Role of Cultural and Attitudinal Factors on Pedestrians Behaviour among Males and Females in Tehran and Karaj

Aberrant behaviours of pedestrians have been subject of very limited studies in the country. International studies are also mainly limited to social cognition theories (particularly theory of planned behaviour) and road users other than pedestrians. The present study aims to investigate differences in walking aberrant behaviours (attention violation, transgression and aggressive behaviours) among males and females, considering behavioural precursors of safety attitudes and cultural variables. A sample of respondents (N=293) from Tehran and Karaj with average 37.6 year old (SD=16.7) including males (51.9%) and females (48.1%) responded to a questionnaire composed of cultural, attitudinal and behavioural instruments. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to draw the structure of latent variables. Structural equation modeling was used to determine the causative relations between the variables. Results showed that while the all factors (except transgression) are not statistically significant among male and female groups (p<0.05), The behavioural structures are different in males and females. According to this structure, Collectivism (horizontal and vertical) (B=0.331, p<0.001) and vertical individualism (B=0.315, p<0.001) improve the safety attitudes in females. Furthermore, effect of safety attitudes on behaviour is stronger in males (B=-0.837) than in females (B=-0.730). The paper discusses the implications of results.