Pedestrian behaviours: Validation of the Serbian version of the pedestrian behaviour scale

• Pedestrian Behaviour Scale (PBS) was confirmed among the participants in Serbia.
• Pedestrians in Serbia distinguish between violations, errors and lapses.
• Violation items contained questions related to the use of mobile phones.
• Men pedestrians in Serbia make significantly more violations than women.
• The increase in daily distances walked in Serbia leads to the increase in errors.

Statistics show that each year a great number of pedestrians in Serbia are killed in traffic accidents. The purpose of this paper is to determine the frequency of some risky behaviours of pedestrians in traffic in Serbia. The current version of Pedestrian Behaviour Scale (PBS) was conducted among the participants in Serbia, but it was also improved by the addition of questions concerning the use of mobile phones while crossing the street. The questions were divided into 5 characteristic separate groups (violations, errors, lapses, aggressive and positive behaviours), confirmed by factor analyses. The results shown that pedestrians in Serbia distinguish between violations, errors and lapses, which in the studies conducted to date in other countries was not the case. The greatest number of violations in Serbia is made by young persons and persons who walk by necessity, while persons who walk for pleasure and who walk the shortest distances show the biggest number of lapses. The oldest persons and females generally showed positive behaviours to other road users, while the increase of daily distances walked led to the increase of errors and positive behaviours.