Evaluation of pedestrian safety in unsignalized T and X – Intersections through comparison of the frequency and severity of pedestrian conflicts

Abstract

Accidents have an increasing trend during the last decades leading to the importance of safety analysis of traffic facilities. There is a lack of quantity and quality of crash information in nations like India. Conflicts based analysis is better than crash based analysis in these cases. This paper aims to compare the safety of T and X-intersections using the Pedestrian Vehicle Conflicts Analysis (PVCA) method using data extracted from the videographic survey. This paper also aims at the use of Vissim and Surrogate Safety Assessment Models to suggest remedial measures. The PVCA method showed that controlled intersections are safer than uncontrolled intersections. The restriction of many pedestrian crossings to two crossings led to a reduction in conflicts as per the simulation results. It reduced the pedestrian conflicts at the T-intersection by 24.11 percent and X-intersection by 31.46 percent. A practical option to reduce conflicts is the prohibition of jaywalking within the influence area of an intersection during peak hours.