers understand pedestrian behaviors and attitudes at/towards pedestrian crosswalks.     

Investigating temporal variations in pedestrian crossing behavior at semi-controlled crosswalks: A Bayesian multilevel modeling approach

“Semi-controlled” crosswalks are unsignalized, but have clear pavement markings and “yield to pedestrian” signs. At these locations, pedestrians and motorists frequently interact to determine who should proceed first. When interacting with drivers, pedestrian crossing decisions are complex events that involve a variety of human responses, as well as vehicle dynamics, traffic characteristics, and environmental conditions. In addition, these complexities can be subject to temporal effects. Without considering temporal variations in pedestrian-motorist interaction, statistical methods could lead to biased coefficient estimates and inaccurate conclusions.The study developed a Bayesian multilevel logistic regression (BMLR) model to capture heterogeneities in pedestrian interaction behavior during four different time periods. The proposed method incorporates time-specific effects that vary randomly between time-periods based on a weakly informative prior. The results indicate significant factors, some of which confirm previous research and some that are new ways to explain pedestrian behavior at the individual level. The identification of variables such as FlowOn and FlowWait sheds light on the interactions between pedestrians – providing more information than the single GroupSize measure.Some consequent safety implications are discussed from the perspectives of vehicle dynamics, vehicle flow rate and pedestrian volume. The more detailed metrics developed in this paper will provide a valuable starting point. for the design of crosswalk controls that will foster a higher degree of compliance and less delay.     

Racial bias in driver yielding behavior at crosswalks

Psychological and social identity-related factors have been shown to influence drivers’ behaviors toward pedestrians, but no previous studies have examined the potential for drivers’ racial bias to impact yielding behavior with pedestrians. If drivers’ yielding behavior results in differential behavior toward Black and White pedestrians, this may lead to disparate pedestrian crossing experiences based on race and potentially contribute to disproportionate safety outcomes for minorities. We tested the hypothesis that drivers’ yielding behavior is influenced by pedestrians’ race in a controlled field experiment at an unsignalized midblock marked crosswalk in downtown Portland, Oregon. Six trained male research team participants (3 White, 3 Black) simulated an individual pedestrian crossing, while trained observers cataloged the number of cars that passed and the time until a driver yielded. Results (88 pedestrian trials, 173 driver-subjects) revealed that Black pedestrians were passed by twice as many cars and experienced wait times that were 32% longer than White pedestrians. Results support the hypothesis that minority pedestrians experience discriminatory treatment by drivers at crosswalks.     

Models for pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour analysis at unprotected mid-block crosswalks under mixed traffic conditions

Pedestrian safety is an important aspect while crossing the road and it can be explained by pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour. The statistical models such as multiple linear regression (MLR) is often used to model linear relationships between dependent variable (viz., pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour) and independent variables, due to their ability to quantitatively predict the effect of various factors on the dependent variable. However such linear models cannot consider the effect of several variables on the output variable, due to primary assumptions of normality, linear, homoscedasticity and multicollinearity. In this regard, the non-linear models based on the artificial neural network (ANN), which are free from assumptions of linear models, can be easily employed for obtaining the effect of several input variables on the pedestrian accepted gap size. However, researchers have rarely applied ANN modelling technique for predicting the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour, as the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour depends on several pedestrian, traffic and vehicular characteristics. The ANN based models would be quite useful in establishing relationship between these factors on the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour at midblock crosswalks under mixed traffic conditions. In this direction, the present study adopts both MLR as well as ANN with different pedestrian, traffic and vehicular characteristics to assess the significant contributing factors for pedestrians’ gap acceptance behaviour at unprotected mid-block crosswalks under mixed traffic conditions. For this purpose, a video graphic survey was conducted at a six lane divided road at unprotected mid-block crossing in Mumbai, India. The data such as pedestrian (gender and age), vehicular, traffic and pedestrian behavioural characteristics were extracted to model pedestrian accepted gaps. The model results show that pedestrian rolling behaviour has a significant effect on pedestrian accepted gap size. The model results concluded that ANN has a better prediction with possibility to consider the effect of more number of variables on the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour as compared to the MLR model under mixed traffic conditions. However, the quantification of significant contributing variables on pedestrian accepted gap size is easy by MLR model as compared to the ANN technique. So, both models have their own significant role in pedestrian gap acceptance analysis. The developed models may be useful to enhance the existing mid-block crosswalk facilities or planning new facilities by more accurate prediction of the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour considering the influence of various factors under mixed traffic conditions.     

