Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.12, 2017
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Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.12, 2017 Analysis of Pedestrian Crash Zones in Bangkok: A Case study of Primary and Secondary school Somluk BUNNARONG a, Prapatpong UPALAb a,b Multidisciplinary Design Research Program, Faculty of Architecture, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL), 10520, Bangkok, Thailand a E-mail; [email protected] b E-mail; [email protected] Abstract: Road accidents are major problems resulting in loss of life and property. Schools are accident-prone locations because majority of road users are students understand about traffic rules. This research aimed to investigate the occurrence of road and pedestrian accidents at primary and secondary schools in Bangkok, Thailand. This research was collected statistical data on road traffic injuries and imported the collected data into Geographic Information System (GIS). Then, Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) was applied to analyze data of 12 schools in Bangkok Metropolis Administration areas. The results showed that a majority of road accidents occurred in urban areas, crowded areas and intersections with heavy traffic. The suggested solutions were that knowledge of understanding of traffic rules should be promoted among students and a traffic sign consistent with student’s learning behavior should be provided. Keywords: Pedestrian Crash Zones, Accident-prone areas, Road safety, School zone 1. INTRODUCTION Road accidents are a significant problem currently faced in the real world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported road accident as the primary cause of death among people aged 15-29 years and the second leading cause of death in children aged 5-14 years. Furthermore, over 50 percent of all deaths caused by road accidents occur in pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. If no prevention plans are implemented to correct the problem mentioned above, the rate of death by a traffic accident in poor to moderately affluent countries is expected to double by 2020. Hence, the United Nations has called for all of its members to adhere to the Moscow Declarations, which designated years 2011-2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 whose goal is to lower deaths and injuries caused by road accidents by half, or fewer than ten per 10 per 100,000 populations by 2020 (WHO, 2015). A report of the World Health Organization (2013) shows that Thailand was ranked the world’s third highest in road accident death rate (Recorded in 2011). There were 38.1 deaths per 100,000 populations. The main causes of road traffic injuries were drunk driving, not wearing helmets and drowsy driving. The Thai government has solved to this problem continues, so the road accidents in Thailand decreased during 2009 – 2014. In 2007, there were 62,769 cases of road accidents, decreasing from 2009 when the number of road accidents reached 84,806 cases. However, the number of deaths and injuries is still high. Comparing the rate to population proportion in 2014, there were 9.79 deaths per 100,000 populations. Which is higher when compared to high-income countries and certain Asian countries such as Singapore’s rate of 4.8 per 100,000 populations and Korea’s rate 5.5 per 1096 Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.12, 2017 100,000 populations and Japan’s rate of 5.0 per 100,000 populations per year? In 2015 the most three vehicles that cause accidents were motorbikes (23,266 cases 35.15 %), personal cars (20,332 cases 30.71 %) and small trucks (pickup trucks) (11,423 cases 17.26%). (OTP, 2015; IRTAD, 2015). The situation and challenges in resolving the problems mentioned above to government agencies and all parties involved. Road and pedestrian accidents statistics shown in Figure 1-2 Fatality Year Figure 1. Road and pedestrian accidents in Thailand during 2009 - 2014 Figure 2. Vehicles cause accidents 2014 1097 Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.12, 2017 According to statistics of road traffic injuries in Thailand reported by ThaiRSC - Road Accidents Data Center for Road Safety Culture (ThaiRSC, 2017), Bangkok had the highest road accidents from 2016 for 28,537 cases or 10% of the entire country. Bang Khun Tian District had the highest road accidents for 1,296 cases (4.54%). Prawet District had the second highest road accidents for 1,174 cases (4.11%). Samphanthawong District had the lowest road accidents for 37 cases (0.13%). Shown in Figure 3. Accordingly, school grounds are considered areas in which there is the high likelihood of accidents as a result of students representing the majority of pedestrians, quiet road usage caution, lack of awareness about the dangers posed by cars and insufficient knowledge about traffic signs. Also, drivers are unable to predict the movements of children. Therefore, it is particularly dangerous when children crossroads and walk on pedestrian during heavy traffic (Ratanavaraha, 2011; OTP, 2004). Figure 3. The map of road and pedestrian accidents in Bangkok, 2016 (Resource: ThaiRSC data applied to in GIS by authors.) According to a review conducted in research involving traffic sign systems, children have limited perception, especially children younger than 11 years of age. Furthermore, signs should be designed using specific shapes, colors, and materials (Waterson, 2012) with interpretations for different perceptions based on cultural backgrounds, education, and age (Hashim et al., 2014). Vendors are blocking the way on pedestrian, so students have to walk on the roads. In addition, traffic signs and pedestrian are damaged and no crosswalks are provided (Bunnarong and Upala, 2017). Consistent with the public participation to improving pedestrian environment and traffic sign system in the Walk and Bike Friendly Cities project, Ranong Province, Thailand. In conclusion, all stakeholders summarizing the physical problems resulting as follows: rough path surfaces, slippery spots caused by algae, many paths with different heights, damaged and obstructive street furniture, pedestrian crashing from cars, These are factors causing more accidents on the pedestrian (Upala and Bunnarong, 2017). According to Sattanon and Upala (2017) concluded the top five factors that help with the safety of children are: (1) traffic management around the school to ensure safety and give 1098 Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.12, 2017 importance to walking and bicycle use; (2) improving the internal environment of the school to provide security; (3) improving student pickup-delivery locations (4) training teachers, parents, and students about safety; and (5) organizing snack shops and walkways Therefore, if the government is about to encourage people to travel by non-motorized and use public transport instead of using personal cars, this is one important guideline the designers prepare environmental of children and considering safety and security to decrease parents’ anxiety can motivate children to choose the journey to school (Rezasoltani et al., 2015). The problems in pedestrian shown in Figure 4. • Rough path surfaces • Traffic and Safety Problems • Shop stalls obstructing pedestrian • Knowledge about traffic signs etc. • Lack of sidewalks etc. Figure 4. Problems in pedestrian at schools It is highly questionable for traffic safety engineers that where they should employ safety counter measures to give strong impact. Therefore, the dangerous locations or black spots are identified and analyzed. In order to improve pedestrian safety, locations where pedestrian often meets with accidents have to be indicated to employ specific safety countermeasures for pedestrians. From several Authors showed that were conducted studies by using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to examine the issue of safety analysis. The results shown that GIS is an effective tool for geographic context analysis of crashes. The research methodology began by selecting schools in Bangkok according to Urban Zone that had the highest rate of accidents. Then, the authors recorded locations of accidents in GIS and used Kernel density estimation (KDE) to analyze the results. The results showed accident -prone areas around school according to color intensity. After that, the results were displayed on a map. The analysis contributed to black spot solution which should be carried out along with the physical survey of the transportation network. An effective way to gain an understanding of traffic crashes that have spatial dimension is to utilize statistical analysis combined with spatial attributes. Spatial data management and analysis operations are largely 1099 Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, Vol.12, 2017 undergone by Geographical Information System (GIS). This paper mainly aimed to study the potential of using GIS to identify locations of accident-prone of primary and secondary schools in Bangkok. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Many studies focused on the spatial analysis of accident-prone locations through the use of GIS. The methods are to geo-code crash location and interpret collected data by GIS combined with statistical analysis. The results can be related to the actual occurrence in the areas such as a relation between accident location and land use, traffic situation and width of roads to set guidelines for traffic engineering or to reduce problems. To geo-code accident locations, GIS has been utilized in transportation safety application. Levine et al. (1995), Affum and Taylor (1995), Austin et al. (1997), Kim and Levine (1996)