Analyzing Key Factors Influencing Pedestrian Non-utilization of Designated Crossings and Sidewalks in Urban Areas of Developing Countries
摘要
Statistics from 2011 to 2019 indicate that pedestrians represent the majority of traffic fatalities in Kolkata City, India. Pedestrians' designated crossing facilities such as zebra crossing, foot over bridge (FOB), pedestrian underpass (PUP), and sidewalk facilities such as footpaths are provided to offer a safe road environment to pedestrians. However, despite substantial investments by the Indian Government in delivering these safe pedestrian crossings and sidewalk facilities, their utilization rate remains notably low in Indian cities. In this context, the present study is designed to identify the primary factors influencing the pedestrians' non-utilization of designated paths/facilities such as zebra crossing, FOB, PUP, and footpaths in an urban setup in a developing nation. Seven thousand six hundred forty-two pedestrians' behavioral data and 2065 pedestrians' perception data have been collected and examined over three major road corridors in Kolkata. With the help of binary logit models, the impact of the road infrastructure, land use, traffic operations, enforcement, and pedestrian-level attributes on pedestrians' non-utilization of a designated facility have been examined. The model outcomes indicate that various factors including the pedestrian's age and gender, the presence of inaccessible zebra crossings, on-street parking, encroachments, commercial land usage, pedestrian's state of crossing (e.g. distraction while walking/crossing, pedestrians carrying oversized loads), the frequency of using a particular crossing, the approximate distance between the designated crossing facility and the pedestrian's desired destination, vehicle, and pedestrian volume, poor risk perception, and lack of satisfaction toward a specific amenity, significantly influence the non-utilization of designated pedestrian facilities in Kolkata city.