In Japan, even urban collector streets include streets with two traffic lanes, no sidewalks and narrow hardstrips on both sides. On such streets, because pedestrians and cyclists travel on the hardstrips, the space for them is narrow, and depending on conditions, they must travel in the traffic lanes. And because automobiles travel at somewhat high speed on the traffic lanes, pedestrians and cyclists are in great danger of being involved in accidents. Therefore, the centerline stripes are eliminated and the edge lines are shifted towards the center of the streets to reduce automobile speed and to ensure traveling space for pedestrians and cyclists. In this research, the effect of such measure is considered by analyzing the traveling positions of pedestrians and automobiles on a street. As a result, pedestrians traveled mainly on the hardstrips while the traveling position of automobiles shifted towards the center of the street. It is, therefore, concluded that this measure increases the width of the space for pedestrians. But on the other hand, when automobiles meet and pass each other, an automobile may be forced outside the edge line, so it was concluded that a measure must be taken to maintain safety in such cases. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. 0612AR242E.
Samenvatting