MOTORISTS AND PEDESTRIAN INTERACTION AT UNSIGNALISED PEDESTRIAN CROSSING

Pedestrians are vulnerable road user. In developing countries the drivers' attitude towards pedestrians is quite different than from developed ones. In this research we present the findings of interaction between motorists and pedestrians at unsignalised zebra crossing facilities in a University Campus in Malaysia. It has been observed that the pedestrians have great difficulty in crossing as most of the drivers don't care for the waiting pedestrians. The pedestrians have to wait for a significantly long time before finding someone who is willing to stop for them to allow them to cross or wait until there are no more vehicles close enough (large headways). This phenomenon may probably be due to the misunderstanding on the rule of the right of way in such a situation or it could also be due to the attitude of the motorists themselves that they are not willing to stop because they would be losing travel time whereas the pedestrian can afford to wait.