Pedestrian safety in urban areas is associated to both (non) compliant behaviour of vehicles’ drivers and pedestrians. Pedestrian accidents usually occur at spots where pedestrian and vehicle flows conflict. Urban space design is one of the most important factors contributing to the pedestrian safety, by reducing these conflict points. However, eliminating them is in practice a very difficult task, given that in many European cities quite drastic interventions when redesigning urban space are not easily welcome and need justification. In this respect it is of research and policy interest to associate pedestrian safety with their behaviour at the various high accident risk locations. In doing so, a research on pedestrian safety and behaviour was undertaken in Thessaloniki, Greece at several locations where pedestrian accidents are recorded. Most of these locations are traffic flow and pedestrian flow intersections either traffic signalised or not. The observers who took place in the research effort surveyed the number of pedestrians who did not comply with traffic signal or traffic regulations and attempted or succeeded to cross illegally the streets. The above surveys took into account among others the existing situation on parking, site land use and pedestrian flow volumes. Sketches of some strange pedestrian movements were also made. Another party of observers surveyed a sample of the pedestrians who exercised this non compliant behaviour seeking the likely reasons for this behaviour. The research findings are quite interesting especially when associated with the urban space design. Of interest it is also the reaction of the pedestrians who violated the traffic rules, in attempting to justify their behaviour and the risk they take. The lack of police enforcement in pedestrian movement seems to be another factor affecting pedestrians’ decisions. In general, pedestrians prefer to take high risks to cross illegally a street in order to save time and reduce walking distance. Fencing sidewalks to channel pedestrian movements seems a reasonable solution, though another research effort in the past in the same city indicated that after all fencing does not lead to more safety for pedestrians. It seems that urban space redesign that facilitates pedestrians and more provisions for pedestrians, such as frequent crossings controlled by traffic lights, that affect road capacity are the most effective solutions in dealing with this issue. (Author/publisher) This publication may be accessed by Internet users at: http://www.ictct.org/workshop.php?workshop_nr=25
Samenvatting