Exploration of the impact of junction characteristics on pedestrian red-light violation

Abstract

The design of the geometry and traffic controls at signalised junctions is often focused on the level of service offered to motor vehicles and rarely considers the level of service offered to pedestrians. This results in pedestrians adopting illegal and unsafe behaviours – for example, red-light violation. This study aimed to identify the elements of signalised junction design that are critical in pedestrian safety by analysing how they affect pedestrian behaviour. Both traffic engineering design and associated traffic conditions were investigated. Over 6500 observations were made at ten signalised junctions in Montreal, Canada. The ten junctions were selected to cover a variety of environments, road users and junction designs. The results show that the presence of a countdown display has the most significant and positive impact on pedestrian behaviour. The results also suggest that pedestrians cross on the red light when they feel confident about their ability to judge whether they can use the available traffic gaps to cross the street safely. This study concludes that an adequate junction design is likely to limit risky pedestrian behaviours. Therefore, designers need to consider the factors affecting the behaviour of pedestrians to design junctions that are convenient and safe for them.