Pedestrian safety in Belgium Do pedestrians comply with traffic - - PDF document

Do pedestrians comply with traffic lights in Belgian cities?

Kevin Diependaele

Pedestrian safety in Belgium

All road users Pedestrians # Fatalities 30 days % Pedestrians Fatalaties 30 days

• Pedestrian hit by car
• Urban area
• Crossing pedestrian
• Pedestrian crossing without traffic

lights

• In-depth research (international):

Often (> 50%) caused by inappropriate looking behaviour by pedestrian …

Prototype of pedestrian accident in Belgium

• Brussels (Populer 2014): ±40% of

accidents caused by violation of pedestrian = starts crossing at a red light

• Australia (King et al. 2009): Accident

risks 8 eight times larger in case of red light violations

• Belgium (BIVV 2012): Belgians

generally consider crossing at a red light as very dangerous (72th perc.)

Research at signalized crossings

Safer pedestrian traffic

Safer pedestrian traffic: current study

Influence of infrastructure Influence of traffic volume Prevalence red light violations Influence of other pedestrians Influence of time and weather

• During exactly 15 minutes …

Observations

• During exactly 15 minutes …

Observations

Number of pedestrians that starts crossing at and

• During exactly 15 minutes …

Observations

Number of vehicles that passes during green Number of pedestrians that starts crossing at and

• During exactly 15 minutes …

Observations

Number of phases Number of pedestrians that starts crossing at and Number of vehicles that passes during green

Observations

• Antwerp

132 x 15’

• Mons

132 x 15’

• Bruges

132 x 15’

• Brussels

2 x 132 x 15’

• Charleroi

132 x 15’

• Ghent

132 x 15’

• Leuven

132 x 15’

• Liège

132 x 15’

• Namur

132 x 15’

Observations 1320 x 15’

• From 10/09/’14 to 20/09/’14 (mon -

sat)

• 9 cities
• 8 intersections (BXL 16)
• 4 crossing

– ±4 x 15’

• Crossings with high frequency of

pedestrian and motor vehicle traffic

Observations 1320 x 15’

# Pedestrians # Pedestrians # Vehicles # Phases

# Directions # Lanes/direction Tram/bus lane Tram/bus station Push button Visual support Auditory support Visible zebra marking Time of the day Weather conditions

Multivariate generalized linear mixed model

• On the average pedestrian crossing per 15’

Results with 69211 observed pedestrians

89 vehicles 10 phases 16.9 pedestrians at and 4.4 at

Results

Influence of infrastructure Influence of vehicles Prevalence red light violations ~ 21% Influence of other pedestrians Influence of time and weather

Results

Influence of infrastructure Influence of traffic volume? Prevalence red light violations ~ 21% Influence of other pedestrians Influence of time and weather

Influence of traffic volume

# vehicles / 15’

# Pedestrians / 15’ % Red light violations

Results

Influence of infrastructure Influence of vehicles Prevalence red light violations ~ 21% Influence of other pedestrians? Influence of time and weather

Influence of other pedestrians

# pedestrians / 15’

# Red light violations / 15’ % Red light violations

Results

Influence of infrastructure? Influence of vehicles Prevalence red light violations ~ 21% Influence of other pedestrians Influence of time and weather?

Results Results

n.s. n.s.

• On an average signalized pedestrians crossing in an urban area in Belgium,

we observe that in 21% of the pedestrians start crossing at a red light.

• The prevalence of red light running varies greatly, given many significantly

associated variables.

Conclusions

• Pedestrians do not cross arbitrarily; effects of traffic volumes, driving

directions, number of lanes, tram/bus lanes and time of the day clearly indicate risk assessment.

• Irrespective of risk involved in individual actions, frequent violations are by

definition problematic.

Conclusions

Safer pedestrian traffic

Safer pedestrian traffic kevin.diependaele@bivv.be

E(# Voetgangers) = 16,9 E(# Voetgangers) = 4,4 E(# Voertuigen) = 89 E(# Fases) = 10