PEDESTRIAN DELAY AND TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

The report summarizes a two-year study of the relationships between the delays to pedestrians crossing urban streets and traffic and layout characteristics. The aim of the study was to make explicit the influence of various types of traffic management on pedestrian delays. A method for estimating pedestrian delays using a trained observer was developed and tested. This was used to record delays at sites where only few pedestrians crossed the road, while waiting times were observed directly at points with higher crossing flows, 423 surveys of delays, traffic, and layout characteristics were conducted in London streets. The sites were of five main types: kerbside points without crossing facilities, refuges, signalized junctions, zebra and pelican crossings. Mean pedestrian delays were generally found to be below 8 seconds at flows of 1000 vehicles per hour, and below 20 seconds at 2000 vehicles per hour. Differences incurred at different types of location were marked, as were those between different age/sex categories of pedestrians. Predictive equations for the mean delay and proportion of pedestrians delayed at the various types of location were developed, using multiple linear regression. In addition to traffic flow, the variables found to affect delays significantly were road width, signal timings, speed, composition, and the degree of bunching of the traffic. The correlation coefficients associated with the equations range from 0.72 to 0.96, and mean delays can be predicted with an accuracy of plus or minus 2 seconds to plus or minus 6 seconds, depending on the type of crossing situation. The possible applications of the equations are discussed in a concluding section. /Author/TRRL/