Analysing pedestrian–vehicle conflict behaviours at urban pedestrian crossings

Abstract

Pedestrian safety has become a serious problem with the rapid growth of motorised vehicles in transportation systems in developing countries. Pedestrians often respond differently to changes in surrounding and traffic conditions. A study was undertaken to investigate pedestrians’ gap acceptance and the parameters affecting their risk-taking behaviours based on time to collision (TTC) and post-encroachment time (PET) indexes. Three signallised intersections and two mid-block crossings were selected in Qazvin, Iran. A total of 752 pedestrians were examined by video recording and field observation, and pedestrians’ gap acceptance behaviour was estimated by using a binary logit model. The results showed that the average TTC and PET were 4.27 and 1.44 s, respectively. In addition, the presence of children alongside the older pedestrians led to a less risk-taking crossing. Additionally, pedestrian risk-taking was reduced by increasing both time indexes. Rainy weather conditions also reduced pedestrians’ risk-taking behaviour. Elasticity analysis indicated that parameters such as pedestrians’ conflict with vehicles at the first or second half of the crossings, walking with a child, speed of the approaching vehicle, the crossing type and running while crossing were the most important factors in pedestrian risk-taking.