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Background: According to social-ecological models, the built and natural environment has the potential to facilitate or hinder physical activity (PA). While this potential is well researched in urban areas, a current systematic review of how the built and natural environment is related to PA in rural areas is lacking. Methods: We searched five databases and included studies for adults (18–65 years) living in rural areas. We included quantitative studies investigating the association between any self-reported or objectively measured characteristic of the built or natural environment and any type of self-reported or objectively measured PA, and qualitative studies that reported on features of the built or natural environment perceived as barriers to or facilitators of PA by the participants. Screening for eligibility and quality assessment (using the Standard Quality Assessment Criteria for Evaluating Primary Research Papers from a Variety of Fields) were done in duplicate. We used a narrative approach to synthesize the results. Results: Of 2432 non-duplicate records, 51 quantitative and 19 qualitative studies were included. Convincing positive relationships were found between the availability and accessibility of places for exercise and recreation and leisure-time PA as well as between the overall environment and leisure-time PA. Possible positive associations were found between the overall environment and total and transport-related PA, between greenness/natural environment and total PA, between cycling infrastructure and aesthetics and MVPA, and between pedestrian infrastructure and total walking. A possible negative relationship was found between safety and security and total walking. Qualitative studies complemented several environmental facilitators (facilities for exercise and recreation, sidewalks or streets with low traffic, attractive natural environment) and barriers (lack of facilities and destinations, lack of sidewalks, speeding traffic and high traffic volumes, lack of street lighting). Conclusions: Research investigating the relationship between the built and natural environment and PA behaviors of adults living in rural areas is still limited and there is a need for more high-quality and longitudinal studies. However, our most positive findings indicate that investing in places for exercise and recreation, a safe infrastructure for active transport, and nature-based activities are possible strategies that should be considered to address low levels of PA in rural adults. Trial registration: PROSPERO: CRD42021283508. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic-calming measures (TCMs) are physical modifications of the road network aimed at making the roads safer. Although researchers have reported reductions in numbers of road crashes and injuries tied to the presence of TCMs, such studies have been criticized for their pre-/post- designs. In this study, we aimed to complement our knowledge of TCMs' effectiveness by assessing their impact using a longitudinal design. The implementation of 8 TCMs, including curb extensions and speed humps, was evaluated at the intersection and census tract levels in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from 2012 to 2019. The primary outcome was fatal or serious collisions among all road users. Inference was performed using a Bayesian implementation of conditional Poisson regression in which random effects were used to account for the spatiotemporal variation in collisions. TCMs were generally implemented on local roads, although most collisions occurred on arterial roads. Overall, there was weak evidence that TCMs were associated with study outcomes. However, subgroup analyses of intersections on local roads suggested a reduction in collision rates due to TCMs (median incidence rate ratio, 0.31; 95% credible interval: 0.12, 0.86). To improve road safety, effective counterparts of TCMs on arterial roads must be identified and implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study aimed to evaluate the preferences, expectations, and sense of safety of blind or visually impaired persons regarding three types of pedestrian phasing with audible pedestrian signals configurations that exist in Quebec City (Canada). These include: 1) exclusive phasing with non-directional audible pedestrian signals; 2) exclusive phasing with directional audible pedestrian signals; and 3) concurrent phasing with directional audible pedestrian signals. Thirty-two blind or visually impaired persons were asked to complete a survey. Their preferences and expectations regarding audible pedestrian signals were documented through a series of simulations. Their sense of safety regarding the three existing configurations were also documented. Subsequently, semi-directed, individual interviews with 11 of the individuals who had completed the survey were conducted to build off the collected information. No formal consensus regarding many of the issues discussed were established as participants' responses varied too significantly. However, findings suggest that the exclusive phasing with directional audible pedestrian signals configuration is perceived to be the safest option by the participants. This study may have practical implications on the design of intersections (e.g., selection of a type of pedestrian phasing with audible pedestrian signal) and the training of blind or visually impaired pedestrians. The addition of audible pedestrian signals to pedestrian signals heightens the sense of safety of blind or visually impaired persons. This study may have practical implications on the design of intersections with audible pedestrian signals and the selection of a type of audible pedestrian signals based on intersection characteristics. Since many participants reported a lower sense of safety when faced with concurrent phasing, it is recommended that more intensive orientation and mobility interventions be provided to blind or visually impaired pedestrians who use this type of traffic signals. Educating road users about blind or visually impaired pedestrians appears also essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The location of curb ramps, crosswalk markings, and curb radius are important contributors to pedestrian safety at intersections, particularly for conflicts and crashes involving right turns. Drivers tend to have higher turning speeds at locations with larger curb radii, which also requires greater stopping sight distance. If the crosswalk is placed further away from the intersection corner (i.e., offset or setback from the intersection corner), it could potentially provide drivers better visibility of pedestrians and increase the available stopping distance. However, no study has previously been conducted to investigate the relationship between crosswalk location and curb radius. This paper presents the results of research that quantifies the relationship between the offset of crosswalks (setback crosswalk) and indirect safety measures (driver stopping, yielding, and speed selection) at intersections with the consideration of other characteristics during simulated driving. The study included field-based observations and driving simulator experiments. A driving simulator experiment with 50 participants was conducted to determine how setback distances, sharpness of curb radii, and presence of pedestrians affect driver stopping decision and position, and speed choice. Approximately 12 h of video (7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.) were collected at nine study sites that closely matched the designs tested in the driving simulator. Comparisons of drivers' speed in a similar scenario obtained from field and simulator data were performed to benchmark the observations from the driving simulator against field data. Stop line speeds were found to be consistent between experiments and turning speeds were found to be slightly higher in the driving simulator experiment. The research results suggest that curb radius should be smaller [less than 9 m (30 ft)] to control driver speed. Additionally, a setback distance of 6 m (20 ft) is a suitable upper bound for crosswalk placement when reconstructing intersections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the general characteristics of geriatric cases aged ≥65 years, who presented at the Forensic Medicine Clinic due to trauma, and the severity of injury using trauma scoring systems. Methods: The study included all trauma cases over 65 years with a forensic report prepared in the Forensic Medicine Clinic between 2015 and 2021. Evaluations were made using the chi-square, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis (post-hoc: Dunn-Bonferroni) tests. A value of p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Two-thirds of the cases were male (67.6%) and mean age was 73.23±6.25 years. More than half of the cases were exposed to battery-related trauma (54%). There was an injury in more than one region in 37.4% (n=52) of the cases. The median injury severity score (ISS) of the cases was 2 (1.5) and the median newinjury severity score (NISS) was 3 (1.8). The scores of ISS and NISS in cases aged >75 years were higher than in those aged ≤75 years (p<0.05). The score severity of ISS and NISS of the cases injured in traffic accidents and other accidents was higher than in those injured due to battery (p<0.001). Almost half (48.1%) of the traffic accident-related cases were pedestrians, and it was seen that pedestrians suffered more severe trauma. Conclusion: Increasing the necessary safety measures in traffic, especially pedestrian safety, and taking measures to make daily life easier for the elderly may help protect this vulnerable population from the effects of severe trauma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid advances in technology and shifting tastes among motorists have reworked the contemporary automobile production sector. Driving is now much safer and more convenient than ever before thanks to a plethora of new technology and apps. Millions of people are hurt every year despite the fact that automobiles are networked and have several sensors and radars for collision avoidance. Each year, many of them are injured in car accidents and need emergency care, and sadly, the fatality rate is growing. Vehicle and pedestrian collisions are still a serious problem, making it imperative to advance methods that prevent them. This paper refines our previous efficient VANET-based pedestrian safety system based on two-way communication between smart cars and the cell phones of vulnerable road users. We implemented the scheme using C and NS3 to simulate different traffic scenarios. Our objective is to measure