Study of accidents at mid-block pedestrian crossings

Abstract

All Pedestrian accidents in Sri Lanka in last four years from 2010 to 2013 are 20.89%, 17.65%, 17.53% and 18.51% of total accidents respectively. Among these, pedestrian crossing accidents are 17.89%, 15.20%, 17.85% and 18.17% respectively. In which, midblock pedestrian crossing accidents are 81.88%, 79.56%, 81.20% and 77.08%. Thus, midblock pedestrian crossing accidents are more than 75% of the pedestrian crossing accidents. This study focus on identifying factors that have contributed to such high numbers of accidents such as the design of road and vehicle, factors affecting pedestrian crossings visibility and attitude of drivers and pedestrians. The method used to evaluate this is quantitative, which analyses mid-block pedestrian crossing accidents for four hundred kilometers from A03, A12, A09 and A20 roads and interview of hundred drivers and pedestrians. At presents 40% of the ‘A’ Class roads in Sri Lanka have wider and asphalted pavements. Maximum allowed speed in these roads is 70 km/hr. Most of the vehicles at present are in good condition than that of in the past. Speed control mechanisms are not strictly followed in Sri Lanka compared to developed countries. Thus, 70% of the interviewed drivers drive more than allowed speed. Therefore, they face difficulties to control speed in Pedestrian crossing. In this research, 100% of the pedestrian crossing constructions are not suitable for handicapped people and 65% haven’t proper stud and material. Based on interviewed data, 50% of the drivers and 45% of pedestrians do not use pedestrian crossing properly. Due to the head and dim light elimination, visibility of pedestrian crossing is affected. Some of the vehicles such as three wheelers head light brightness is higher that of other vehicles. This also affects the visibility of pedestrian crossing. 10% sign boards in my research are not constructed in proper location. Visibility of these signboards is affected by obstacles such as trees and poles. 15% pedestrian crossing visibility is affected by sag, crest and super elevation. White colour road markings visibility is higher at night than yellow colour markings used for pedestrian markings.

University of Moratuwa TED Transport Research Forum 2015 The results indicate that mid-block pedestrian crossings accidents are influenced by combination of design of road and vehicles, factors affecting visibility of pedestrian crossings and attitude of pedestrian and drivers.