PRELIMINARY STUDIES OF PEDESTRIAN CROSSING IMPROVEMENTS IN KARACHI, PAKISTAN

This report describes a cooperative research project between the Transport Research Laboratory (UK) (TRL), and the Traffic Engineering Bureau (Karachi) (TES) which studied raised pedestrian crossing installations at selected trial sites in Karachi. The results of observations made at other conventional zebra crossings are also included. The potential merits of using raised crossing in a developing country, construction details and the importance of quality control are discussed. Observations of driver and pedestrian behaviour indicated that although drivers were forced to slow significantly at the raised crossing sites from average speeds of 30 km/h to speeds of 20 and 25 km/h, few drivers were prepared to stop and give way to pedestrians waiting to cross. Nevertheless, in the event of a pedestrian-vehicle conflict, low vehicle speeds should both reduce the severity of any injury sustained by a pedestrian and increase the driver's chance of taking successful evasive action. Measurements at the raised pedestrian crossing sites showed that there were no disbenefits in terms of pedestrian crossing times when vehicles were made to slow through the crossing area. TRL's Microcomputer Accident Analysis Package (MAAP) was used to analyse the road accident collected by the TEB. Although there was a small and encouraging overall reduction in accidents at the raised crossing sites there was insufficient data at this stage to draw any confident conclusions about the safety benefits of the new raised crossings in Karachi. (A)