the additional overhead to protect vulnerable road users. We prove that our proposed scheme adds just a little amount of additional overhead and successfully satisfies the stringent criteria of safety applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Multiple distraction indicators have been applied to measure street-crossing distraction but their validities in predicting pedestrian safety are poorly understood. Methods: Based on a video-based observational study, we compared the validity of four commonly used distraction indicators (total duration of distraction while crossing a street, proportion of distracted time over total street-crossing time, duration of the longest distraction time, and total number of distractions) in predicting three pedestrian safety outcomes (near-crash incidence, frequency of looking left and right, and speed crossing the street) across three types of distraction (mobile phone use, talking to other pedestrians, eating/drinking/smoking). Change in Harrell's C statistic was calculated to assess the validity of each distraction indicator based on multivariable regression models including only covariates and including both covariates and the distraction indicator. Results: Heterogeneous capacities in predicting the three safety outcomes across the four distraction indicators were observed: 1) duration of the longest distraction time was most predictive for the occurrence of near-crashes and looks left and right among pedestrians with all three types of distraction combined and talking with other pedestrians (Harrell's C statistic changes ranged from 0.0310 to 0.0335, P < 0.05), and for the occurrence of near-crashes for pedestrians involving mobile phone use (Harrell's C statistic change: 0.0053); 2) total duration of distraction was most predictive for speed crossing the street among pedestrians with the combination and each of the three types of distraction (Harrell's C statistic changes ranged from 0.0037 to 0.0111, P < 0.05), frequency of looking left and right among pedestrians distracted by mobile phone use (Harrell's C statistic change: 0.0115), and the occurrence of near-crash among pedestrians eating, drinking, or smoking (Harrell's C statistic change: 0.0119); and 3) the total number of distractions was the most predictive indicator of frequency of looking left and right among pedestrians eating, drinking, or smoking (Harrell's C statistic change: 0.0013). Sensitivity analyses showed the results were robust to change in grouping criteria of the four distraction indicators. Conclusions: Future research should consider the pedestrian safety outcomes and type of distractions to select the best distraction indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops a framework of pedestrian evacuation microsimulation modeling that considers pedestrians' social-physiological behavior in assessing an airport evacuation. The study implements social force model within a simulation platform enabling the articulation of stochastic pedestrian walking behavior realistically and reliably. It performs a sensitivity analysis of pedestrian behavior parameters to identify the candidate parameters required to capture pedestrian behavior under different levels of panic conditions. The study considers the case study of the Ottawa International Airport and tests and evaluates contrasting evacuation scenarios under low panic, medium panic, and high panic situations. Results indicate that under the low panic evacuation scenario, the pedestrians yield their movements with an increase in network bottleneck, potentially exhibit cooperative behavior, and control their speed with the rise of crowd density. On the contrary, individuals in high panic evacuation scenarios exhibit aggressive behavior indicated by their average speed, which is approximately 1.15 and 3.5 times the average compared with medium panic and low panic evacuation scenarios, respectively. Results suggest that it takes 5.38 min to evacuate 1300 passengers under high panic conditions compared with 9.75 min for a low panic evacuation scenario. However, in the case of a high panic evacuation scenario, the average speed keeps increasing even with the increase in crowd density. This framework can develop and evaluate strategies for safely evacuating the airport in the case of an emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The probability of non-motorists' violation is significantly influenced by train, gate operational, and user characteristics. • Train category, train length, and carrying item have no significant impact on the non-motorists' violation. • Group violation and engagement in secondary activities do not influence bicyclists' choice to violate. • The geometrical attributes along with train vehicle unit impact various factors that significantly influence non-motorists' violation. • This research suggests various interventions to limit the violations at rail road grade crossings. Introduction : In order to enhance the existing body of research regarding the prevalence of violations committed by pedestrians and bicyclists, this observational study utilized personal-specific, train-specific, operational, and behavioral data extracted from recorded videos at seven railroad grade crossings (RRGCs). Method: A total of 7,332 pedestrians and 1,684 bicyclist crossing events were observed during 279 gate operation phases at seven study locations. First, two separate violation models (binary logit) for pedestrians and bicyclists were developed to determine the influence of personal-specific characteristics and other behavioral traits on probability of pedestrians' and bicyclists' violation. Later, the impact of various geometrical (railway track, distance between gates, distance between gate and nearest track, and road width) and operational (train vehicle unit) parameters on the factors that caused non-motorist violations was examined by developing distinct binary logit models. Results: The probability of pedestrians' and bicyclists' violation was found to be significantly influenced by train characteristics (train speed and train occupancy time), gate operational attributes (warning time and gate blockage duration), and personal-specific characteristics (gender, age, crossing speed, and looking both side). Furthermore, geometrical attributes along with train vehicle unit were observed to have impact over various factors that significantly influenced the behavior of pedestrians and bicyclists to violate. Practical Applications: The findings of this research provide essential information that could be applied in the initiatives of user awareness and enforcement program, emphasis on situational awareness and design of operational and geometrical elements to significantly limit the effects of risky walking and bicycling behavior at RRGCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As was shown in the previous part of the study, windshields are an important part of the passive safety means of modern low-floor trams with an extraordinary effect on pedestrian safety in a pedestrian–tram collisions. Therefore, maximum attention must be paid to the definition of tram windshield characteristics. This article describes a windshield crash test, from which data are obtained to verify the feasibility of the applied computational approaches. A developed analytical model is utilised for a simple description of the energy balance during collision with an illustrative definition of the important parameters of laminated glass as well as their clear physical interpretations. The finite element analysis (FEA) performed in Ansys software using two versions of material definition, namely a simpler (*MAT_ELASTIC with nonlocal failure criterion) and a more complex (*MAT_GLASS with brittle stress-state-dependent failure) material model, which are presented as suitable for obtaining a detailed description of the shattering process of laminated glass, which can also be used effectively in windshield engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article represents the first paper in a two-part series dealing with safety during tram–pedestrian collisions. This research is dedicated to the safety of trams for pedestrians during collisions and is motivated by the increased number of lethal cases. The first part of this paper includes an overview of tram face development from the earliest designs to the current ones in use and, at the same time, provides a synopsis and explanation of the technical context, including a link to current and forthcoming legislation. The historical design development can be characterised by three steps, from an almost vertical front face, to leaned and pointed shapes, to the current inclined low-edged windshield without a protruding coupler. However, since most major manufacturers now export their products worldwide and customisation is only of a technically insignificant nature, our conclusions are generalisable (supported by the example of Berlin). The most advantageous shape of the tram's front, minimising the effects on pedestrians in all collision phases, has evolved rather spontaneously and was unprompted, and it is now being built into the European Commission regulations. The goal of the second part of this paper is to conduct a series of tram–pedestrian collisions with a focus on the frontal and side impacts using a crash test dummy (anthropomorphic test device—ATD). Four tram types approaching the collision at four different impact speeds (5 km/h, 10 km/h, 15 km/h, and 20 km/h) were used. The primary outcome variable was the resultant head acceleration. The risk and severity of possible head injuries were assessed using the head injury criterion (HIC15) and its linkage to the injury level on the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). The results showed increasing head impacts with an increasing speed for all tram types and collision scenarios. Higher values of head acceleration were reached during the frontal impact (17–124 g) compared to the side one (2–84 g). The HIC15 values did not exceed the value of 300 for any experimental setting, and the probability of AIS4+ injuries did not exceed 10%. The outcomes of tram–pedestrian collisions can be influenced by the ATD's position and orientation, the impact speed and front-end design of trams, and the site of initial contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study is to understand the factors that contribute to the frequency of both the total pedestrian-vehicle collisions and collisions that involve pedestrian violations and identify collision-prone areas. The two Full Bayes (FB) macro-level models were applied to historical collision records of the City of Hamilton to identify the collision-prone zones and