An inventory of red light running by slow traffic at bridges. This study provides an inventory of red light running by slow traffic (pedestrians and cyclists) at moveable bridges. We observe the frequency of red light running, using an observational study of 22 moveable bridges in the South of the Netherlands, as observed from a central traffic control center. The bridges are observed for a period of 1 week. Slow traffic was present during 105 bridge openings. Results show that red light running at bridges occurs very frequently: in our sample, some form of red light running by slow traffic occurred at all of the bridge openings where slow traffic was present. At 95 %1 of the bridge openings, we observed red light running by people that cross a bridge too early; the bridge has closed again, but the red light has not dimmed yet. In 9% of the bridge openings, we observed red light running before the bridge is open, but when the red lights are just turned on. Furthermore, we observed red light running when the red lights had been on for a while in 25% of the bridge openings. In addition, we have found during a pilot that some traffic participants crawl underneath traffic barriers, even after these have been closed for a while. We introduce the new term "barrier negation" for this. This form of red light negation has not been observed during our eventual study, which suggests that this form occurs infrequently in general. We have observed what the characteristics were of bridges where red light running occurred frequently. In the phases where the red light is active, but where the bridge has not yet opened, there are many situations where red light running occurs (see Table 3). In general, red light running has occurred more frequently in urban areas compared to rural areas. In addition, more red light running has been observed when there were double traffic barriers (compared to single barriers)2, when the closing of the barriers took relatively longer, or when the time interval between the onset of a red light and the onset of a barrier closing is relatively short. Most red light running has been observed in the phase where the bridge has closed again and barriers opened, but when the red light has not been dimmed yet. We identified no specific bridge characteristics that increased the probability of this type of red light running. As this is an observational study, it provides an overview of the scale at which red light running by slow traffic occurs at bridges in the Netherlands. However, as we did not manipulate behavior, it does not conclusively demonstrate any causal relationship between bridge characteristics and red light running. Such causal relationships need to be tested in follow-up research. Our observations can be used to inform the design of such studies. (Author/publisher)
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