Young drivers represent a high-risk group worldwide, with their overrepresentation in road trauma placing substantial pressure on health and economic systems. Their crashes are often linked to risky driving behaviors, accentuating the need for reliable instruments to assess these patterns. The Behavior of Young Novice Drivers Scale (BYNDS) was developed to comprehensively assess multiple dimensions of risky driving behavior in drivers aged 17–29 years; however, it has not yet undergone cross-cultural validation. Aim This study aimed to conduct a comprehensive cross-cultural validation of the BYNDS and examine differences in risky driving behaviors among young drivers from Low- and Middle-Income (LMIC) and High-Income (HIC) countries. Method Data were collected from a cross-sectional sample of n = 3,989 young drivers aged M = 22.25 years, of whom 52 % were male and 48 % female. Participants completed the BYNDS, a 44-item behavioral questionnaire administered across 12 countries (48.6 % LMICs; 51.4 % HICs) spanning five continents. Results The findings indicate that the BYNDS supports a five-factor structure with good fit indices, strong factor loadings, and acceptable reliability, and invariance between countries of different income levels. Furthermore, the validated BYNDS-42 (comprising 42 items distributed across five factors) also showed the ability to distinguish between drivers with and without self-reported crashes or traffic fines. Conclusion This study provides robust evidence supporting the cross-cultural validity and reliability of the BYNDS, reinforcing its value as a tool for assessing young driver behavior. These findings offer empirically grounded insights that can inform behavioral interventions aimed at improving young drivers’ road safety.

Promoting public transport is widely regarded as a key strategy for advancing sustainability. However, concerns about women's safety continue to pose a significant barrier to its regular use. A growing number of studies have highlighted the vulnerability of female commuters to harassment and crime, yet there is limited evidence on how these experiences –and the fears they generate– translate into changes in travel behavior. This knowledge gap makes it difficult to develop evidence-based interventions. Accordingly, this study examined the interrelations between sexual harassment, fear of crime, and travel-related behavioral adaptations among female public transport users in Spain. The analysis was based on a cross-sectional sample of 720 female public transport commuters. The average age of participants was 29 years. They responded to an e-survey addressing commuting patterns, perceptions of safety, and behavioral responses. Our results suggest that both direct and indirect experiences of harassment are consistently associated with higher levels of fear of crime, which in turn influence changes in travel behavior. Specifically, fear of crime was found to partially mediate the relationship between harassment and travel-related adaptations. These findings provide further insight into how psychological and contextual factors shape women's use of public transport, and highlight the need to address not only actual incidents but also the broader perception of insecurity.

Population aging is a macrosocial trend with growing implications for mobility and public health. In the coming decades, many countries are expected to experience a marked increase in the average age of their populations, raising new challenges for healthcare and mobility systems. The promotion of active mobility, widely supported in the literature for its role in maintaining health in later life, has gained visibility. However, it remains unclear whether existing digital tools, such as lifestyle apps, effectively contribute to this goal. Methods: This study examined the effectiveness of applications and tools designed to promote walking among older adults through a systematic literature review, complemented by additional sources, including sentiment analysis of user reviews. Results: Many walking apps offer features such as step tracking and personalization, but few address both physical activity and social isolation simultaneously. Available evidence suggests potential benefits in gait quality, balance, and reduced sedentary behavior in specific contexts. User feedback also points to high satisfaction, especially with simple and accessible interfaces. However, the scientific literature supporting these outcomes remains limited in scope and generalizability. Conclusion and practical insights: This multi-source review suggests that walking apps may support more active lifestyles among older adults, though current evidence is not yet conclusive. Future app development should prioritize usability and incorporate features that address both physical and social well-being, while ensuring accessibility and affordability for a broader range of users.

Background: Many factors are associated with pedestrian injuries and accidents. If a pedestrian is injured in an outdoor public space, we are talking about a “pedestrian fall”. Pedestrian falls are a more common cause of pedestrian injuries than traffic crashes but have received less attention and the literature on this topic is scarce. Aims and methods: The aim of this work is to describe at a general level the prevalence and consequences of pedestrian falls and injuries, to make international comparisons of pedestrian falls and to identify risk factors and not least to examine the relationships between the prevalence of falls and pedestrian risk behaviour. A total of 6,373 participants from 15 different countries were recruited to take part in this study. To collect data a questionnaire was used. To cover the risky behaviour of pedestrians we used a short version of Pedestrians Behaviour Scale (PBS). In order to identify groups of countries with a similar pedestrian transport situation, a hierarchical cluster analysis was performed. The analysis produced four groups of countries based on pedestrians’ safety level, popularity of walking and GDP. Results and conclusions: As for the results, we can conclude that young people and older people are more frequently involved in falls and that women report more frequent involvement in falls than males. However, the risk of getting injured in a fall is not higher than that of men. Frequent walking is associated with a lower risk of falling while walking. In contrast to this, physical activity increases such risk. The prevalence of falls and injuries seems to be weakly related to pedestrians’ risky behaviour, thus other factors such as safety infrastructure probably play an important role.

