6533b7d2fe1ef96bd125eaed

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Critical features about urban pedestrian crossings: a case study

subject

description

This paper describes how the theme of safety for vulnerable road users (disabled, elderly, and children) in urban areas plays an important role for many implications in these users’ quality of life. The deficiency of safety on city streets is primarily due to the simultaneous presence of different components of traffic in an increasingly complex and inappropriate surrounding for their cohabitation. In urban areas the road intersections, which are crossed by different categories of traffic (motorized vehicles, pedestrians, non-motorized vehicles), represent a critical node, both in terms of quality of circulation and that of road safety. In recent years , 76% of accidents have occurred in the urban area, with 13% of accidents involving pedestrians of which 30% of accidents occurred near intersections. All these reasons explain the complexity in the planning of an intersection, particularly when vulnerable users are involved. This paper proposes an applicative study of pedestrian crossings, regulated by traffic lights, and what factors affect their planning and design in order to achieve an optimal quality of service and high safety standards. The study area involves one of the main streets of the city of Palermo, which links the city center and some of the suburbs. The paper focuses on the design of pedestrian crossings and their location in the urban context by using existing legislation in order to achieve an optimization of the number of pedestrian crossings, the distance between them, and traffic signal cycle. In particular, traffic engineers can design a possible new layout of pedestrian crossings, starting by analyzing the current configuration and its critical points and simulating different future scenarios that take into account the dual role of the street inside and outside the district and in the whole urban network.