USAGE OF PEDESTRIAN FOOTBRIDGES

Often footbridges, which although visually intrusive, offer a better solution to the pedestrian crossing of suburban highways. This study describes the development of a stochastic logit model based on observations at two sites of different characteristics and usage on a single, three-lane carriageway in Baghdad to reflect the choice of pedestrians between convenience and safety. Results showed that the time taken to cross a carriageway without pedestrian crossings increases with traffic volume. Pedestrians crossed on a lane-by-lane basis with the shortest clearance time in the middle lane. The major part of the delay occurs at kerbside. Pedestrian sex was not found to be a significant factor, but the provision of escalators for ascent was influential in increasing utilisation. The model originally included a time ratio between footbridge and surface route as an explanatory variable, but this was found to be too complicated and was rejected. Convenience was represented by distance ratio and escalator provision, and traffic was used as proxy for the effect of safety in the model which explained 83 per cent of the variation in footbridge utilisation. (TRRL)