Reducing pedestrian and vehicle conflict at Pelican crossings

摘要

The pedestrian accident causation study data indicate that a disproportionate number of pedestrians at Pelican crossings are injured during the 'flashing green figure' period. Measures have been suggested to alleviate the problem; these include the introduction of an overlap period, replacing the 'flashing green figure' with black-out and all-red phases, and introducing Puffin crossings. The proportion of pedestrians who reached the far side of the crossing before the starting amber for vehicles increased with the length of the time available for pedestrians to cross. That is, 6 per cent for the Pelican with no overlap, 42 per cent .for the Pelican with a two-second overlap, 86 per cent for the shared-use crossing and 91 per cent, for the Puffin crossing. At the Pelican crossing sites, an overlap period of at least six seconds would be required to produce similar results to that of the Puffin crossing. The introduction of an overlap period slightly increases the proportion of pedestrians starting to cross in the two seconds following the end of the 'steady green figure'. This is unlikely to outweigh the advantages gained from a greater proportion of pedestrians finishing crossing before vehicles can start. The level of non-compliant pedestrians varied according to differences in the platooning of vehicles and the length of the cycle time. In overall terms, the safety benefit from Puffin crossings is likely to be in excess of the other measures tested and would therefore be the preferred choice. It will take a number of years to replace all Pelican crossings with Puffin and so, as an interim measure, the adoption of a two-second overlap period would be useful.