Abstract
While pedestrian crossings play a vital role in providing seamless mobility for pedestrians, they have also continually been spaces of negotiation, contestation, and conflicts between and among different users. Several evidences have shown that such conflict has always been costly, risky, and even fatal to pedestrians. This research aims to assess the pedestrian crossing from an operational perspective in one emerging Chinese city, Suzhou. To evaluate, this research has developed three indices associated with vehicle encountering (VE index), crossing time (CT index) and H-index which refers to audio-sensory perception or a count on the number of horns. This research used video and audio recordings on sample pedestrian crossings. Pedestrians encountered 1.16 vehicles on average when crossing at the sample roads. The average CT index was 1.19 signifying that pedestrians waited for 19% more than their seamless walking when there was no pedestrian crossing. The H index was 5.8 on average at peak time, meaning that there were 5.8 horns (Hs) from vehicles every one minute or approximately one H per every 10 s at a pedestrian crossing. The analysis of these three indices was strengthened by multilevel regression and multi-variable regression analyses. The paper concludes with insights on how the level of safety of inferior walking environments associated with ambiguous traffic rules, vehicle-prioritised traffic behaviours and passive roles of traffic police officers can be improved.
Highlights
While walking is an almost universal activity that is most affordable, inclusive and easy to do, it has continued to be one of the most dangerous activities participated in by everyone on a regular basis
Forty-five percent of Road traffic injury (RTI)-related pedestrian deaths occurred in low-income countries and 29 percent in middle-income countries, while only 17 percent of pedestrian deaths were found in high-income countries [2]
Illegal crossing has been reported as the main cause of pedestrian crashes [3,4,5], the need to examine the operational condition of pedestrian crossings becomes imperative
Summary
While walking is an almost universal activity that is most affordable, inclusive and easy to do, it has continued to be one of the most dangerous activities participated in by everyone on a regular basis. Road traffic injury (RTI)-related pedestrian deaths, varied depending on a country’s development level. One of the most common type of crashes resulting in pedestrian deaths generally involves pedestrians who are crossing the road. While conflicts between pedestrians and vehicles have generally been costly, risky, and fatal, these occurrences have often been blamed on the more vulnerable road user, the pedestrian. A study has found that approximately 40 percent of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts happening at intersections had been blamed on pedestrians [3]. This assertion is further supported by the fact that a high proportion of pedestrians participate in illegal crossing behaviours. Illegal crossing has been reported as the main cause of pedestrian crashes [3,4,5], the need to examine the operational condition of pedestrian crossings becomes imperative
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