Although there has been a decline in the popularity of walking, it remains a very commonly employed mode of travel. People of almost all ages, both sexes and in all walks of life, walk, set against a background of steadily increasing vehicle numbers and traffic levels. In particular, Londoners are believed to demonstrate both relatively high walking distances per person and high casualty rates compared to other British people, as they have a lower car use and therefore spend more time walking. Statistics for 2004 show that, in London, the number of trips (one-way movements from one place to another) and journeys (parts of a trip made by a single mode of transport) done by foot has increased from 5.2 million per day, on average, in 1993 to 5.6 million per day, on average, in 2004 (Transport for London 2005). Walking in Britain today almost inevitably involves crossing a road, where the desire line of the pedestrian conflicts with the higher speed and lesser vulnerability of motor vehicles. Where speeds and/or flows are high, this results in either delay or risk for the pedestrian, unless specific provision has been made. In fact, recent decades have seen an overall fall in pedestrian injuries due to several factors, including: * Better vehicle design; * Effective speed management; * Traffic re-routing; * Reduction in walking. However, pedestrians still comprise around a quarter of those who die in road collisions and statistics published by the Department for Transport (2004) show that in Great Britain in 2003 over 290,000 people were killed or injured in road traffic collisions (36,405 were pedestrians). The majority of collisions occurred on roads where the speed limit was at most 40 mph (Department for Transport, 2004). In London, there were 38,340 casualties with more than 5,000 involving fatal or serious injuries (Transport for London, 2004). Of the casualties 7,127 were pedestrians and almost 1,500 were killed or seriously injured. Most research studies investigating the crossing behaviour of pedestrians have focused on behaviour at, or close to, mid-block pedestrian crossings (i.e. crossings that are on a link rather than a junction). Various different techniques (either video observation or self-report data obtained via surveys and qualitative interviews or focus groups) have been used, but all produced similar findings with respect to pedestrian road crossing behaviour. When crossing the road, pedestrians could potentially behave in a number of ways. They could follow safe rules and procedures by e.g. waiting for the signal to indicate that they should cross or waiting for a large enough gap in the traffic to negotiate the road safely. Alternatively, they could, for example, cross without waiting for the signal. They could accept only small gaps in traffic and/or could walk to the middle of the road and wait there for a gap in the traffic. The same pedestrian may adopt different strategies on different occasions e.g. they are less likely to take care when the weather is bad or they are in a hurry. It is known that walking speeds can be affected considerably by the age of the pedestrian, whether s/he is encumbered by carrying a heavy object or by accompanying a child, or whether s/he has a disability. The time taken to cross a road will also be affected by its width. An important factor at signalised crossings is whether pedestrians comply with the signals or not. In addition to pedestrians who cross on the red man, many commonly anticipate the green man when they see the amber signal to traffic. It is likely that both motorist and pedestrian attitudes and behaviour are behind the relatively poor UK pedestrian collision record, with pedestrians in the UK more likely to ignore traffic signs and signals (such as the red man at signal crossings) than those in continental Europe (due to differences in traffic regulations). This subject is discussed further in Section 5.2. Evans and Norman (1998) found that social pressure is an important variable in determining pedestrians' crossing decisions. Social pressure can mean a number of different things. It does not necessarily have to reflect the feeling that 'other people would want me to behave in this way'. It could manifest itself in a more overt manner. For example, it was found in the recent TRL research into adolescent road user behaviour that children's perceived peer pressure influenced them to engage in a number of unsafe road crossing behaviours, such as crossing between parked cars, not using nearby crossings and running across the road without looking properly (Elliott, 2004). From the driver viewpoint, TRL research into pedestrians at signals indicated that large vehicles at the stop line may not be able to see pedestrians who are therefore at particular risk if they cross at the start of green to traffic. This report presents the results of a review of the relevant technical literature that was undertaken by TEL on behalf of Transport for London (TfL) to investigate in what ways pedestrian behaviour might be influenced (in ways most acceptable to pedestrians and other road users) to reduce the numbers of casualties on London's roads. A list of all the literature reviewed can be found at the back of the report and literature summaries of key pieces of literature can be found in Appendix A. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting