Evaluation of pedestrian infrastructure and pedestrian behaviour in Jordan.

This paper aims at investigating pedestrian safety conditions across Amman city. Two neighborhoods in two different regions in the city were selected. Um-Uthina Al-Hay Al-Sharqi area as a sample of the western side of Amman -High income area and Al-Hashimi Al- Shamali as an example for the eastern areas- Low income area. The differences and similarities in infra structure level and traffic safety in both areas are thoroughly examined together with road user behaviour and attitude. Each street in each neighbourhood was divided into a number of sections; the section is defined as the link between two intersections/junctions. The results showed that the high-income area walking environment measured in term of pedestrian attractiveness index is better than that of the low income area. However, it should be noted that more work is needed to upgrade the sidewalk, crossing and traffic calming devices conditions in both areas. The number of pedestrian accidents is related to pedestrian attractiveness index. The higher the index is, the more pedestrian crashes are. The attractiveness index is related to the streets, sidewalk and crossing conditions. The results showed that pedestrian accidents are positively related to the proportion of pedestrians walking on streets instead of the sidewalk. Walking in the streets makes the pedestrian exposure to traffic longer, thus increase the risk of their involvement in crashes. The study indicates that the proportion of pedestrians using the sidewalk is positively related to traffic volume. As traffic volume increase, speed decreases and encourages more pedestrians to use the sidewalk. Wider streets also invite more pedestrians to walk on the streets rather than on the sidewalks. Therefore, the main conclusions that can be drawn from this study are to widen sidewalk and narrowing the streets. The road network in both areas needs to be upgraded to facilitate pedestrian movements. The emphasis shown be given to sidewalks and pedestrian crossings. For the covering abstract see ITRD E138091. This paper is available from http://www.ictct.org/workshops/07-Beijing/25Shbeeb90105.pdf.