Understanding the Utilization Patterns of Pedestrian Crossing Facilities: Evidence from Bhopal City

The availability of proper pedestrian infrastructures like sidewalks or crosswalks significantly affects the constructive performance of the road and also promotes walking commuters. The government of India has made significant investments in various pedestrian facilities including sidewalks, zebra crossings, foot-over bridges, and subways for safe walking and crossing of pedestrians. Despite the availability of these pedestrian crossing facilities, most of them are often disliked by pedestrians and are underutilized. The present study aims at identifying the factors that affect the utilization of various pedestrian crossing facilities. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 400 pedestrians in order to record their perception about the factors affecting the utilization of various pedestrian crossing facilities like Foot Over Bridges (FoBs) and crosswalks, at five different locations in Bhopal city. The descriptive analysis results reveal that the majority of the respondents are male students belonging to the age group of 15–29 years. The results show that 21% of the respondents have agreed that they would use the facilities when less no. of heavy vehicles are plying on the roads, 33% of the respondents have agreed that they would use the facilities when fellow pedestrians are present, 32% have agreed that they would use them when there are no criminal activities, 37% agreed on proper lighting, 47% highly agreed on the availability of direct approach, and 29% highly agreed on the presence of proper sidewalk. The findings observed from the study would help in formulating various policies measures and moderations for enhancing the usage of pedestrian crossing facilities in Bhopal and bringing down the pedestrian fatality rate at crossings.