Signalling security: An observational and game theory approach to inter-pedestrian psychology

• Published in: Transportation research. Part F, Traffic psychology and behaviour Vol. 86; pp. 238 - 251
• Main Authors: Wu, Yifei, Li, Hansong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2022; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Anxiety; Communication; Game theory; Mental health; Mental health care; Pedestrian safety; Pedestrians; Psychology; Public policy; Public safety; Safety management; Signaling; Signalling; Pedestrians; Anxiety; Signalling; Public safety; Game theory; Communication
• ISSN: 1369-8478; 1873-5517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.trf.2022.02.017

•Pedestrians experience mutualised anxiety, especially at night and in narrow public spaces, due to information asymmetry.•Pedestrians struggle to communicate distancing preferences, reveal their inclinations, and forecast alternative behaviours.•Game theory reveals Perfect Bayesian equilibria, but there exist communicative barriers to the optimisation of welfare.•We propose gestures, infrastructures, visual, audial, and haptic technologies to improve pedestrian safety and wellbeing. Whereas the mental health and personal safety of pedestrians have been the subject of both debates in the public sphere and discourses in social sciences, the interpersonal dynamic of citizens on foot remains so far unexplored. This paper takes a game-theoretical approach to the psychology, behaviour, and welfare of pedestrians, who experience different levels of mutualised anxiety and confidence in spontaneous encounters with strangers on the road. Through a combined method of survey, modelling, and theory, it proposes an equilibrium-analysis of inter-pedestrian signalling, as well as a set of public policy recommendations aimed to reduce unnecessary frictions, improve information transparency, and therefore promote public safety.