Re-Examination of PV 2 Criteria for Developing Pedestrian Crossing Warrants

Abstract

Abstract There are several guideline documents on pedestrian crossing warrants which are followed around the world to ensure safe pedestrian crossings. Peak hour pedestrian volume (P) and vehicular volume (V) are two most commonly used factors in these guidelines. PV 2 is a criteria which is used in guideline documents in India, Iran and several parts of UK to identify the need of warranting a particular mid-block location. These guidelines report a benchmark value, in the excess of which the location should be warranted. These guidelines fail to identify the type of crossing facility which should be provided in the given conditions. So, there is a need to improve the existing pedestrian crossing warrants. For this, instead of discarding the PV 2 criteria completely, it should be re-examined and improved upon to arrive at a systematic approach to recommend the type of crossing facilities to be installed. Maximum peak hour pedestrian and vehicular volume have been ascertained for different road configurations, particularly for Two Lane Two Way Undivided, Three Lane Two Way Undivided, Four Lane Two Way Divided and Six Lane Two Way Divided roads. For each type of road configuration, a PV 2 matrix has been developed using the maximum volumes as the upper bounds. Further, known probability distributions have been fitted to values of PV 2 matrices. Threshold values have been proposed using the 15 th , 50 th and 85 th percentile values of the probability distribution. The ranges formed using these values have been used to classify the type of crossing facility to be installed using a systematic hierarchical approach. The warrant charts and PV 2 value ranges can be used to identify the need of a pedestrian crossing facility as well as the most appropriate crossing facility for the site based on the peak hour pedestrian volume and vehicular volume. This approach allows recommending a crossing facility chart based on the categorization of PV 2 values. This facility coded chart can be easily comprehended by field engineers to decide which facility needs to be provided at a particular location for the existing pedestrian and vehicular volume.