Pedestrian temporal gap acceptance behavior at unsignalized intersections in Kanpur,India

Vehicle heterogeneity, lack of lane discipline, lack of infrastructure facilities, and weak enforcement of traffic rules are all characteristics of Indian traffic. These characteristics make Indian roads difficult for non-motorized road users, especially pedestrians. Most intersections in urban areas in India are unsignalized, which results in complex interactions between pedestrians and motorists. This study aims to understand pedestrian gap acceptance behavior at unsignalized intersections in India under heterogeneous traffic conditions. Pedestrian data were collected from six unsignalized intersections in the city of Kanpur. The critical gap was estimated using Wu’s (2006) macroscopic model, and then the effects of several variables on the critical gap were studied. A discrete choice model (binary logit model) was developed to understand the choice of accepted and rejected vehicular gaps depending on traffic, road, and peer pedestrian characteristics. The mean critical headway was 3.76 s using Wu’s model. The behavioral analysis revealed that pedestrians accept rolling gaps to cross unsignalized intersections, resulting in a reduction of the size of the critical gap. The adoption of rolling gap behavior can be attributed to the unyielding behavior of motorists, which forces pedestrians to accept short vehicular gaps in the traffic stream.     

Effects of a driver enforcement program on yielding to pedestrians

A driver-yielding enforcement program that included decoy pedestrians, feedback flyers, written and verbal warnings, and saturation enforcement for a 2-week period was evaluated in the city of Miami Beach using a multiple baseline design. During baseline, data were collected at crosswalks along two major corridors. Treatment was introduced first at selected crosswalks without traffic signals along one corridor. A week later, enforcement was shifted to crosswalks along the second corridor. Results indicated that the percentage of drivers yielding to pedestrians increased following the introduction of the enforcement program in each corridor and that these increases were sustained for a period of a year with minimal additional enforcement. The effects also generalized somewhat to untreated crosswalks in both corridors, as well as to crosswalks with traffic signals.     

Behavior model and guidance strategies of the crossing behavior at unsignalized intersections in the connected vehicle environment

The connected vehicle environment is considered to be a disruptive technology that reconstructs the way people travel and road transport, and more importantly, ensures traffic safety. This study aims on investigating drivers’ interactive behavior at an unsignalized intersection in the connected vehicle environment. Specifically, a simplified iterative behavior model was established to predict the potential conflicting vehicles’ behavior. Furthermore, based on principles of safety, efficiency, and comfort, the guidance strategies were proposed to help the subject vehicles cross intersections. A multi-user driving simulator experiment was carried out and 48 participants were divided into 24 pairs to complete the test. The simplified iterative behavior model was constructed based on the dynamic interaction of each participant pair as they approached the intersection from straight-crossing directions. The comparison results showed the behavior model was an effective microscopic simulation tool for vehicles at unsignalized intersections with high accuracy and good applicability. Then, the guidance strategies under different compliance rates (baseline, 50 % compliance, 100% compliance) were evaluated based on three indexes i.e. standard deviation of speed (SDS), duration of crossing the intersection (DCI), and time exposed post-encroachment-time (TEP). The numerical simulation results showed that the guidance strategies could effectively improve the safety and efficiency of drivers crossing the intersection under both 50% and 100% compliance rates. Besides, with the increase of compliance rate, the comfort level also increased evidently. This study can provide theoretical and algorithmic references for microscopic simulation and guidance strategy at unsignalized intersections in the connected vehicle environment.     