Introduction. Technological advancements have the potential to enhance people’s quality of life, but their misuse can have a detrimental impact on safety. A notable example is the escalating issue of distracted driving resulting from the use of mobile phones behind the wheel, leading to severe crashes and injuries. Despite these concerns, both drivers’ usage patterns and their risk-related associations remain scarcely documented in Mexico. Therefore, this descriptive study aimed to examine the mobile phone usage of Mexican drivers, its relationships to risk awareness and near-miss/crash involvement, and the self-reported underlying reasons for this behavior. Methods. This cross-sectional study utilized a sample of 1,353 licensed Mexican drivers who took part in a nationwide series of interviews regarding their onboard phone use settings. Results. A significant percentage of drivers (96.8%) recognize using a mobile phone while driving as high-risk behavior. However, only 7.4% reported completely avoiding its use while driving, with 22.4% identified as high-frequency users. Frequency was also found positively associated with the self-reported rate of near-misses and crashes. Furthermore, qualitative data analysis highlights the emergence of a ‘sense of urgency’ to attend to phone-related tasks in response to daily demands and life dynamics, offering a potential explanation for this behavior. Conclusion. The results of this study suggest common patterns of onboard mobile use among Mexican drivers concerning driving situations and associated risks. This underscores the need for increased efforts to discourage onboard phone use in the country.

Cyclists are vulnerable road users and face disproportionately high rates of road trauma, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Behaviour of road users is a system outcome, and thus studying cyclist behaviours can identify problems in the whole road transport system and assist in generating long-lasting, cost-effective solutions to promote cyclist safety. This study aims to investigate the similarities and disparities of cycling behaviour among countries with different income levels and cycling prevalence, and the relationships among cyclist demographic characteristics, behaviours and crash involvement. It applies the Cycling Behaviour Questionnaire (CBQ) to measure the behaviour of cyclists in three countries: Australia (high-income, emerging cycling country), China (mid-income, traditional cycling country) and Colombia (low-income, emerging cycling country). A total of 1094 cyclists (Australia 347, China 368, and Colombia 379) with a mean age of 31.8 years completed the online questionnaire. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to examine the factorial structure of the CBQ. The results showed that the three-factor CBQ (i.e., Traffic Violations, Errors and Positive Behaviours) had a stable and uniform factorial structure across all three countries. Cyclists reported more frequent positive behaviours than risky behaviours across all three countries. The Australian cyclists reported more positive behaviours and fewer violations than cyclists from the other countries, which is likely to reflect the road environment, policy and enforcement differences. Male cyclists tended to engage in more risky riding than females and reported more crash involvement. Older cyclists reported less risky riding and less involvement in crashes than younger cyclists. Cyclists who rode more often reported more frequent risky riding. The study helps understand the prevalence of risky/positive cyclist behaviours among countries and provides insights for developing systematic countermeasures to improve cycling environment and cyclist safety.

Alcohol is a global risk factor for road trauma. Although drink driving has received most of the scholarly attention, there is growing evidence of the risks of alcohol-impaired walking. Alcohol-impaired pedestrians are over-represented in fatal crashes compared to non-impaired pedestrians. Additionally, empirical evidence shows that alcohol intoxication impairs road-crossing judgements. Besides some limited early research, much is unknown about the global prevalence and determinants of alcohol-impaired walking. Understanding alcohol-impaired walking will support health promotion initiatives and injury prevention. The present investigation has three aims: (1) compare the prevalence of alcohol-impaired walking across countries; (2) identify international groups of pedestrians based on psychosocial factors (i.e., Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and perceptions of risk); and (3) investigate how segments of pedestrians form their intention for alcohol-impaired walking using the extended TPB (i.e. subjective norm, attitudes, perceived control, and perceived risk). A cross-sectional design was applied. The target behaviour question was “have you been a pedestrian when your thinking or physical ability (balance/strength) is affected by alcohol?” to ensure comparability across countries. Cluster analysis based on the extended TPB was used to identify groups of countries. Finally, regressions were used to predict pedestrians’ intentions per group. A total of 6,166 respondents (Age M(SD) = 29.4 (14.2); Males = 39.2%) completed the questionnaire, ranging from 12.6% from Russia to 2.2% from Finland. The proportion of participants who reported never engaging in alcohol-impaired walking in the last three months ranged from 30.1% (Spain) to 83.1% (Turkey). Four groups of countries were identified: group-1 (Czech Republic, Spain, and Australia), group-2 (Russia and Finland), group-3 (Japan), and group-4 (final ten countries including Colombia, China, and Romania). Pedestrian intentions to engage in alcohol- impaired walking are predicted by perceptions of risk and TPB-psychosocial factors in group-1 and group-4. Favourable TPB-beliefs and low perceived risk increased alcohol-impaired walking intentions. Conversely, subjective norms were not significant in group-2 and only perceived risk predicted intention in group-3. The willingness of pedestrians to walk when alcohol-impaired differs significantly across the countries in this study. Perceived risk was the only common predictor among the 16 countries.

