Pedestrian safety - Global Road Safety Partnership

Prioritizing pedestrian safety interventions and preparing a plan of action
What is the travel behaviour of pedestrians and other road users?
The travel behaviour of pedestrians and other road users is useful in understanding
local pedestrian traffic activity and associated risk. The situational assessment needs
to establish (8):
• the number of pedestrians in a given area, on specific streets or in key pedestrian
zones;
• pedestrian speeds;
• pedestrian road-crossing behaviour, including running or hesitating;
• pedestrian–motorist interaction, including pedestrian–vehicle conflicts;
• profile of vehicle fleet;
• vehicular traffic volumes and speeds, including assessment of compliance with
speed limits;
• alcohol involvement for both pedestrians and motorists (see Box 3.3); and
• pedestrian use of clothes or materials to enhance visibility, especially at dawn, dusk
and dark night-time hours.
Information on pedestrian and other road user behaviour can be collected using the
following methods (8,11):
• pedestrian counts;
• vehicle counts;
• observational studies;
• surveys, for example, on risk factor or knowledge, attitudes and perceptions;
• speed cameras and speed measuring radar units; and
• continuous video recording at intersections.
BOX 3.3: Assessing the alcohol-relatedness of crashes
Data on alcohol-involved (i.e. positive blood alcohol
content (BAC)) or alcohol-impaired (i.e. BAC above a
predetermined limit, e.g. 0.05 g/dl) vehicle–pedestrian
crashes give an indication of the role of alcohol
impairment in pedestrian traffic risk, though this
information does not necessarily function as a proxy
for impaired walking and driving in the general road
user population. To address alcohol-related crashes,
it is important to establish the locations where
impaired driving and walking occur most frequently,
the time of day and day of week when impaired driving
and walking are most likely to occur, and the age, sex
and socioeconomic status of impaired drivers and
pedestrians. However, since in most jurisdictions
testing for BAC has privacy and legal rights implications,
routine monitoring is not always possible.
The following methods may be used to gather information
on alcohol and pedestrian traffic risk:
• Review police statistics on alcohol-related vehicle–pedestrian
crashes. Depending on the legal
requirements for alcohol testing in the jurisdiction
under consideration, data may be available only
for fatal crashes or only for drivers.
• Examine admission data from hospital emergency
departments.
• Review data from random breath-testing operations
or sobriety checkpoints.
• Conduct a roadside survey (self-reported
behaviour).
• Review research reports and papers on BAC
analysis.
Source: 12.
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