the key factors that contribute to collision occurrence in TAZs. Finally, a self-organizing map (SOM) deep learning model was developed to identify collision-prone zones for the two collision classes. The results showed that the SOM model identified collision-prone zones with a high accuracy that exceeded the traditional Bayesian approach, based on the developed consistency test. As for the total collisions, the SOM model revealed that intersection density is the most important factor in distinguishing between collision-prone and non-collision-prone zones, followed by the pedestrian network directness and the proportion of residential land uses. As for the collisions that involved pedestrian violations, intersection density was also found to be the most important factor, followed by the density of bike-share stations and parking lots in a TAZ. The results of this study could aid planners in designing pedestrian-friendly networks and develop specific recommendations to enhance safety in unsafe zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To identify factors that contribute to near-miss collisions between pedestrians and personal transportation devices (PTDs) in a university campus using a novel data collection method, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). A total of 3,349 pedestrians and 173 PTD riders were detected through UAV observations. The researchers employed UAV technology to capture and geocode the interactions and behavior of pedestrians and PTD riders. Then, a multilevel logistic regression model examined factors that contribute to near-miss collisions between pedestrians and PTDs. The model outputs indicate that higher speed, non-bicycle PTDs (eg, skateboard and scooter), and some preventive actions, like reducing speed, deviating, and weaving, increase the probability of a PTD rider getting involved in a near-miss collision. Findings can guide campus planners to redesign the streets as a safe environment for all transportation modes and implement appropriate regulations and education programs, especially for non-bicycle PTD riders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streets provide necessary infrastructure in cities, but urban residents rarely have the opportunity to choose a good street and avoid a bad one. Therefore, it is crucial to construct safe and beautiful streetscapes for users, especially pedestrians. This work explores the impact of streetscape characteristics under both daylight and night-time conditions, extracted from photographs, on the perceived safety and aesthetic appreciation of pedestrians in Xuzhou, China. The results show the following. (1) Perceived safety and aesthetic appreciation in the daytime are significantly greater than at night. (2) The higher the percentage of buildings and motor vehicles in the photographs, the lower the perceived safety. The higher the percentage of vegetation, the greater the aesthetic appreciation. (3) Illuminating pedestrians' immediate surroundings is conducive to improving the perceived safety of pedestrians. Finally, this paper suggests improvements to the perceived safety and aesthetic quality of streetscapes in the daytime and at night. These can be used to facilitate improved city streetscape design. However, these results should be used cautiously as the use of photograph-based analysis may not fully reflect the in situ situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB) is a pedestrian crosswalk countermeasure system that cautions drivers by providing them with real-time warning about the presence of pedestrians in an upcoming crosswalk. This paper investigated the safety effectiveness of existing RRFBs installed in the state of Florida between 2013 and 2018. Additionally, traffic volume, roadway characteristics, and land-use mix were included as explanatory variables. The study evaluated 154 treated sites with RRFB installations and 158 control sites with similar characteristics. Safety performance functions (SPF) were developed, and crash modification factors (CMF) were calculated using the empirical Bayes (EB) methodology for various crash types. A CMF of 0.31 for total pedestrian crashes was estimated, showing that RRFBs have the potential to reduce 69% of total pedestrian-involved crashes. CMF for total vehicular crashes and rear-end crashes were also investigated to ascertain whether RRFBs have adverse effects on rear-end crashes. CMF for total vehicular crashes was found to be 1.14, showing that RRFBs do not have positive effect in reducing total vehicular crashes. Similarly, it was observed that CMF for the rear-end crashes was 1.11, indicating RRFBs might have adverse effect on rear-end crashes because vehicles needs to slow down or stop due to the presence of pedestrians. CMFunctions for significant variables for pedestrian, rear-end, and total crash models were also estimated in this study. An economic analysis indicated that the implementation of RRFBs will yield a benefit to cost ratio (calculated over 3 years) of approximately 85.5 with a 4% discount rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fatal crashes involving Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) are a major health concern in South Korea due to the increase in their usage in the logistics industry. Owing to the way, they are operated on the roadways, most riders end up in fatal crashes. Interestingly, little research exists regarding the impact of risk factors on fatal crashes involving at-fault PTW riders. This study employs a copula-based regression technique to simultaneously model the relationship between crash-risk factors and crash outcome metrics of fatal PTW rider-at-fault crashes, namely the number of crash casualties (casualty size) and the number of vehicles involved in a crash (crash size) at intersections and non-intersection segments. The proposed method was superior compared to the SEM-based bivariate regression approach, and the estimation results showed that there exists a positive relationship between both outcome variables. From the analysis, it was identified that while "other violations" comprising speeding and wrongful overtaking had varying effects on crash size outcomes at the intersection and non-intersection segments, variables such as daytime, winter, head-on collisions, and pedestrian involvement had positive impact on the crash consequence metrics irrespective of the crash location. Insights drawn from the study are used in recommending appropriate countermeasures for improving PTW safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a methodology for evaluating the walkability of roads within a market area using MultiAttribute Decision-Making (MADM) techniques. The methodology was applied to rank various roads of the market area based on the existing condition of the pedestrian-built environment in Aminabad market, Lucknow, India. A set of 7 key attributes containing 28 sub-attributes were identified that influence pedestrian safety and mobility. Videography and photographic surveys were conducted at the market roads to gather data, and attribute weights were calculated using the Entropy Weight Method (EWM). The roads were then ranked using Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) and Complex Proportional Assessment (COPRAS). The results showed a strong correlation of 0.896 between the rankings obtained using the two methods, indicating the robustness of the methodology. The study identified several key roads of the market area that were in need of improvement to enhance the overall quality of the pedestrian-built environment. The methodology developed in this study provides a valuable tool for decision-making regarding pedestrian infrastructure improvement in developing countries and is expected to contribute to a safer and more efficient environment for pedestrian movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Investigated vulnerable roadway users' safety perceptions on road sharing with AVs. • Analyzed the survey responses of pedestrians and bicyclists in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, collected by Bike Pittsburgh (Bike PGH) in 2017 and 2019. • Non-parametric tests were applied to compare the safety perceptions of pedestrians and bicyclists across different characteristics, experiences, and attitudes. • An ordered probit model was estimated to better understand the factors influencing safety perceptions regarding road sharing with AVs. • Higher exposures to AVs are associated with improved safety perceptions. • Respondents with a stricter attitude towards AV regulations perceive road sharing with AVs as less safe. Introduction : The operation of autonomous vehicles (AVs) on public roadways affects the safety of vulnerable roadway users, such as pedestrians and bicyclists. This research contributes to the literature by investigating vulnerable roadway users' safety perceptions on road sharing with AVs. Method : This study analyzed the survey responses of pedestrians and bicyclists in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, collected by Bike Pittsburgh (Bike PGH) in 2017 and 2019. First, this study investigates how pedestrians and bicyclists perceive safety regarding road sharing with AVs. Second, the study examines how the safety perceptions of pedestrians and bicyclists regarding AVs might be changing over time. Non-parametric tests were applied to compare the safety perceptions of pedestrians and bicyclists across different characteristics, experiences, and attitudes, considering the ordinal nature of the AV safety perception data. An ordered probit model was estimated to better understand the factors influencing safety perceptions regarding road sharing with AVs. Results: The study findings suggest that higher exposures to AVs are associated with improved safety perceptions. In addition, respondents with a stricter attitude toward AV regulations perceive road sharing with AVs as less safe. Respondents whose opinion regarding AVs did not worsen due to the pedestrian/bicyclist involved AV accident in Arizona have higher safety perceptions. Practical Applications: Policymakers can use the findings of this study in developing guidelines to ensure safe road sharing and develop strategies to sustain active transportation usage in the future AV era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The first large-scale e-scooter naturalistic driving study. • Addresses an urgent need to evaluate the risk factors associated with e-scooters. • Infrastructure factors were the most prevalent precipitating factors for e-scooter crashes. Introduction: Shared dockless electric scooters (e-scooters) are a popular shared mobility service providing an accessible last-mile transportation option in urban and campus environments. However, city and campus stakeholders may hesitate to introduce these scooters due to safety concerns. While prior e-scooter safety studies have collected injury data from hospitals or riding data under controlled or naturalistic conditions, these datasets are limited and did not identify risk factors associated with e-scooter riding safety. To address this gap in e-scooter safety research, this study collected the largest naturalistic e-scooter dataset to date and quantified the safety risks associated with behavioral, infrastructure, and environmental factors. Method: A fleet of 200 e-scooters was deployed on Virginia Tech's campus in Blacksburg, VA for a 6-month period. Fifty were equipped with a unique onboard data acquisition system, using sensors and video to capture e-scooter trips in their entirety. The resulting dataset consisted of 3,500 hours of data spanning over 8,500 trips. Algorithms were developed to identify safety critical events (SCEs) in the dataset and analyses were conducted to determine the prevalence of various SCE risk factors and associated odds ratios. Results: Results from this study indicate that infrastructure-related factors, behavior of e-scooter riders and other actors, and environmental factors all contributed to the SCE risk for e-scooter riders in Virginia Tech's pedestrian-dense campus environment. Conclusions: To help mitigate unsafe rider behavior, educational outreach programs should quantify the significant risks associated with infrastructure, behavioral, and environmental risk factors and provide clear recommendations to riders. Improved infrastructure maintenance and design may also improve safety for e-scooter riders. Practical Applications: The infrastructure, behavioral, and environmental risk factors quantified in this study can be applied by e-scooter service providers, municipalities, and campus administrators to develop mitigation strategies to reduce the safety risks associated with e-scooter deployments in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation examined whether the mode of locomotion matters in how 8-, 10-, 12-, and 14-year-old children (N = 91) judge dynamic affordances in a complex perception-action task with significant safety risks. The primarily European American children in the sample came from the area of Iowa City, Iowa and were balanced for gender. The same children crossed a single lane of continuous traffic on foot and on bike (order counterbalanced) in identical immersive virtual environments. We found that although 8-year-olds chose significantly larger gaps when crossing on bike than on foot, these gaps were not large enough to compensate for their delay in entering the gap and their slowness in crossing the road. As a result, they ended up with less time to spare when exiting the roadway on bike than on foot. In contrast, 14-year-olds exhibited no difference in their gap choices on bike than on foot, nor did they exhibit a difference in their timing of entry into the gap. However, they crossed the road much more quickly on bike, resulting in significantly more time to spare when crossing on bike than on foot. The 10- and 12-year-olds' performance fit neatly between that of the 8- and 14-year-olds. We conclude that as children gained better control over the bike with age, they were better able to match their gap decisions with their crossing movements such that bicycling afforded even safer road-crossing than walking for 14-year-olds. Public Significance Statement: Children's road-crossing safety is a significant public health concern, as collisions with motor vehicles are a leading cause of unintentional childhood injuries. We found that 8-year-old children had a greater margin of safety when they crossed a virtual road on foot than on bike, whereas the opposite was true of 12- and 14-year-olds. These findings suggest that substantial re-learning is needed when children begin crossing roads as bicyclists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Experimental study comparing the effect of two different light-based eHMIs on pedestrian' crossing decisions in test-track environment. • No effect of the eHMIs on pedestrians' crossing decision time or deceleration perception time. • Participants were able to perceive a partial light band, consisting of a moving block of cyan coloured light, at a further distance than a full light band. • Both eHMI solutions received positive ratings in terms of acceptance, perceived safety, and confidence around the AV. The development of increasingly automated vehicles (AVs) is likely to lead to new challenges around how they will interact with other road users. In the future, it is envisaged that AVs, manually driven vehicles, and vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians will need to share the road environment and interact with one another. This paper presents a test track study, funded by the H2020 interACT project, investigating pedestrians' reactions towards an AV's movement patterns and external Human Machine Interfaces (eHMIs). Twenty participants, standing on the side of a test-track road and facing an approaching AV, were asked to raise their arm to indicate: (1) when they could perceive the AV's eHMI, which consisted of either a Full Light Band (FLB) or a Partial Light Band (PLB); (2) when they perceived the deceleration of the AV (with eHMI vs. no eHMI); and (3) when they felt safe to cross the road in front of the approaching AV (with eHMI vs. no eHMI). Statistical analyses revealed no effects of the presence of an eHMI on the pedestrians' crossing decision or deceleration perception, but significant differences were found regarding the visibility of the FLB and PLB designs. The PLB design could be perceived at further distances than the FLB design. Both eHMI solutions were generally well-received, and participants provided high ratings of perceived safety, and confidence around the AV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Street vendors contribute to the unique identity and vibrancy of cities influencing the social, economic, and cultural landscape. Often, street vendors conduct their informal businesses on the sidewalks, which are meant to be used by pedestrians. This leads to a conflict in public space use and a question of whether street vendors are contributing to the vibrancy of a city or creating a nuisance to pedestrians. This research, based on a survey of 819 pedestrians in Addis Ababa city, discusses walking experience of pedestrians in the presence of intensive street vending activities on the sidewalk. The survey includes questions about the comfort and safety of pedestrians while walking on the sidewalk with the presence of street vendors. 49.3% of surveyed pedestrians thought that mobile street vendors impeded their ability to walk without difficulty on the sidewalk. 77.8% of those surveyed felt great discomfort as street vendors took up too much space on the sidewalk. 66.3% of respondents felt unsafe around street vendors during the day while 67.3% felt safe at night when the volume of street vending is reduced. This highlights that while street vendors have significant socioeconomic and cultural benefits, if their presence on the street is beyond the critical mass, they draw a feeling of discomfort for pedestrians more than creating liveliness for the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To examine the association between historical redlining and contemporary pedestrian fatalities across the United States. Methods. We analyzed 2010–2019 traffic fatality data, obtained from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, for all US pedestrian fatalities linked by location of crash to 1930s Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) grades and current sociodemographic factors at the census tract level. We applied generalized estimating equation models to assess the relationship between the count of pedestrian fatalities and redlining. Results. In an adjusted multivariable analysis, tracts graded D ("Hazardous") had a 2.60 (95% confidence interval = 2.26, 2.99) incidence rate ratio (per residential population) of pedestrian fatalities compared with tracts graded A ("Best"). We found a significant dose‒response relationship: as grades worsened from A to D, rates of pedestrian fatalities increased. Conclusions. Historical redlining policy, initiated in the 1930s, has an impact on present-day transportation inequities in the United States. Public Health Implications. To reduce transportation inequities, understanding how structurally racist policies, past and present, have an impact on community-level investments in transportation and health is crucial. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(4):420–428. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.307192) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to understand the behavior of pedestrians who cross the street mid-block where vehicles travel while making use of existing vehicular gaps. This study was carried out in the city of Tunja and information was collected in order to obtain data on the accepted gap and crossing speed which was then correlated to variables such as age, gender, type of vehicle, group formation, reduced mobility conditions, walking time, walking vs. running, and if the person crosses with children, among others. A statistical characterization was performed on the above information, obtaining relationships that may be of interest in understanding pedestrian behavior in the city. We found that the gap accepted by a pedestrian is directly proportional to the walking time and the time used to make the crossing is near 50% of the critical gap. The variables that were more significant in the size of the gaps accepted by pedestrians at the crossing were: the type of vehicle, the type of gap, and the walking time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• UK survey and observation study of interactions with autonomous vehicles (AVs). • Pedestrians not perceived to be less vulnerable around AVs than around normal cars. • Pedestrians did not take undue risks around AVs at an undesignated crossing point. • Pedestrians, joggers, and cyclists yielded to AVs during passing in a shared space. • Positive (short-term) outlook for road safety but some concerns for mobility. Researchers have predicted that "vulnerable road users" (VRUs) such as pedestrians will feel less vulnerable and thus take more risks around autonomous vehicles (AVs) than around human-operated vehicles (HOVs). However, data on the behaviours pedestrians are likely to display during passing as well as crossing interactions with AVs – particularly from naturalistic studies – are currently lacking. Such data could