Impact of Road Infrastructure Land Use and Traffic Operational Characteristics on Pedestrian Fatality Risk: A Case Study of Kolkata, India

Pedestrian safety in urban India is an issue of growing concern. While an extensive body of literature is available on the identification of elements related to the pedestrian’s risk, the studies are mainly conducted in urban areas of developed countries, where the condition of infrastructure, built environment, road user’s behavior and perception are very different from Indian cities. As a result, findings from these studies may only be partially applicable to the cities of developing countries such as India. The present study makes an attempt to fill the gap by analyzing historical crash records obtained from Kolkata police and identifies the hazardous corridors and network locations posing the highest risk to the pedestrian. Subsequently, the binary logistic regression models are developed to identify the risk factors associated with road infrastructure, land use, and traffic operational characteristics. Based on the statistical assessment carried out in this study, there is evidence that factors such as road width, land use type, the absence of designated bus stop facility, inadequate sight distance, average daily traffic and pedestrian volume, and pedestrian–vehicular interaction considerably affect pedestrian safety at the intersections. On the other hand, road width, land use type, inadequate sight distance, the absence of designated bus stop facilities significantly influence pedestrian safety at midblock road segments. The knowledge of the risk factors specific to a location on the road network is helpful for incorporation and/or modification of the particular planning and design elements to reduce risk.