Deriving Pedestrian Risk Index by Vehicle Type and Road Geometry at Midblock Crosswalks under Heterogeneous Traffic Conditions

Pedestrian crash data are not available in sufficiently large quantity and suffer from known problems such as a low-mean small sample, underreporting, and misclassification. Moreover, under heterogeneous traffic conditions, due to the involvement of multiple classes of vehicles, pedestrian-vehicle interactions become even more complex. To address this limitation, a pedestrian risk index (PRI) linking the probability of a crash between vehicle and pedestrian and the severity of the conflict was developed for varying road and traffic conditions. Data were analyzed from nine locations in different parts of India, accounting for variations in geographical distribution and pedestrian-vehicle interactions. The derived values of PRI were assessed by vehicle type and road geometry. The PRI value was significantly higher when the approaching vehicle was three-wheelers (3W), two-wheelers (2W), and cars compared with heavy vehicles such as buses and trucks. This indicates that the severity of conflicts is higher for lighter vehicles. Furthermore, the addition of lanes increases the PRI value. As an important outcome, variation in PRI values was modeled as a function of vehicle speed, pedestrian volume, and vehicle volume using a multilinear regression approach. The developed model can enable planners and engineers to compute PRI using the independent variables and to evaluate pedestrian safety at urban midblock crossings. Overall, this research contributes immensely to assessing the prevailing level of safety at crosswalks under heterogeneous traffic conditions, thereby improving pedestrian safety.