help inform AV system designers and authorities, as well as researchers. So, a novel study was conducted in London, UK. Perceived vulnerability was gauged via a survey on hypothetical pedestrian-vehicle interactions (N = 267). Behaviours were observed during real crossing and passing interactions with AV shuttle pods in a shared space (N = 330). While pedestrians were the main focus, joggers and cyclists were also frequenting the observation site and were included in the analysis of passing interactions. The survey results showed that pedestrians were not perceived to be less vulnerable around AVs. Diminishing initial boldness in the crossing interactions, and high yielding in the passing interactions, supported this, demonstrating that VRUs were not taking undue risks; rather, they appeared to be experiencing some uncertainty and discomfort. Further results showed other VRU behaviours (gap acceptance, inattention, hesitation, changes in speed, explicit communication, a side preference) may be relevant in AV interactions, but not necessarily to the same degree as when around HOVs or not in line with UK road rules. Positive conclusions were drawn for AV programming, and for safety, at least in the short term, but concerns regarding mobility need addressing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The use of leading pedestrian intervals (LPIs) creates safer street crossings for typical pedestrians, giving them a head-start into the crosswalk. The LPI, however, delays the onset of the traditional traffic sound cue that pedestrians who are blind use to initiate crossing streets. LPIs can create situations where pedestrians who are blind will frequently begin or end crossings or both against the pedestrian signal. Methods: The researchers conducted two sets of observations in an urban environment. They measured the seconds from the initiation of the vehicular circular green signal to the front of the first vehicle passing through the center of the intersection (n = 40) to calculate the average driver's delay. Pedestrians who are blind, to confirm a straight-through surge of parallel traffic (i.e. not turning vehicles), listen for a vehicle to reach the roadway center to know it is the appropriate time to initiate a crossing. In the second set of observations (n = 40), the researchers recorded the length of the Walk, Flashing Don't Walk, and LPI to calculate average impacts on crossing. Results: The average time for vehicles to reach the center of the intersection was 6.0 s. When there was an LPI, on average the clearance for pedestrians after reaching the far corner was 0.49 s; for Walk intervals, there was an average of 3.35 s margin of time to begin crossing. Discussion: These observational studies verify the crossing latencies for pedestrians who are blind. At crosswalks with LPI, pedestrians can be expected to cross after the W alk sign has expired 15 to 38% of the time and end their crossing 40 to 82% of the time when the visual display says D on't W alk. Implications for Practitioners: Orientation and mobility specialists should instruct students on how to identify intersections with LPI to assist in decision making. Traffic management remediation is the installation of an accessible pedestrian signal (APS); specialists should advocate for the installation of APS where LPIs are implemented and teach students how to use APS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public space lighting (PSL), if adequately designed, may significantly enhance pedestrians' sense of safety and comfort. Yet, the accumulated knowledge about subjective evaluation of PSL is still insufficient. This paper presents a systematic literature review, carried out according to the PRISMA guidelines, of factors affecting pedestrians' perceptions of safety, comfort, and pleasantness induced by PSL. The screening process, which focused on studies combining technical- and observer-based environmental assessments, yielded 53 eligible papers, which were then synthesized according to an adapted model for outdoor place-human relationship. This framework-based review comprehensively highlights a few common findings and practical implications, as well as multiple gaps in research coverage, many inconsistencies, and significant generalization and transferability constraints. As the review indicates, one size does not fit all, and much further research is needed to improve the tailoring of PSL to a range of contextual conditions, such as different climates, cultures, and city characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users, and pedestrian safety has become a major concern among researchers in recent years due to the increasing number of road fatalities. Conflict analysis using surrogate safety measures (SSMs) helps study pedestrian safety, as there are several limitations with collision data. Moreover, it is a cost-effective technique compared to historical crash data analysis. The present study analyses pedestrian safety at urban midblock crosswalks using time-tocollision (TTC) as SSM. The data for the present study were collected from four different midblock pedestrian crossing locations in different cities in the western part of India using the videographic technique. The trajectory of pedestrians and vehicles was extracted for micro-level analysis of pedestrian--vehicle interactions. The trajectory data were further used to calculate TTC at regular time intervals during the interaction of pedestrians and vehicles. Two different types of pedestrian road crossing behaviour, viz. vehicle pass first and pedestrian pass first were identified, and TTC analysis was carried out differently for each scenario. The variation of TTC based on gender and vehicle category was analysed to evaluate the influence of such parameters on pedestrian safety. The generalized linear mixed model approach was used to develop linear regression models for TTC based on empirical data. The threshold values for TTC were used to define various safety levels of pedestrians using a clustering approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban street pavements have historically represented the synthesis of functional and aesthetic values, capable of meeting the transportation needs and demands in which the pedestrian is always put at the centre of the project. The quality of a pedestrian-priority space must be read according to a series of specific indicators that combine the unbeatable aesthetic requirements with those of comfort and safety. To this end, an integrated approach of experimental measurements to characterise the quality of pedestrian paths (pedestrian-only streets, sidewalks, shared areas and plazas), with specific attention to stone and segmental pavements, was introduced. The different effects, in terms of vibrations and noise, that the pavement of a pedestrian path can generate on a user pulling a suitcase trolley (telescopic handle wheeled luggage), were evaluated. These values were than associated with other parameters capable of describing the characteristics of the pavement surface, such as surface macro- and micro-roughness, skid resistance and size of the elements and joints that make up the pavements. Comfort and safety thresholds for pedestrian street pavement surfaces have been identified. They can be usefully made available to designers for the functional characterisation of urban paving solutions, with particular attention to those in natural stone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A systematic review of observational studies on mobile phone distraction is conducted. • 39 research articles were selected using PRISMA methodology. • 35% of the studies were conducted in the United States of America (USA). • 69% of the investigations were done in the last five years (2017 – 2021). • Amongst various distracting activities, pedestrians reported the highest behavioural impairment during texting and walking. • Females were less likely to show risky road crossing behaviour compared to male pedestrians. The growing prevalence of technological distractions amongst pedestrians makes it an important road safety concern. Observational studies are considered a reliable method to investigate the influence of mobile phone distraction on pedestrian road crossing behaviour and crash risks. The present study conducts a systematic review of international literature on pedestrian distraction observations by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A total of 792 studies were identified from the literature search on six research databases: Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane library, and Transportation Research International Documentation (TRID). Finally, 39 research articles were assessed using the systematic classification scheme based on the following five research aspects: prevalence of mobile phone distraction, study locations, performance measures, analysis techniques, and additional factors associated with mobile phone use among pedestrians. Over 35% of the studies were conducted in the United States of America (USA) and 69% of the investigations were done in the last five years. Overall, the findings across the studies indicate that mobile phone distraction plays a major role in pedestrian risky road crossing behaviour and violation tendencies. Visual distractions (such as texting) exhibited higher behavioural impairment compared to cognitive distractions (e.g., listening to music, and conversations). Pedestrian characteristics such as gender and age were the key factors examined in 77% and 67% of the observational studies. Finally, important directions for future research are illustrated to aid the researchers working in the area of pedestrian safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many existing interchanges, which were built mostly in 1950s and 1960s based on old design guidelines, have operational and/or safety problems due to the inconsistency with current traffic and pedestrian demands. Therefore, upgrading existing designs based on recent policies and demands could result in improving the performance of old interchanges. This research evaluates traffic safety and pedestrian performance of the new offset diamond interchange (ODI) as a substitute for failing conventional interchanges. The ODI design, which showed potential in improving traffic operation in a past study by the authors, was compared to nine interchange designs using VISSIM and the Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM) in this study to examine the safety and pedestrian performance. Overall, 324 simulation scenarios were tested with various conditions of traffic and pedestrian volumes, turning traffic ratios, traffic distribution, and truck percentages. According to