Analysis of a sample of pedestrian operated signals and pedestrian operated school signals

This report presents the findings of a study on pedestrian operated signals (pos) and pedestrian operated school signals (poss), and comprises part of a comprehensive program undertaken to assess the effectiveness of works in the road traffic authority's traffic facilities program. The report documents pedestrian usage and analyses the road safety impacts for a sample of 184 pos/ poss (which represented 24 per cent of all pos/ poss in Victoria). Of the 184 sites, complete 'before and after' traffic and pedestrian volumes were available for only 62 sites. For these 62 sites a non significant increase in total casualty accidents of 1 per cent was determined and a non significant increase in pedestrian accidents of 14 per cent was found. On safety grounds alone, the study therefore indicated that the sample size of 62 sites was relatively too small to provide any conclusive results in statistical terms on the cost effectiveness of pos/ poss. Nevertheless, it can be inferred that overall, for the 62 sites with 'before and after' traffic and pedestrian volumes, the number of total casualty accidents have not changed markedly with the installation of pos/ poss. The following conclusions were drawn from the study: equity might be a major consideration in the installation of pos/ poss to allow pedestrians fair share and usage of road space as compared to other road users. It could be interpreted that pos/ poss cannot be seen as a 'high profile' pedestrian accident reducing device (compared with traffic signals for vehicle/ vehicle conflict accidents, and other countermeasures). Road network managers might therefore need to have a more network/ environment oriented approach to designing pedestrian facilities instead of a site specific approach.