Assessing Mobile Phone-Related Risky Behaviors on Pedestrian Safety at Signalized Crossings

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-972-8_15How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Distractions; Mobile Phones; Pedestrians; Signalized Intersection; Crossing

Abstract

Mobile phone use has expanded beyond communication to activities such as texting, browsing, and listening to music. While convenient, its use among pedestrians raises safety concerns, particularly at signalized crossings in urban areas. Distractions from mobile phones reduce situational awareness, de-lay response times, and increase collision risks. In high-traffic cities like Kuala Lumpur, understanding these distractions is crucial for improving pedestrian safety. This study investigates mobile phone-related risky behaviours at signalized intersections, focusing on ear-hold calls, holding the phone, texting, and using earphones or headphones. Observations were conducted over five days at a busy intersection in Bukit Bintang, where data were recorded and analysed using binary logistic regression. Findings indicate that holding a phone was the most common distraction, with significant variations across gender, age, and race. Female pedestrians were more likely to hold their phones but less likely to engage in ear-hold calls. Adults had the highest mobile phone usage while crossing, whereas older pedestrians showed lower engagement in texting. Differences were also observed among ethnic groups, with Chinese pedestrians more likely to use ear-hold calls and Indian pedestrians having higher odds of texting. These behaviours highlight the risks of mobile phone distractions, particularly in urban environments where pedestrian safety is a growing concern. Addressing these risks requires targeted interventions, including public awareness campaigns, safety policies, and urban design improvements. Enhancing pedestrian safety at cross-ings through strategic measures can help reduce mobile phone-related distractions and minimize potential road traffic conflicts.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Rusdi Rusli
AU  - Syazwani Samingan
AU  - Puteri Intan Solha Salim
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/29
TI  - Assessing Mobile Phone-Related Risky Behaviors on Pedestrian Safety at Signalized Crossings
BT  - Proceedings of the 14th Asia-Pacific Conference on Transportation and the Environment (APTE 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 148
EP  - 160
SN  - 2589-4943
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-972-8_15
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-972-8_15
ID  - Rusli2025
ER  -