the results, the ODI showed potential to be a promising design in terms of safety and pedestrian performance. However, the diverging diamond interchange (DDI) resulted in fewer simulated conflicts compared to the new ODI. On the other hand, the ODI design had a better performance in terms of pedestrian performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile robots are expected to move safely and efficiently in socially-compliant ways in dense crowds. In this paper, a unified multiple-motion-mode framework is proposed to achieve socially-compliant navigation in dense crowds. The proposed framework consists of three successive phases, the identification of pedestrian groups and prediction of their trajectories, the generation of candidate local trajectories of the robot, and the determination of an optimal local trajectory. The pedestrians are grouped according to distances among pedestrians and their velocities and a predictor predicts the groups’ trajectories. Three robot motion modes, moving-solo, pedestrian-following, and courteous-stopping, are proposed based on a systematic analysis and classification of dense crowds and they are utilized to generate candidate local trajectories. A composite metric is proposed to determine the best local trajectory by simultaneously considering the robot motion safety, efficiency, and stability of the trajectory. The proposed robot navigation framework is evaluated both in simulations and real-world experiments with various scenarios. The results show that the proposed framework surpasses the state-of-the-art methods in terms of efficiency and social compliance. Note to Practitioners—This paper is motivated by the socially-compliant navigation problem of mobile robots in densely crowded environments such as hospitals and airports. Robots navigation in these scenes need to follow collective social conventions to ensure ordered and efficient public pedestrian traffics, and individual social conventions for acceptance by human society. Existing approaches generally consider only one type of social conventions cannot accomplish a truly socially-compliant navigation and cannot be naturally accepted in the human pedestrian environment. This paper proposes to imitate the pedestrian’s walking behavior for robot navigation by naturally choosing one of the three walking modes, moving-solo, following, and courteous-stopping. We construct the candidate trajectory sampling strategies for different motion modes based on the global path and the two types of social conventions. Experimental results show that the proposed framework can be applied in large-scale, densely crowded, unstructured, and human-robot coexisting environments for socially-compliant navigation. However, the proposed navigation framework has limited improvement in navigation efficiency in a highly crowded environment due to the limited feasible space. Even pedestrians are difficult to walk in these highly crowded environments. In future work, we will study how to auto-adjust the weights to steer the robot to efficient navigation in highly crowded environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedestrian injury has become a national traffic-safety concern as the share of pedestrian fatality continues to increase in the last decade. Pedestrian injury severities are influenced by many factors that include driver, pedestrian, vehicle, roadway, temporal, and environmental characteristics. Results indicate that some of the factors affecting pedestrian injury severity at intersection and non-intersection locations are statistically different and using the same model to perform the estimate at both locations may result in biased results. However, few studies have been conducted to explore different contributing factors at such locations. Mixed logit models are developed to independently identify the contributing factors to pedestrian injury severity resulting from crashes at intersections and non-intersections. The estimation shows factors such as male driver, alcohol, pedestrian above 65, truck, and higher speed limit significantly increase the probability of pedestrian serious injury severities in both locations. However, the impacts tend to be more severe at intersections. Urban and wet road surfaces decrease the likelihood of suffering fatal injury at intersections. Furthermore, crash time only has impacts at intersections, while traffic control, severe weather, and day-of-week only have impacts at non-intersections. The results provide insights on developing more effective countermeasures to promote pedestrian safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more people walking along the sidewalk or even crossing the street are using their mobile phones. This study aims to investigate how hand-held cell phone conversation affects the behavior of pedestrians at signalized intersections in terms of both safety and traffic. In order to compare the behavior of distracted and non-distracted pedestrians, an outdoor environment experiment was carried out in real road conditions. Specifically, video recordings from three signalized intersections in the capital of Greece, Athens, were analysed. Various demographic and behavioral characteristics were recorded, including mobile phone use. Initially, multiple linear regression models were developed in order to identify how cell phone use affects pedestrians' speed. Then, binary logistic regression models were developed to ascertain the association between the safety characteristics of pedestrians, in terms of near misses, and distraction due to cell phone use. Among 2,280 pedestrians, it was observed that almost one-fifth of them (16.6%) engaged in a mobile-phone distracting activity. The respective percentage for hand-held cell phone conversation was equal to 5%. The results of the developed statistical models showed that pedestrians' main traffic and safety characteristics were negatively impacted by distraction from hand-held cell phone conversation, as mobile phone use not only reduces pedestrians' speed but also increases the likelihood that they will be involved in a collision with an approaching vehicle. Lastly, various recommendations for tackling this issue are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evacuation in shipwrecks remains challenging, and there is a gap in research related to the consideration of emotional changes in pedestrians and the role of safety personnel on passenger ships. The present strategy may be the first work in the dual-model (SIS model and social force model) related research to synthesize the pedestrian's multi-emotional changes and the safety officer's role and movement rules in the shipwreck scenario. We employed a multifactorial two-model approach to enhance the realism of evacuation outcomes during re-sinking scenarios, including pedestrian mood, safety officer, and ship tilt. Our findings reveal critical thresholds for emotion transmission, except for exit width and pedestrian density, where a few people transmitting emotions have minimal effects. Negative emotions beyond a certain threshold can disrupt evacuation and lead to casualties, while positive emotions contribute to smoother evacuations with fewer casualties. Furthermore, optimizing the safety officer's position and action strategy can alleviate the negative feelings of pedestrians and facilitate an orderly evacuation, positively affecting the evacuation outcome, especially in the case of a sinking ship with an increasingly severe angle of inclination. This study provides a valuable framework for improving evacuation safety and minimizing casualties during maritime emergencies. • The influence of the two opposing emotions on the evacuation effect. • Multi-factor emotional changes:scene familiarity,emotional decay et al. • The safety officer to disseminate positive emotions & to help the injured. • The position of safety officer and the rule of movement "first static, then move". • Effect of passenger ship tilt angle on evacuation (emotions, casualties). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, path planning for intelligent vehicle collision avoidance of dynamic pedestrian using attention mechanism-long short-term memory network (Att-LSTM), modified social force model (MSFM), and model predictive control (MPC) is systematically investigated, and pedestrian-dynamic vehicle conflict scene at an unsignalized crosswalk is covered. First, a data-driven stacking fusion model based on the Att-LSTM and MSFM is proposed for pedestrian path prediction. Pedestrian heterogeneity (age and gender) is taken into account for the first time. The data-driven stacking fusion model is verified with the existing methods. Then an MPC-based path planning-tracking system considering pedestrian path prediction is developed. The predicted path of pedestrian is treated as a pedestrian-safety region with the combination of a semiellipse and semicircle, and the front wheel steering angle is calculated to prevent the intelligent vehicle from colliding with the dynamic pedestrians. Simulink–Carsim simulations are presented to simulate the real dynamic environment where crossing pedestrians exist. The results illustrate that the developed MPC system considering pedestrian path prediction can provide dynamic path planning performance acceptably and effectively, and make it possible for the intelligent vehicle to present the great feasibility for pedestrian safety protection and traffic efficiency improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applied research on decreasing pedestrian injuries often focuses on how to increase driver yielding behavior but rarely studies what pedestrians can do to increase their safety. There is a lack of empirical research focusing on how pedestrians can effectively signal their need to cross the street when there is no traffic light directing the pedestrian and oncoming traffic. As a replication and extension of Crowley‐Koch et al. (2011), this study examined the effects of two pedestrian gestures, an extended arm and raised hand, on driver yielding behavior at 3 crosswalks in Oklahoma City. Research assistants implemented gestures prior to crossing the street as cars approached the crosswalk. Data were collected on the percentage of drivers yielding to the pedestrian. Both pedestrian gestures increased driver yielding across all 3 sites when compared to no gesture. Results were discussed in terms of future research and practical solutions towards increasing pedestrian safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every year, many people lose their health and/or lives on Polish roads. One of the reasons for this is behavior of pedestrians at pedestrian crossings, which affects the road safety. The aim of