External human–machine interfaces (eHMIs) serve as communication bridges between autonomous vehicles (AVs) and road users, ensuring that vehicles convey information clearly to those around them. While their potential has been explored in one-to-one contexts, the effectiveness of eHMIs in complex, real-world scenarios with multiple pedestrians remains relatively unexplored. Addressing this gap, our study provides an in-depth evaluation of how various eHMI displays affect pedestrian behavior. The research aimed to identify eHMI configurations that most effectively convey an AV’s information, thereby enhancing pedestrian safety. Incorporating a mixed-methods approach, our study combined controlled outdoor experiments, involving 31 participants initially and 14 in a follow-up session, supplemented by an intercept survey involving 171 additional individuals. The participants were exposed to various eHMI displays in crossing scenarios to measure their impact on pedestrian perception and crossing behavior. Our findings reveal that the integration of a flashing green LED, robotic sign, and countdown timer constitutes the most effective eHMI display. This configuration notably increased pedestrians’ willingness to cross and decreased their response times, indicating a strong preference and enhanced concept understanding. These findings lay the groundwork for future developments in AV technology and traffic safety, potentially guiding policymakers and manufacturers in creating safer urban environments.

Public transport recovery after major disruptions depends not only on passenger demand but also on how quickly service supply is adjusted. This study examines demand–supply dynamics in Saudi Arabia’s intercity bus network using 158,871 route-month observations from 2016 to 2022. Monthly passengers, departures, supplied seat capacity, and a seat-based capacity-utilization ratio were analyzed using segmented interrupted time-series models with Newey–West robust standard errors, a stacked demand–supply specification, route fixed-effects models, and sensitivity analyses. At the March 2020 pandemic onset, passenger demand declined by an estimated 75.6%, whereas reported supplied seat capacity fell by 88.4%; the difference was statistically significant. This initial asymmetry coincided with the government-mandated suspension of domestic bus service and should not be interpreted solely as a discretionary operator response. Reported supplied seats increased by 70.5% between September and October 2021 across both pilgrimage and non-pilgrimage corridors. Raw-data checks show that departures increased by only 3.4%, while the departure-weighted rated capacity increased from 24.0 to 39.6 seats. The discontinuity therefore reflects a change in the reported vehicle-capacity mix and may include operational restoration or administrative reclassification. By 2022, annual ridership reached 4.39 million passengers, or 91.7% of the 2019 level. The findings show that demand-only measures can obscure important operational dimensions of public transport resilience, while also demonstrating the need to validate administrative capacity fields before interpreting abrupt supply changes.