Development of on-site poster to influence pedestrian jaywalking behavior

Jaywalking and distracted walking behaviors are traffic violations that contribute significantly to road traffic crashes, including crashes at intersections. Jaywalking blitzes by police after pedestrian crashes may not address many of the issues that cause the vast majority of these crashes. One common approach adopted to strengthen enforcement methods is a publicity and awareness campaign. Despite the prevalence of communication campaigns and road safety signage, relatively few studies have been conducted to examine their efficacies, with few messages having been designed using behavioral change theories, especially for pedestrian safety. This study aims to design an intersection safety poster to influence jay walking behavior. The design applied several theoretical constructs from well-established behavioral change models. A questionnaire survey of the perceived efficacy of the poster was administered to a sample of 754 respondents in Melbourne. Preliminary results show that the poster had a positive effect on respondents' adaptive intentions. The results demonstrate the importance of using a well-established conceptual framework in the development and testing of road safety messages. In future, an evaluation study will be conducted to test effectiveness of the poster