Elsevier

Accident Analysis & Prevention

Volume 55, June 2013, Pages 185-191
Accident Analysis & Prevention

Influence of approaching tram on behaviour of pedestrians in signalised crosswalks in Poland

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2013.03.015Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We check the influence of approaching tram on pedestrian will to violate a red signal.

  • We conclude that approaching tram may influence pedestrian behaviour.

  • Pedestrians attempting to catch a tram accept higher risk.

  • If other reasons for violating red signal are strong, tram influence may be negligible.

Abstract

Research done in two Polish cities has uncovered an influence of an approaching tram on pedestrian behaviour. The measurements were done by counting pedestrians waiting for a green signal, crossing on red signal safely, or crossing on red signal taking a risk of being hit by a car, differentiating between pedestrians attempting to board a public transport vehicle and other pedestrians. It was expected, that pedestrian behaviour might be influenced by traffic control predictability, therefore two cities were chosen for the task: Wrocław with fixed time traffic control and Poznań with a majority of traffic responsive traffic signals. Data from the measurements was compared in order to find behaviour patterns – the comparison led to a conclusion, that an attempt to get on board of an incoming public transport vehicle can be a major cause for pedestrians to violate a red signal, including an increase of unsafe behaviour. These pedestrians may provoke other pedestrians to cross on a red signal. On the other hand if traffic control guarantees boarding the public transport vehicle, passengers-to-be may be even more obedient than other pedestrians.

Introduction

Research presented in this paper shows an influence of a tram approaching a public transport stop on pedestrian compliance with the traffic rules. Obviously, the problem is not connected with the sole existence of such stop, but with pedestrians’ desire to board a certain public transport vehicle. The objective is to identify if this desire has a visible effect on pedestrians’ willingness to violate the traffic rules and to risk a traffic accident.

One of the places, where pedestrians are put at risk of being involved in an accident with a motor vehicle, is a crosswalk. Some crosswalks are equipped with traffic signals, designed in general to improve vehicular traffic flow, but also segregating traffic streams in time. Such segregation should, in theory, improve pedestrian safety in such crosswalks, but only if the pedestrians and drivers stop when the traffic signals are red (Garder, 1989). Many pedestrians, however, disobey these rules, therefore a research aimed at understanding motives of such behaviour, in context of observed and potential conflicts (Hyden, 1990), becomes necessary. Since the problem of pedestrian compliance with the traffic rules proved to be complex, researchers have separated it into elementary behavioural elements: Bernhoft and Carstensen (2008) studied an influence of age and gender, Tom and Granie (2011) proved that women are more eager to comply with the traffic rules and that women focus on static or close-by signals, while men concentrate their attention on moving vehicles, and Rosenbloom et al. (2004) unveiled a problem with people focused strongly on religion and therefore neglecting the secular law. Theory of planned behaviour was used to conclude that the pedestrian's intentions are determined by their personal attitude more strongly than by subjective norms (Diaz, 2002). Focusing on signalised crosswalks, Tracz et al. (1990) proposed to classify pedestrian traffic conflicts according to a risk of being hit by a car and Yagil (2000) has demonstrated that perceived consequences of one's decision can affect the pedestrian behaviour, as opposed to perceived vulnerability and seriousness. In a following study, Yang et al. (2006) have listed a probability of pedestrians’ non-compliance with the traffic rules in various situations, such as traffic volume (earlier pointed out by Garder, 1989), influence of behaviour of other pedestrians or a presence of a policeman.

An impact of a bus stop on the pedestrian behaviour was noticed by Tiwari et al. (2007), and Cambon de Lavalette et al. (2009), but only Bernhoft and Carstensen (2008) provided quantitative results concerning risky crossing of a road. As a motive to disobey the traffic rules, getting to a bus stop ranked lower than having a good overview, sparse traffic, a shop located on the other side of a street, avoiding a detour, or being in a hurry.

Section snippets

Pedestrian safety statistics

As Carsten et al. (1998) pointed out, pedestrian behaviour in signalised crosswalks can depend on the prevailing culture in a country, therefore a short statistical overview concerning the pedestrian safety in Poland is provided (National Council, 2011). In the year 2010, 1236 pedestrians were killed, constituting 32% of all road casualties. Compared with the year 2001, when 1866 pedestrians were killed, safety was improved, but the share of fatal casualties remained stable, i.e. 32%. Reported

Hypothesis

As it was observed by Hamed (2001), pedestrians’ expected waiting time has a strong influence on their determination to violate the red signal. This corresponds with King's et al. (2009) conclusion that more pedestrians violate at early seconds of red signal than when the red signal is on for some time. Pedestrians that wish to cross the street on average have to wait half of the time of the red signal duration, which in the majority of cases is within a range of 10–50 s. In big Polish cities

Results

The obtained results are presented in Table 1. The numbers of pedestrians crossing on red (total, safely and unsafely) are compared with cycle- and red-signal duration and with a configuration of vehicle lanes. A special code is constructed to describe a configuration of lanes on a roadway: C – a car lane, T – a tram lane, CT – a car–tram lane, Y – a bicycle lane. An example of the lane configuration is shown in Fig. 1. The exemplary crosswalk number 1 receives a code C + C, and the crosswalk

Interpretation of acquired data

The influence of an approaching tram on pedestrian behaviour, presented by measure I1, was distinct on 16 out of 26 investigated crosswalks. The influence, prompting pedestrians to cross on a red signal, was significantly stronger on crosswalks with a traffic responsive, therefore much less predictable, traffic signals control, than when the traffic signals had a fixed time programme; it was also stronger on crosswalks with a shorter average duration of the red signal. Measure I2 in Table 3

Conclusions

A public transport vehicle approaching a public transport stop may significantly encourage the pedestrians to cross on a red signal, including unsafe crossing. This unfavourable influence might become negligible in cases, where or when other elements provide a high motivation for violating the red signal rule, or diminished if a traffic signals programme guarantees that the pedestrians wanting to board a particular public transport vehicle will get a green signal before the vehicle leaves the

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