Introduction: Research on pedestrians’ behavior and safety in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) is scarce, compared to high-income economies. This study aimed to present the validation of the Walking Behavior Questionnaire (WBQ), which has not been tested before in the Dominican Republic, and to evaluate age differences in walking-related self-reported behaviors. Methods: For this study, a nationwide sample of 1026 pedestrians answered a questionnaire on risky and safe walking behaviors. Psychometric properties of the WBQ, variable correlations and age-based differences in walking were tested. Results: Overall, the WBQ presented an adequate structure, goodness-of-fit indexes, and high reliability. Significant correlations between walking-related variables and demographic factors, as well as key differences in walking behaviors among young people, adults, and aging adults were found. Conclusions: These results provide a strong background for assessing walking behaviors through the WBQ (for the first time in an LMIC), as -apart from presenting fair psychometric properties-it highlights the existence of walking pattern-related and demographic differences in the risky behaviors performed by pedestrians. Implications: In practical settings, this is the first large-scale behavioral questionnaire-based research on pedestrian safety conducted in the Dominican Republic, whose outcomes support the value of implementing effective evidence-based policies and educational interventions that consider age-related specificities for strengthening both healthier and safer walking. Furthermore, these implications may be applied in other countries of the region or with similar socio-economic features.

The Behaviour of Young Novice Drivers Scale (BYNDS) is a self-report instrument to assess risky driving behaviours among youth population. Although previous studies have offered evidences of reliability and validity for the BYNDS scores, results are not conclusive as regards its factor structure. The aim of this research was to assess the factor structure of the BYNDS via Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA). The BYNDS was administered to a sample of 832 drivers aged from 18 to 25 years (Argentina = 270, Colombia = 350, and Mexico = 212). Six models were examined: three derived from previous literature, one emerged from an exploratory factor analysis, a unidimensional model, and a bifactor model. Results showed that none of the models analysed offered a completely acceptable fit to the data. However, the original model hypothesizing five orthogonal factors showed the best fit indices, with all of the items loading onto the associated factor. Results of the bifactor analysis suggested that three of the subscales (transient violations, fixed violations, and misjudgements) share a strong common basis and their scores would not offer much information above and beyond the total score. On the contrary, the items in the subscale of risk-exposure are clearly influenced by a specific domain factor, contributing to the multidimensionality of the BYNDS. In line with previous studies, males scored higher than females in driving violations, fixed violations, and risk-exposure. This study contributes to the psychometric refinement of a novel measure of risky driving in youth population. This self-report could be a valuable tool in the evaluation of road safety performance.

The increasing number of registered road crashes involving cyclists during the last decade and the high proportion of road crashes resulting in severe injuries and fatalities among cyclists constitutes a global issue for community health, urban development and sustainability. Nowadays, the incidence of many risk factors for road crashes of cyclists remains largely unexplained. Given the importance of this issue, the present study has been conducted with the aim of determining relationships between infrastructural, human factors and safety outcomes of cyclists. Objectives: This study aimed, first, to examine the relationship between key infrastructural and human factors present in cycling, bicycle-user characteristics and their self-reported experience with road crashes. And second, to determine whether a set of key infrastructural and human factors may predict their self-reported road crashes. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, a total of 1064 cyclists (38.8% women, 61.2% men; M = 32.8 years of age) from 20 different countries across Europe, South America and North America, participated in an online survey composed of four sections: demographic data and cycling-related factors, human factors, perceptions on infrastructural factors and road crashes suffered. Results: The results of this study showed significant associations between human factors, infrastructural conditions and self-reported road crashes. Also, a logistic regression model found that self-reported road crashes of cyclists could be predicted through variables such as age, riding intensity, risky behaviours and problematic user/infrastructure interactions. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that self-reported road crashes of cyclists are influenced by features related to the user and their interaction with infrastructural characteristics of the road.