<p>The increasing prevalence of automated vehicles (AVs) in urban environments requires effective communication between AVs and other road users—including both pedestrians and manually driven vehicles (MVs)—to ensure safety and a smooth traffic flow. While prior research has primarily focused on one-to-one interactions such as AV-pedestrian scenarios, real-world traffic situations often involve mixed road user types, leading to communication ambiguities. This study investigates how an external human–machine interface (eHMI) can facilitate communication in complex traffic scenes involving AVs, MVs, and pedestrians. A virtual reality-based experiment was conducted, in which participants acted as pedestrians in a scenario involving an AV yielding to both an MV and a pedestrian. Five types of eHMI designs and two MV driver gaze conditions (eye contact vs. no eye contact) were tested. The results indicated that the clarity of eHMI messages and their perceived addressees significantly influenced participants’ comprehension of the AV’s yielding intent and their decision to begin walking. Notably, pictograms explicitly depicting pedestrians were most effective, as they conveyed both the AV’s intention and the communication target. These findings suggest that, in mixed traffic conditions, eHMI designs must clearly indicate both the intention and the intended recipient to avoid miscommunication and enhance traffic cooperation.</p>