Modeling the influence of mobile phone use distraction on pedestrian reaction times to green signals: A multilevel mixed-effects parametric survival model

Understanding and modeling the influence of mobile phone use on pedestrian behaviour is important for several safety and performance evaluations. Mobile phone use affects pedestrian perception of the surrounding traffic environment and reduces situation awareness. This study investigates the effect of distraction due to mobile phone use (i.e., visual and auditory) on pedestrian reaction time to the pedestrian signal. Traffic video data was collected from four crosswalks in Canada and China. A multilevel mixed-effects accelerated failure time (AFT) approach is used to model pedestrian reaction times, with random intercepts capturing the clustered-specific (countries) heterogeneity. Potential reaction time influencing factors were investigated, including pedestrian demographic attributes, distraction characteristics, and environment-related parameters. Results show that pedestrian reaction times were longer in Canada than in China under the non-distraction and distraction conditions. The auditory and visual distractions increase pedestrian reaction time by 67% and 50% on average, respectively. Pedestrian reactions were slower at road segment crosswalks compared to intersection crosswalks, at higher distraction durations, and for males aged over 40 compared to other pedestrians. Moreover, pedestrian reactions were faster at higher traffic awareness levels.     

Changes in road-user behaviors following the installation of raised pedestrian crosswalks combined with preceding speed humps,on urban arterials

In this study, raised pedestrian crosswalks were installed at non-signalized mid-block crosswalks situated on urban arterial and collector roads. A raised crosswalk is built by installing a trapezoidal speed hump on the crosswalk area, building a preceding circular speed hump, in each travel direction, and adding traffic signs. A controlled field-study was conducted at eight sites, sixteen pedestrian crosswalks, where road user behaviors were compared in the after versus before the treatment periods. Two settings of raised crosswalks were applied at the study sites: a 15 cm high trapezoidal hump combined with 8–10 cm high circular humps, and a 10–12 cm high trapezoidal hump combined with 6–8 cm high circular humps. Field observations included video-recordings and free-flow speed measurements. Following the installation of the raised crosswalks, at most sites, a substantial decrease was observed in vehicle travel speeds while approaching the crosswalks, which was maintained over-time. In addition, at some crosswalks, improvements were found in the rates of giving-way to pedestrians by the vehicles, vehicle-pedestrian conflicts and shares of pedestrians who cross within the crosswalk boundaries, while the changes in keeping safe crossing rules by pedestrians were mixed. Overall, the changes in road user behaviors following the installation of the raised crosswalks were positive and associated with safety improvement of pedestrian crossing conditions. Based on the study results, raised crosswalks with preceding speed humps can be promoted as a pedestrian safety-improving measure on busy urban roads.     

Investigating relationships among perceptions of yielding,safety, and comfort for pedestrians in unsignalized crosswalks

Interactions with other road users influence the perceived safety and comfort of pedestrians. Yet the relationships among perceptions of yielding, safety, and comfort are poorly understood. To enhance understanding of these key concepts, the objectives of this study are to determine how perception of pedestrian safety at unsignalized crosswalks differs from perception of comfort, and the relationship of each with perception of yielding. A generalized structural equations model is developed using data from an online survey in which 366 participants (i.e., “perceivers”) rated yielding, safety, and comfort for sample videos of pedestrian interactions with motor vehicles and bicycles. Results show that an individual’s perception of yielding plays a crucial role in mediating the effects of interaction attributes (e.g., vehicle speed, proximity) and perceiver attributes (e.g., travel habits) on their perceptions of pedestrian safety and comfort. For example, people who bicycle more frequently perceive pedestrians as more comfortable than people who walk more frequently, rooted in misalignment on what constitutes adequate yielding. Strategies to address pedestrian comfort can focus on a set of key yielding behaviors by drivers and cyclists – particularly allowing the pedestrian to cross first. Motor vehicle drivers must exhibit stronger yielding behavior (e.g., allow a larger time gap) than bicycles to achieve the same level of perceived pedestrian safety and comfort. Although perceptions of safety and comfort are strongly related and similarly impacted by yielding, researchers should be cautious about using the concepts interchangeably because they are differently impacted by attributes of the interaction and perceiver.     