the article was to conduct experimental research, the idea of which was to study the behavior of pedestrians at pedestrian crossings in the city of Pila, the results of which can be applied to Poland. During the research, the behavior of pedestrians and the impact on the probability of a road accident were analyzed. Undoubtedly, the prevailing epidemic, during which people are in many respects limited, had an impact on the results obtained, therefore the number of people at the analyzed crossings may have decreased. The conducted research confirmed the Police statistical data that the most dangerous crossings for pedestrians are those without traffic lights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduced a new intersection design, the double contraflow intersection (DCI), that could help at big, busy suburban sites, and explored how well it would work. The DCI uses contraflow left turn lanes on each approach to minimize the conflicting traffic flows. The DCI has the potential to provide slightly better capacity than the continuous flow intersection (CFI) and median U-turn (MUT), and much better capacity than a comparable conventional intersection, while mitigating some of the known limitations of the CFI and MUT. Our results showed that the DCI was generally superior to the CFI, MUT, and conventional designs in capacity and travel time. The DCI likely looks about as safe as the conventional and CFI designs, and is as good in through progression as the CFI. The DCI looks to be generally behind the MUT in pedestrian service, and behind the CFI in bicyclist service, but not by much in either case. The DCI looks to be generally behind the conventional design, but better than the CFI, in driveway service and right-of-way needed. In sum, the DCI looks like it could have a future in helping relieve traffic congestion at some suburban intersections and deserves attention from researchers and project teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Perceptions of safety and comfort are strongly related but distinct. • Bicycle (vs. car) interactions are seen as safer and more comfortable. • Individual perceptions of yielding are strong determinants of safety and comfort. • Perceptions of yielding are most determined by which road user crosses first. Interactions with other road users influence the perceived safety and comfort of pedestrians. Yet the relationships among perceptions of yielding, safety, and comfort are poorly understood. To enhance understanding of these key concepts, the objectives of this study are to determine how perception of pedestrian safety at unsignalized crosswalks differs from perception of comfort, and the relationship of each with perception of yielding. A generalized structural equations model is developed using data from an online survey in which 366 participants (i.e., "perceivers") rated yielding, safety, and comfort for sample videos of pedestrian interactions with motor vehicles and bicycles. Results show that an individual's perception of yielding plays a crucial role in mediating the effects of interaction attributes (e.g., vehicle speed, proximity) and perceiver attributes (e.g., travel habits) on their perceptions of pedestrian safety and comfort. For example, people who bicycle more frequently perceive pedestrians as more comfortable than people who walk more frequently, rooted in misalignment on what constitutes adequate yielding. Strategies to address pedestrian comfort can focus on a set of key yielding behaviors by drivers and cyclists – particularly allowing the pedestrian to cross first. Motor vehicle drivers must exhibit stronger yielding behavior (e.g., allow a larger time gap) than bicycles to achieve the same level of perceived pedestrian safety and comfort. Although perceptions of safety and comfort are strongly related and similarly impacted by yielding, researchers should be cautious about using the concepts interchangeably because they are differently impacted by attributes of the interaction and perceiver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedestrians have to share the road with vehicles so it is important they take care when crossing the road. As a pedestrian, plan where you will walk and always choose the safest place to cross a road. Signalized pedestrian crossings consist of signal displays, line markings and lighting. Signalized pedestrian crossings give priority to vehicles, and pedestrians are allowed to cross only when the signals halt vehicle traffic on the through road. Signals must be timed to give pedestrians long enough to complete their crossing before the signals change to allow vehicle traffic to start passing through the crossing again. A high volume of pedestrian traffic is needed to justify the delays to road traffic that signalized pedestrian crossings cause. Pedestrian phasing should be considered at all signalized intersections where pedestrians are likely to be present. The increasing of traffic volume at intersections has been arise a problems like road accidents, conflicts and congestions. These problems can be solved by providing an efficient traffic signal control at the intersection for continuous and efficient movement of vehicles through the intersection. Most pedestrian crashes occur while the pedestrian is attempting to cross the road. A range of treatments can help pedestrians to cross safely, including the use of signalized pedestrian crossings. This paper presents the improvement of pedestrian safety by introducing traffic lights at pedestrian crossings. The green signal time should be long enough to allow pedestrians to cross safely. For even greater safety when crossing a pedestrian crossing, it is necessary to introduce a method by pressing buttons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A source of physical activity and independence, walking during childhood has many health and developmental benefits. Unfortunately, children are often not able to safely walk to their destinations, traffic safety being a primary barrier. The purpose of this paper is to understand how land use development patterns are related to safety outcomes for child pedestrians. Assuming that most child pedestrian trips start at home, this work explores the relationship between residential land use types and child pedestrian injuries. Are roadways in low-density residential areas more or less safe for child pedestrians than similar roadways in high-density residential areas or in mixed-use residential areas? We explore child pedestrian injury rates in Portland, Oregon through GIS spatial analysis and Bayesian spatial autoregressive Tobit models that use Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation with a Gibbs sampling scheme. Findings suggest that, with exposure and other socio-demographic factors being controlled for, roadways in mixed-use residential neighborhoods experience lower child pedestrian injury rates than high-density single-use neighborhoods or low-density single-use neighborhoods. Findings inform the Safe Systems approach and provide insight for the development of cities that ensure safety for vulnerable road users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We aimed to quantify, through simulations using real crash data, the number of potentially avoided crashes following different replacement levels of light vehicles by level-5 automated light vehicles (AVs). Methods: Since level-5 AVs are not on the road yet, or are too rare, we simulated their introduction into traffic using a national database of all fatal crashes and 5% of injury crashes observed in France in 2011. We fictitiously replaced a certain proportion of light vehicles (LVs) involved in crashes by level-5 AVs, and applied crash avoidance probabilities estimated by a number of experts regarding the capabilities of AVs depending on specific configurations. Estimates of the percentage of avoided crashes per user configuration and according to three selected (10%, 50%, 100%) replacement levels were made, as well as estimates taking into account the relative weight of these crash configurations, and considering fatal and injury crashes separately. Results: Our simulation suggests that a reduction of almost half of fatal crashes (56%) and injury crashes (46%) could be expected by replacing all LVs on the road with level-5 AVs. The introduction of AVs would be the least effective for crashes involving a vulnerable road user, especially motorcyclists. Conclusion: This result represents encouraging prospects for the introduction of automated vehicles into traffic, while making it clear that, even with all light vehicles replaced with level 5-AVs, all issues would not be solved, especially for crashes involving motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Drivers found the advanced warning increased their awareness of the pedestrian. • Drivers were 1.79-2.44 and times more likely to stop for the pedestrian when warned. • Age, time of day, and warning message all had significant impacts on behavior. Introduction: Using connected vehicle technologies, pedestrian to vehicle (P2V) communication applications can be installed on smart devices allowing pedestrians to communicate with drivers by broadcasting discrete safety messages, received by drivers in-vehicle, as an alternative to expensive fixed-location physical safety infrastructure. Method: This study consists of designing, developing, and deploying an entirely cyber-physical P2V communication system within the cellular vehicle to everything (C-V2X) environment at a mid-block crosswalk to analyze drivers' reactions to in-vehicle advanced warning messages, the impacts of the advanced warning messages on driver awareness, and drivers' acceptance of this technology. Results: In testing human subjects with, and without, advanced warning messages upon approaching a mid-block crosswalk, driver reaction, acceptance, speed, eye tracking data, and demographic data were collected. Through an odds ratio comparison, it was found that drivers were at least 2.44 times more likely to stop for the pedestrian with the warning than without during the day, and at least 1.79 times more likely during the night. Furthermore, through binary logistic regression analysis, it was found that driver age, time of the day, and the presence of the advanced warning message all had strong, significant impacts with a confidence value of at least 98% (p < 0.02) on the rate at which drivers stopped for the pedestrian. Conclusions: The results from this study indicate that the advanced warning message sent within the C-V2X had a strong, positive impact on driver behavior and understanding of pedestrian intent. Practical Applications: Pedestrian crashes and fatality rates at mid-block crossings