Abstract
Signalized intersections appear among urban locations with a high frequency of pedestrian injury. Due to the need to move large traffic volumes, a shared vehicle-pedestrian green phase is generally applied for turning vehicles and crossing pedestrians at intersections on busy urban roads. The shared green relies on a driver’s ability to yield to crossing pedestrians which, if it fails, may increase the risk of pedestrian injury. A solution suggested for improving pedestrian safety in such situations is to provide a leading pedestrian signal, i.e. the pedestrian green appears earlier than the vehicle green, forcing vehicles to give priority to the pedestrians already on the crossing. A field-study was conducted at two intersections in Tel-Aviv, Israel, to examine the impact of such a measure on pedestrian crossing conditions. The pedestrian green phase was brought forward by 3 seconds. The study analyzed changes in road user behaviors, in the crosswalk area, in the after period when the measure was activated compared to the before period. The results showed that following the measure’s application, the percentage of traffic lights’ cycles with giving-right-of-way to all pedestrians, at the beginning of green, increased to 97%-100% for pedestrians crossing from the sidewalk and to 94%-99% for those who crossed from the road median. In addition, improvements were observed in the provision of pedestrian right-of-way during the whole green phase. The measure did not affect the rate of vehicle-pedestrian conflicts due to low conflict occurrence at the study sites. Overall, the findings indicated positive changes in pedestrian crossing conditions, following the introduction of a leading pedestrian green. The increase in giving-right-of-way to pedestrians by turning vehicles is expected to contribute to improved pedestrian safety while crossing at signalized intersections.
Highlights
Walking is a basic mode of urban transport in various societies, with well-established health and environmental benefits stemming from increased physical activity and reduced air pollution [World Health Organisation (WHO), 2010, 2013]
Following the activation of the advanced pedestrian green, the percentage of cycles where all pedestrians received priority at the beginning of the green increased to 97–100% for those who crossed from the sidewalks and to 94–99% for those who crossed from the median; the increase was significant in most cases
This study examined the impacts of a leading pedestrian signal— an earlier appearance of the pedestrian green signal in shared green for right-turning vehicles and crossing pedestrians— on pedestrian crossing conditions at urban intersections
Summary
Walking is a basic mode of urban transport in various societies, with well-established health and environmental benefits stemming from increased physical activity and reduced air pollution [World Health Organisation (WHO), 2010, 2013]. Pedestrian injury is still one of major safety problems throughout the world, where pedestrians account for 23% of the total fatalities in road crashes in the world [World Health Organisation (WHO), 2018], and represent 40% of total fatalities and 25% of serious injuries on urban roads in Europe [European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), 2019]. It can be seen that, across various periods of observations, the level of vehicle traffic was relatively stable at the study sites in daytime hours but was more variable in evening hours. The average hourly numbers of turning vehicles were around 200 which corresponds to a low level of traffic volumes on urban roads. The amount of crossing pedestrians was high at site 1 and suited to a medium level at site 2 Given both lower numbers of turning vehicles and fewer crossing pedestrians in evening hours at site 2, some observational samples were small limiting the after-before comparisons
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