Pedestrian behaviour of 6th grade Estonian students: Implications of social factors and accident-prevention education at school

Children as pedestrians are one of the most vulnerable groups of road users. Therefore factors associated with risky pedestrian behaviour should be carefully studied. The aim of this article is to clarify how the traffic behaviour of 6th grade students as pedestrians is associated with the behaviour of their traffic companions and prevention activities at school, also taking gender into consideration. The research was conducted based on a randomly-selected sample of 1033 6th-grade students with the mean age of 12.77 ± 0.38 (SD) years. The results showed that compared to girls boys take significantly more risks as pedestrians: they rarely use reflectors during periods of darkness and often cross the road against the red light. The most important role models for adolescents in traffic behaviour are their parents. The role model behaviour with the strongest effect on adolescent high-risk behaviour in traffic is the role model not using crosswalks to cross the street. The results also showed that higher-risk traffic behaviour by adolescent pedestrians is predicted by higher-risk behaviour on the part of their companions (parents, teachers), walking alone on the street, as well as by an adolescent’s lower involvement in the less active prevention activities in the classroom. To improve adolescent pedestrians’ traffic behaviour social environment and school-based factors should be considered more thoroughly in prevention work at school.     

How do the recognizability and driving styles of automated vehicles affect human drivers’ gap acceptance at T- Intersections?

Future traffic will be composed of both human-driven vehicles (HDVs) and automated vehicles (AVs). To accurately predict the performance of mixed traffic, an important aspect is describing HDV behavior when interacting with AVs. A few exploratory studies show that HDVs change their behavior when interacting with AVs, being influenced by factors such as recognizability and driving style of AVs. Unsignalized priority intersections can significantly affect traffic flow efficiency and safety of the road network. To understand HDV behavior in mixed traffic at unsignalized priority T-intersections, a driving simulator experiment was set up in which 95 drivers took part in it. The route in the driving simulator included three T-intersections where the drivers had to give priority to traffic on the major road. The participants drove different scenarios which varied in whether the AVs were recognizable or not, and in their driving style (Aggressive or Defensive). The results showed that in mixed traffic having recognizable aggressive AVs, drivers accepted significantly larger gaps (and had larger critical gaps) when merging in front of AVs as compared to mixed traffic having either recognizable defensive AVs or recognizable mixed AVs (composed of both aggressive and defensive). This was not the case when merging in front of an HDV in the same scenarios. Drivers had significantly smaller critical gaps when driving in traffic having non-recognizable aggressive AVs compared to non-recognizable defensive AVs. The findings suggest that human drivers change their gap acceptance behavior in mixed traffic depending on the combined effect of recognizability and driving style of AVs, including accepting shorter gaps in front of non-recognizable aggressive AVs and changing their original driving behavior. This could have implications for traffic efficiency and safety at such priority intersections. Decision makers must carefully consider such behavioral adaptations before implementing any policy changes related to AVs and the infrastructure.     

Estimating effectiveness of speed reduction measures for pedestrian crossing treatments using an empirically supported speed choice modeling framework

Pedestrian crossing treatments, such as Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons (PHBs) and Rectangular Rapid-Flashing Beacons (RRFBs), are traffic control devices implemented to help pedestrians safely cross busy or higher-speed roadways at midblock crossings and uncontrolled intersections. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of the PHB and RRFB by analyzing drivers’ speeding behavior under different roadway types with real-life traffic conditions. In order to understand the effect of pedestrian crossing treatments (i.e., PHB and RRFB) have on drivers’ speeding behavior, this paper analyzes four zones (i.e., one upstream zone and three consecutive downstream zones). For the four analysis zones, different indexes were computed which corresponds to the differences in drivers’ speed when encountered with the pedestrian crossing treatments. A grouped random effect hurdle beta regression model is estimated for the indexes, with a fixed effect hurdle beta model used for comparison and validating the importance of considering the grouped random heterogeneity across participants. The proposed analysis framework was validated by the means of an empirical driving simulator study, based on two urban roads in the Central Florida region, North Alafaya Trail (SR-434) and South Orange Blossom Trail (US-441). The results revealed that the proposed modeling framework reflects drivers’ difference in speed for the different pedestrian crossing treatments. The results suggest that with proper understanding of the PHB, the PHB can reduce drivers speed even beyond the location of the PHB. Meanwhile, the RRFB does have some effect in speed reduction beyond the location of the RRFB, however many drivers failed to acknowledge the RRFB. It is suggested that when drivers’ have proper education on the use of the PHB to reduce speed safely and for the installation of RRFB be on roads with two or less lanes and a speed limit less than 40 mph. While the main purpose of the pedestrian crossing treatments is to help pedestrians cross safely, speed reduction can be considered a byproduct as revealed in this study.     

