Pedestrian Safety on Crosswalks in India - Need of the Hour

Authors

  • Ankit Bansal Civil Engineering Department, Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, India.
  • Tripta Goyal Civil Engineering Department, Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, India.
  • Umesh Sharma Civil Engineering Department, Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, India.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15415/jotitt.2018.61004

Keywords:

Crosswalks, Pedestrian Facilities, Level of Safety, Performance

Abstract

A paradigm shift has been observed from ‘moving of vehicles’ to ‘moving of persons’ while planning for transportation facilities in cities. Provision of integrated and barrier free pedestrian facilities is essential to ensure inclusive mobility. Pedestrian facilities are a critical component in producing a pedestrianfriendly environment. In India, the present facilities provided for the pedestrians are not efficient in general and crosswalks (zebra crossings) in particular. The pedestrian casualties in India have registered an increase of 11.7 percent in the year 2017, of which 31 percent have occurred on crosswalks. Therefore, an attempt has been made to overview the level of safety provided on the crosswalks. It has been found that majority of crosswalks are not fulfilling their intended purposes due to improper signage and markings, inadequate maintenance and bad surface condition. Another significant reason hampering the safety of pedestrians at crosswalks has been found to be inappropriate provision of guardrails and pedestrian refuge islands. Hence, some measures have been suggested to augment the pedestrian safety on the crosswalks.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

[1] WHO (World Health Organization) and World Bank., World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention Summary, World Health Organisation and World Bank, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 3-164, 2014.
[2] G. Tiwari, S. Bangdiwala, A. Saraswat and S. Gaurav, “Survival analysis: Pedestrian risk exposure at signalized intersections”, Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behavior, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 77-89, 2007.
[3] B. R. Kadali and P. Vedagiri, “Review of pedestrian level of service: perspective in developing countries”, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, vol. 2581, pp. 37-47, 2016.
[4] WHO (World Health Organization) “Global Status Report on Road Safety”, World Health Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland, 2015.
[5] H. Naci, D. Chisholm and T. D. Baker, “Distribution of road traffic deaths by road user group: A global comparison”, Injury Prevention, vol. 15, pp. 1–15, 2009.
[6] J. A. Haagsma, Graetz and I. Bolliger, “The global burden of injury: Incidence, mortality, disability-adjusted life years and time trends from the global burden of disease study 2013”, Injury Prevention, vol. 22, pp. 3–18, 2016.
[7] WHO (World Health Organization) “Global Burden Disease Estimates Report”, World Health Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland, 2015.
[8] PRS Legislative Research “Overview of Road Accidents in India”, New Delhi, India, pp. 1-3, 2017.
[9] D. Mohan, O. Tsimhoni, M. Sivak and M. J. Flannagan, “Road safety in India: challenges and opportunities”, University of Michigan Transport Research Institute, Ann Arbor, Michigan, pp. 1-57, 2009.
[10] K. Bhalla et al. “Official government statistics of road traffic deaths in India under-represent pedestrians and motorised two-wheeler riders”, Injury Prevention, pp. 1–7, 2016.
[11] MoRTH (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways) “Road crash statistics”, Transport research wing, New Delhi, India, 2017.
[12] NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau), Traffic Accidents. Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India”, Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi, India, 2017.
[13] D. Mohan, G. Tiwari and K. Bhalla, “Road safety in India: status report”, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme (TRIPP), New Delhi, India, pp. 1-64, 2016.
[14] S. Najamuddin and P. Parida, “Development of measures for pedestrian safety on Indian roads”, Institute of Town Planning India, 4, pp. 43-46, 2004.
[15] P. Kumar, S. Y. Kulkarni and M. Parida, Pedestrian Safety in Multi Modal Public Transport: A Way Forward to Create Safer City, IIT Roorkee, India, pp. 1-9, 2010.
[16] D. Mohan, “Analysis of road traffic fatality data for Asia”, Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, vol. 9, pp. 1786-1794, 2011.
[17] A. K. Sharma, V. S. Landge and N. V. Deshpandem, “Modelling motorcycle accident on rural highway”, International Journal of Chemical, Environmental & Biological Sciences (IJCEBS), vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 313-317, 2013.
[18] S. Rankavat and G. Tiwari, “Pedestrian accident analysis in Delhi using GIS”, Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, vol. 10, pp. 14461457, 2013.
[19] K. Vigneshkumar and P. Vijay, “Study on road safety improvement in India”, International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology, vol. 3, no. 11, pp. 198-201, 2014.
[20] H. M. Naqvi and G. Tiwari, “Risk factors for fatal pedestrian crashes on national highways in India”, Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting, pp. 4612, 2016.
[21] S. Rankavat and G. Tiwari, “Pedestrians perceptions for utilization of pedestrian facilities – Delhi, India”, Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behavior, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 495-499, 2016.
[22] S. Dass, P. Aggarwal and D. Singhal, “Pedestrian safety on Indian roads – A review of recent studies”, International Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research, vol. 4, no. 9, pp. 955-967, 2017.
[23] D. Moran, D. Bose and K. Bhalla, “Impact of improving vehicle crashworthiness design on the burden of injuries to pedestrians in USA, Germany and India”, Traffic Injury Prevention, vol. 18, no. 8, pp. 832-838, 2017.
[24] Kumar, N.P., Nandini, C., Saranya, R. and Sridevi, N. H. “Impact of pedestrian crossing behaviour at intersections on road traffic accidents in shivamogga”, Karnataka: an observational study”, International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health, vol. 5, no. 6, 2018.
[25] H. Shah and P. Vedagiri, “Proactive Pedestrian safety evaluation at unsignalized intersections in India using surrogate safety measures”, Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting, Washington DC, United States, 2018.
[26] T. Patel, “5 Pedestrian-Friendly Measures All of India Should Adopt to Keep Us Safe”, Retrieved from The Better India, [Online] Available: https://www. thebetterindia.com/127110/pedestrian-friendly-india-safe/, 2018 [Accessed: July 20 2018].
[27] Google Images, “A pedestrian-friendly island on St. Mark’s road”, Bangalore. [Online], Available: https://www. google.co.in/A+pedestrian+friendly+island+on+St.+Mar/, [Accessed: July 20, 2018].
[28] Google Images, “A wide footpath for pedestrians to walk freely”, Chennai. [Online] , Available: https://www.google.co.in/ A+wide+footpath+to+walk+freely/, [Accessed: July 20, 2018]..
[29] Google Images, “A representative image of a pedestrian refuge island, Hyderabad. [Online], Available: https://www. google.co.in/A+representative+image+of+a+pedestrian+refuge+island/, [Accessed: July 20, 2018]..
[30] U. Sharma and A. Anand, “Installation of Pedestrian Pelican Signals on Indian Roads - State of the Art”, Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 354-357, 2015.
[31] Google Images, “A 3-D Crossing”, Hyderabad. [Online], Available: https://www. google.co.in/A+3-D+crossing/, [Accessed: July 20, 2018]..
[32] Google Images, “Roads get a makeover on Car-Free Days”, [Online], Available: https://www.google.co.in/ Roads+get+a+makeover+on+Car+Free+Days/, [Accessed: July 20, 2018].

Downloads

Published

2018-06-26

How to Cite

Ankit Bansal, Tripta Goyal, & Umesh Sharma. (2018). Pedestrian Safety on Crosswalks in India - Need of the Hour. Journal on Today’s Ideas - Tomorrow’s Technologies, 6(1), 35–46. https://doi.org/10.15415/jotitt.2018.61004

Issue

Section

Articles