The social representation of the pedestrian in French and Asian cultures
Résumé
Society’s evolution is to be found in the development of friendly modes of mobility (walking or cycling) on environmental and health grounds (Lanzerdorf & Busch-Geertsema, 2014). A country’s progress in this field depends on its history and other characteristics that are specific to the culture and the environment. In this study we were concerned with the social representation of the pedestrian connected to the cultural environment, that is, the place of living and the culture of the country. With this in view we started from a characterization questionnaire to compare this representation among two groups of students, one French and one Asian. The items which have been found significantly different (Mann-Withney U test) testify to cultural specificities. With the second method (Fischer’s linear discriminant analysis) it can be concluded that there exists a certain homogeneity in the representation linked to the perception of attitudes and behavior of the pedestrian. The factors that can impact perception of the pedestrian are thus manifold, linked to cultural environments and practices but also to behavior that appears more universal.