Analyzing drivers’ crossing decisions at unsignalized intersections in China

In China, when two vehicle drivers encounter at an unsignalized intersection, almost neither of them completely stops the vehicle. Instead, one gradually approaches and dynamically makes a decision to either yield or preempt by gaming with the other vehicle. This process generates traffic conflicts and increases the probability of accidents. In this study, we aimed to study how straight-moving drivers made preemptive/yielding decisions when they encountered other drivers straight-moving across at unsignalized intersections. A total of 150 crossing cases were collected at an unsignalized intersection in Kunming City, China. By using detection program we made, motion parameters of the vehicles were extracted. Classification tree analysis was used to identify the decision moment of drivers and the major motion parameters that affected their decisions. Results showed that for crossing processes at unsignalized intersections in China, straight-moving drivers from the right side made preemptive/yielding decisions from 0.9 s to 1.3 s before reaching the crossing point. However, straight-moving drivers from the left side made decisions from 0.9 s to 1.2 s before reaching the crossing point. The speed difference between the two vehicles was the most important factor that affected a driver’s decision-making. If the vehicle driver from the right side drove significantly slower than that from the left, then most drivers from the right side would yield to those from the left. On the contrary, if the vehicle driver from the right side drove significantly faster than that from the left, then most drivers from the right side would preempt those from the left. The findings of this study will help understand the decision-making patterns of drivers under crossing conditions, and thus provide suggestions to improve drivers’ behavior at unsignalized intersections in China.     

External HMI for self-driving vehicles: Which information shall be displayed?

The objective of this study was to investigate pedestrians’ informational needs towards self-driving vehicles (SDVs). Previous research has shown that external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs) compensate for pedestrian-driver communication when SDVs are integrated into traffic. However, detailed insights on which information the eHMI shall provide lack so far. In a mixed design study, N = 59 participants encountered a simulated driverless vehicle in different traffic scenarios (a. unsignalized intersection vs. b. parking lot; between-subject factor). We investigated the effect of no eHMI (baseline) vs. eHMIs displaying the automated driving system (ADS) status, and informing subsequently about its perception of the pedestrian and/or its intent for the next maneuver ((1) no eHMI, (2) status eHMI, (3) status + perception eHMI, (4) status + intent eHMI, (5) status + perception + intent eHMI; within-subject factor). A mixed-methods design was used to explore participants’ subjective feelings, traffic behavior, and underlying attitudes. The findings reveal that any eHMI contributes to a more positive feeling towards SDVs compared to the baseline condition without eHMI, consistent among traffic scenarios: participants felt significantly safer, reflected greater trust and user experience ratings, and perceived the SDV as more intelligent and transparent. The status indicator mainly drives these beneficial effects on subjective measures. Participants reported that the status information explains the absence of a driver steering the vehicle. Compared to the status eHMI, the status + perception eHMI reflects no further benefit regarding subjective feelings and even has a negative impact on traffic flow. Moreover, participants regarded the additional information on the vehicle’s perception as an obvious gimmick. On the contrary, the status + intent eHMI increases user experience, perceived intelligence, and transparency for pedestrians more than the mere status eHMI. Participants reported that additionally informing about the vehicle’s intent adds a further sense of safety. The present study failed to show any improvements in traffic flow but found evidence for individual crossing and clearing strategies among pedestrians. This work can inform the future design of eHMIs.     

Cloninger的人格生物社会模型及其生理机制的证据

该文首先介绍了Cloninger的人格生物社会模型的7个维度,综述了该模型在神经递质、基因遗传学、脑血流以及脑电方面等的经验性证据。还探讨了该模型与其他人格生理模型之间的关系,特别是较详细比较了Cloninger的人格生物模型与Eysenck模型的差异。最后,对Cloninger的理论模型进行了评述,并提出研究生理机制、环境和个体行为的交互影响作用,是今后人格研究的一个发展方向     

Hazard-based duration approach for understanding pedestrian crossing risk exposure at signalised intersection crosswalks – A case study of Kolkata,India

