EXPERIENCES IN APPLICATION OF THE TRAFFIC CONFLICT TECHNIQUE (TCT) TO PEDESTRIAN SAFETY EVALUATION

THE VERY HIGH ACCIDENT RATES IN POLAND ARE STILL RELATED TO THE VERY HIGH RISK EXPOSURE OF PEDESTRIANS. THEY ARE INVOLVED IN ALMOST 60% OF REPORTED ACCIDENTS. WHEN CONSIDERING VARIOUS POSSIBILITIES FOR IMPROVING PEDESTRIAN SAFETY, VARIOUS RESEARCH METHODS WERE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION, INCLUDING THE TRAFFIC CONFLICT TECHNIQUE (TCT). RESULTS OF EMPIRICAL MEASUREMENTS HAVE BEEN USED FOR BOTH QUALITATIVE EVALUATION OF ACCIDENT FACTORS, AND VALIDATION OF THE TCT USEFULNESS IN PREDICTING PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENTS. IN THIS STUDY POOR CORRELATION WAS OBTAINED BETWEEN THE RECORDED NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS AND TRAFFIC CONFLICTS. THEREFORE, THE RANGE OF ANALYSES WAS BROADENED TO EMPLOY RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE RELATIVE RATES OF ACCIDENTS AND CONFLICTS. STARTING FROM THE ASSUMPTION OF DIFFERENT PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENT RISK CAUSED BY VARIOUS MOVEMENTS OF VEHICLES, NUMERIC WEIGHTS FOR VARIOUS CONFLICT TYPES WERE ESTIMATED. THIS ESTIMATION SHOWED AN ESSENTIAL INFLUENCE OF THE LEVEL OF TRAFFIC CONFLICT DETECTION BY SEPERATELY INSTRUCTED SURVEY GROUPS. (A) FOR THE COVERING ABSTRACT OF THE CONFERENCE SEE IRRD 860351.