Abstract
Children pedestrians represent road users with some specifics because of which it is important to study and take into account their traffic behaviour when traffic infrastructure is designed. Design should ensure and enhance their traffic safety because for decades, traffic accidents have been among the first few causes of children and adolescent mortality. Pedestrian speed is one of the important inputs when pedestrian infrastructure, especially crosswalks, is designed. On corridors where children are expected on a daily basis as independent pedestrians, the infrastructure should be adjusted to their characteristics and needs. The results of a study conducted in two Croatian cities of a similar size but of different urban and traffic conditions are presented in this paper. This study aimed at establishing and analysing children’s pedestrian speed while crossing the signalized crosswalk in the buffer area of elementary schools, mostly on primary roads in the school vicinity. Children aged 5–15 were observed, and accordingly V15, V50, and V85 speeds were established on the basis of altogether 600 measurements. Speed was established for children walking individually, in a group and supervised by adults, and of a different age, and based on their gender, the impact of infrastructural elements on their speed in traffic was also analysed. Significant differences were found between children’s speed measured in similar conditions in analysed cities and between some of the analysed groups. This fact proves that when improving conditions for children’s independent movement, it is important to consider their specifics in order to ensure safe design adjusted to children’s needs and limitations. As design speed in this paper, 15 percentile speed (V15) is considered. Suggestions on how to establish children pedestrian speed for design of routes regularly used by school children are proposed as well as some inputs elicited from the study done in Croatia are presented.
Highlights
Traffic safety data show that for certain children age groups, traffic fatalities are among the first reasons for mortality, both globally and in the EU
If we consider 1.2 m/s as the designed speed for green and clearance time, quick analyses of data from locations considered in this study show that in Osijek around 30% of children walk slower than 1.2 m/s and in Rijeka only 10% of children walk slower than that. e results obtained in Rijeka can be related to the fact that on some of the analysed pedestrian crosswalks due to lower clearance time, higher crossing speeds than 1.2 m/s are expected, so children are forced to walk faster (See Table 1)
Preliminary analysis showed that for 2 of 14 crosswalks, the expected pedestrian speed during the green light for pedestrians is greater than 1.2 m/s, and when analysing the expected speed of pedestrians in the “clearance time,” it was shown that on 6 out of 14 pedestrian crosswalks the children should cross the street at a speed higher than 1.2 m/s. e problem is more pronounced in the city of Rijeka than in Osijek, where the pedestrian times are generally shorter for the same length of the pedestrian crosswalk
Summary
Traffic safety data show that for certain children age groups, traffic fatalities are among the first reasons for mortality, both globally and in the EU. Numerous researches and studies have been carried out to determine the reasons and the relevant impacts both on children’s behaviour and on their fatality rates as pedestrians. Analysis of the available studies shows that the assumption of relevant walking speed values as well as the application of uniform walking speed standards for different conditions is not justified and that for the enhancement of traffic safety at children’s school routes, the local analysis of children’s behaviour parameters is important. E aim was to analyse and determine the movement speed of children at signalized pedestrian crosswalks in specific local conditions of two cities with a very similar number of inhabitants but, considering the spatial location, with very different population and urban density, Rijeka and Osijek. Drivers in Rijeka, on average, drive more temperamentally, have a shorter reaction time, and enter risky situations more often than what the average indicators show for drivers in Osijek. is is consistently confirmed by numerical traffic safety indicators; so, for 2019, in Rijeka we have 16 traffic accidents per 1000 inhabitants and 0.9 dead and seriously injured persons in traffic, while the same indicators for Osijek are 7 and 0.6, respectively [7]
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