Pedestrian signal violation is a significant concern among policymakers and traffic engineers as this leads to a pedestrian-vehicle crash. The waiting time for a pedestrian at intersections is crucial in street-crossing decision-making. Once pedestrians terminate their waiting behaviour during the red-light period, they would cross in the red light and put themselves in danger. A total of 2089 red-light arriving pedestrian observations were made at eight intersection crosswalks across Kolkata city (India). With the help of hazard-based duration models, the waiting duration till signal violation has been analysed. Kaplan–Meier curve has been plotted to understand the survival probabilities. A semi-parametric Cox Proportional Hazard model was used to understand the different factors influencing signal violation behaviour. However, the proportional hazard assumption was not satisfied. Therefore, a parametric Accelerated Failure Time (AFT) model was used to understand the various covariates that affect the waiting duration. The results highlighted that 49.5% of pedestrians crossed immediately after arriving at the intersection in the red-light phase. A pedestrian’s probability of crossing the road when it is unsafe, i.e., motor vehicles still have green or yellow, varies with the waiting time. As waiting time increases, pedestrians get impatient and violate the traffic signal. This violation places them at an increased risk of being struck by a motor vehicle. The covariate analysis using the AFT model showed that pedestrian glance/looking behaviour, different types of distractions, signal cycle length, carrying luggage, and traffic plying on the road impacted signal violation behaviour. Signal modifications by reducing red-light phase length for pedestrians might be the most efficient means of reducing the likelihood of signal violation and being hit by a motor vehicle.     

Modelling pedestrian crossing behaviour in urban roads: A latent variable approach

As pedestrians are the most exposed and vulnerable road users to traffic accidents, urban planners frequently propose alternatives to improve their safety. However, some solutions, such as pedestrian bridges and crosswalks at signalized intersections, usually imply longer walking distances compared to the direct crossing alternative which, in its turn, involves a higher risk.In this article, a hybrid framework is proposed to analyse the pedestrians’ choice on how to cross an urban road where three crossing options are available: crossing directly, crossing by using a pedestrian bridge or using a crosswalk at a signalized intersection. The decision process is modelled as a discrete choice model incorporating latent variables to consider perceptions and psychological factors, using stated preference data coming from a survey applied in Bogotá, Colombia.Results show that the latent variables security/safety and attractiveness of each crossing alternative are relevant to understand the pedestrian crossing behaviour. These latent variables are strongly determined by socioeconomic characteristics of the individual (age, gender, level of study) and conditioned by the circumstances of the trip (main mode of transport, walking or not with children). It was found that a longer walking distance to a pedestrian bridge or a signalized crosswalk increases the probability of direct crossing, having a more relevant effect in the case of the pedestrian bridge.     

Flow state in self-paced and externally-paced performance contexts: An examination of the flow model

ObjectivesKimiecik and Stein's (1992) flow model proposed that personal and situational factors affect the experience of flow. Singer, 1988, Singer, 2000 argued that different mental processes underlie self-initiated and reactive performances. The first purpose of this study was to examine main and interaction effects between imagery use and confidence on flow state in different performance contexts. The second purpose was to assess main and interaction effects between flow state, imagery, and confidence on self-paced service and externally-paced groundstroke performance in tennis.DesignThis field study used a repeated-measures design.MethodA pilot study was conducted to inform the set up of the two performance contexts. Flow states were assessed on two separate occasions, (a) for the service performance, and (b) for the groundstroke performance. A total of 60 junior tennis athletes completed imagery and confidence measures before the field test.ResultsA significant interaction between imagery and confidence was found for flow state in the groundstroke but not in the service task. No significant interaction effects were found for performance outcome. Flow state significantly predicted groundstroke performance, and imagery and confidence predicted service performance.ConclusionsThe examination of flow in different performance contexts is challenging. Imagery and confidence are central to the experience of flow. Flow state appeared to be more important for the externally-paced than self-paced task. The relationship between flow and performance is complex, which requires the conceptual expansion of Kimiecik and Stein's (1992) flow model.     

Effects of pedestrian prompts on motorist yielding at crosswalks

Pedestrian safety is a serious concern at busy intersections and pedestrian campuses across the nation. Although crosswalks and signs inform pedestrians where to cross, there is no standard protocol for pedestrians to signal drivers that they wish to use the crosswalks, except to stand in or at the crosswalk. We examined the effects of two pedestrian prompts, a raised hand and extended arm, on motorist yielding at uncontrolled crosswalks. The two prompts were effective at increasing yielding.