continue to increase over the years. Connected vehicle technology utilizing smart devices can be used as a means for communications between pedestrians and drivers to deliver safety messages. State and local city planners should consider geofencing designated mid-block crossings at which this technology operates to increase pedestrian safety and driver awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Analysis of fatal nighttime pedestrian collisions 2002–2017 using FARS data. • Post-2009 fatality increase most strongly correlated with infrastructure factors. • Unmarked non-intersections saw 80.8% of additional fatalities and arterials 81.1%. • 40–45 mph roads (54.6% of additional); five-lane roads (40.7%); urban (99.7%). • SUVs involved in 39.7% of additional fatalities, overrepresenting fleet share. • Age of pedestrians killed increased more (18.1%) than the national average (3.2%). Introduction: Pedestrian fatalities in the United States increased 45.5% between 2009 and 2017. More than 85% of those additional pedestrian fatalities occurred at night. Method: We examine Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data for fatal pedestrian crashes that occurred in the dark between 2002 and 2017. Within-variable and before/after examinations of crashes in terms of infrastructure, user, vehicle, and situational characteristics are performed with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and two-sample t -tests. We model changes in crash characteristic proportions between 2002–2009 and 2010–2017 using linear regressions and test for autocorrelation with Breusch-Godfrey tests. Results: The increase in fatal nighttime pedestrian crashes is most strongly correlated with infrastructure factors: non-intersection unmarked locations (saw 80.8% of additional fatalities); 40–45 mph roads (54.6%); five-lane roads (40.7%); urban (99.7%); and arterials (81.1%). In addition, SUVs were involved in 39.7% of additional fatalities, overrepresenting their share of the fleet. Increased pedestrian alcohol and drug involvement warrant further investigation. The age of pedestrians killed increased more (18.1%) than the national average (3.2%). Conclusions: By identifying factors related to the increase in nighttime pedestrian fatalities, this work constitutes a vital first step in making our streets safer for pedestrians. Practical Applications: More research is needed to understand the efficacy of different solutions, but this paper provides guidance for such future research. Engineering solutions such as road diets or traffic calming may be used to improve identified infrastructure issues by reducing vehicle speeds and road widths. Rethinking vehicle design, especially high front profiles, may improve vehicle issues. However, the problems giving rise to these pedestrian fatalities are likely a result of not only engineering issues but also interrelated social and political factors. Solutions may be correspondingly comprehensive, employing non-linear, systems-based approaches such as Safe Systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor conspicuity increases the risk of cyclists and pedestrians being involved in collisions with vehicles under low light conditions. Retroreflective strips in biomotion configuration significantly increases conspicuity. This study explored how to design biomotion garments that will appeal to cyclists and pedestrians. Nine focus groups involving 50 participants who ran/cycled under low light conditions. Participants discussed their experiences of choosing and wearing garments for cycling/running, and barriers to wearing biomotion garments. Using thematic analysis, we identified three themes. Design describes how biomotion garments should be attractive and practical. Function describes how they should be comfortable and convenient. Promotion describes participant's beliefs regarding cost and how to best explain the safety benefits of biomotion garments. Our user-centre research identified how to make biomotion garments appealing. Safety should not compromise design and function: users are unlikely to wear poorly designed and uncomfortable biomotion garments regardless of how much they increase conspicuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedestrian-train collisions at highway-railroad grade crossings (HRGCs), though relatively rare events, often result in severe injuries or fatalities. In the ten year period from 2008-2017, there were 1,470 pedestrian-train collisions reported in the United States resulting in 908 fatalities and 492 injuries according to the Federal Railroad Administration. Furthermore, pedestrians in over 27% of these crashes were coded as disregarding gates at HRGCs, indicating unsafe behavior at these crossings may lead to crashes. In order to examine this behavior (for both pedestrians and bicyclists) and add to the body of knowledge for this topic, this observational study utilized pedestrian and bicyclist behavior data extracted from videos of HRGCs. Several pedestrian and bicyclist behavior characteristics were extracted including the prevalence of pedestrian and bicyclist violation (e.g., disregarding active devices), pedestrian and bicyclist distraction, and pedestrian and bicyclist crossing speeds. Using these data, along with rail-grade crossing features, train crossing parameters, and demographic data, statistical analyses were performed to examine factors significantly associated with pedestrian and bicyclist violations, distraction, and crossing speeds at HRGCs. Ultimately, the results of this study provide important information which may be useful in planning strategies to mitigate the impacts of unsafe pedestrian or bicyclist behavior at HRGCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Developed and tested a scale to measure pedestrian smartphone use. • The developed Smombie Scale comprises 4 factors and 15 items. • The scale is valid and reliable for measuring people's smartphone use on the road. This study aimed to develop and verify the psychometric properties of the Smombie Scale, a new instrument to measure pedestrians' smartphone use. The instrument development process comprised two phases: instrument development and psychometric evaluation. Data were collected from September to October 2020 using the "Invite" panel aggregator. The link to the online questionnaire was sent via smartphone text message to 400 young adults aged 18–39 years and yielded 398 valid responses. We randomly selected 200 participants for the exploratory factor analysis; the remaining 198 participants were selected for confirmatory factor analysis. The Smombie Scale comprises 15 items and four factors: (a) perceived risk; (b) stationary smartphone use, always on the smartphone; (c) pending instant message; and (d) smartphone dependency. Model fit was statistically significant (χ2/df = 2.20). The analyses indicated a sufficient goodness-of-fit index of 0.93, a comparative goodness-of-fit index of 0.95, a normed fit index and Tucker–Lewis index of 0.91, and a root mean square error of approximation of 0.07. The scale was also found to have sufficient reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.83). The newly developed Smombie Scale is valid and reliable in measuring pedestrians' smartphone use among young adults. The Smombie Scale shows evidence of being suitable for evaluating smartphone-distracted pedestrians. Its results can provide data for drafting educational programs to prevent smombie behaviors and deal with potential risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Distraction is among the various risk factors for pedestrian unintentional injury. • Research on how distraction impacts pedestrian auditory perception is sparse. • We examined how "listening" and "speaking" tasks impact pedestrian auditory skills. • In two experiments a "speaking" task impacted safety more than a "listening" task. • We discuss our results in the context of future research and policy. Research suggests a relationship between auditory distraction (such as environmental noises or a vocal cell phone conversation) and a decreased ability to detect and localize approaching vehicles. What is unclear is whether auditory vehicle perception is impacted more by distractions reliant on listening or distractions reliant on speaking (analogous to the two components of a vocal cell phone conversation). In two experiments, adult participants listened for approaching vehicle noises and while performing listening- and speaking-based secondary tasks. Participants were tasked with identifying when they first detect an approaching vehicle and when they no longer felt safe to cross in front of the approaching vehicle. For both experiments, the speaking task resulted in significantly later detection of approaching vehicles and riskier crossing thresholds than in the no-distraction and listening conditions. The listening secondary task significantly differed from the control condition in experiment 1, but not experiment 2. Overall, our results suggest auditory distractions, particularly those reliant on speaking, negatively impact pedestrian safety in situations where visual information is minimal. Results may provide guidance for future research and policy about the safety impacts of secondary tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Winter cities suffer with severe inclement weather patterns. Walking outdoors during winter months is not comfortable, safe or pleasant. This condition accentuates sedentarism and car dependence, and tends to worsen health patterns. The purpose of this article was to analyze how the city of Albany, New York, enables walking conditions, with particular attention to two subterranean facilities: The underground concourse at the Empire State Plaza and the service tunnels at the University of Albany uptown campus. This article answers the research question of how winter cities can provide more indoor walking opportunities to their residents, workers and visitors. The argument is that all cities benefit from comfortable, safe and pleasant walking environments; however, winter cities tend to benefit the most from the existence of indoor, grade-separated walking facilities. Although large winter cities have extensive grade-separated pedestrian networks, medium size winter cities tend to have isolated and unconnected underground facilities. This type of city would benefit from extending, and especially connecting, their existing underground pedestrian facilities, where possible. The key finding is an up-to-date analysis of how two underground indoor walking facilities are performing their functions and a series of implications for other winter cities throughout the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]