Footbridge Usage in High-Traffic Flow Highways EPRINTS.Pdf

This may be the author’s version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source: Oviedo Trespalacios, Oscar & Scott-Parker, Bridie (2017) Footbridge usage in high-traffic flow highways: The intersection of safety and security in pedestrian decision-making? Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 49, pp. 177-187. This file was downloaded from: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/108161/ c Consult author(s) regarding copyright matters This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the document is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. 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If there is any doubt, please refer to the published source. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2017.06.010 1 To cite this article: Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios & Bridie Scott-Parker (2017): Footbridge usage in high-traffic flow highways: Does a Colombian case study demonstrate the failure of positive attitudes toward safety?, Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2017.06.010 To link this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2017.06.010 Title Footbridge usage in high-traffic flow highways: Does a Colombian case study demonstrate the failure of positive attitudes toward safety? Authors Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios1,2,3,4, & Bridie Scott-Parker 4,5,6,7 Affiliation 1 Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q), Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), Queensland, Australia 2 Faculty of Health, School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia 3 Department of Industrial Engineering, Universidad del Norte, Colombia 4 Consortium of Adolescent Road Safety (CADROSA.org), Australia 5 Adolescent Risk Research Unit (ARRU), Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience - Thompson Institute, University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), Australia 6 Sustainability Research Centre (SRC), Faculty of Arts, Business and Law, University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), Australia 7 School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Business and Law, University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), Australia Corresponding Author Oscar Oviedo-Trespalacios Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q) Queensland University of Technology Queensland, Australia, 4059 Tel: +61 7 3138 4967 Fax: + 61 7 3138 0111 Email: [email protected], [email protected] 2 Abstract In the Decade of Action for Road Safety, the vulnerability of pedestrians to severe outcomes from road crash is well-recognised. This study explored the factors that are influential in pedestrians’ decisions to cross a high-traffic highway in Barranquilla, Colombia, by using a footbridge over the highway, or by cutting across the highway in close proximity to a footbridge. Participants were recruited at each crossing (n = 105 footbridge, n = 105 ground; n = 117 males; M(SD) age = 23.28(5.98) years) and completed a paper survey exploring demographics, highway crossing behaviour, and attitudes regarding the safety of the crossing. Despite the majority of participants reporting the ground crossing was dangerous, and that the footbridge crossing was safe, one third of participants never or rarely (approximately 0% and 25% of the time) used the footbridge to cross the highway. Logistic regression revealed that the decision regarding the highway crossing mode (footbridge or ground) was predicted by (a) the frequency in which the footbridge is crossed, (b) the perception of footbridge security in relation to crime, (c) the perception of footbridge safety about traffic conflicts in general, (d) the proximity of the footbridge to the highway ground crossing, and (e) if the subject had experienced an injury during a previous highway crossing. The findings extend our understanding of pedestrian behaviour in crossing highways, not only in relation to the use of footbridges which separate both road user groups, but also ground crossings which place the pedestrians at significant risk especially those in areas with high traffic flow density. Moreover, the findings highlight the complexity involved in improving pedestrian road safety, particularly as the provision of an engineering solution (a footbridge) in close proximity to a high-risk zone (highway) is clearly not the only solution in the much larger road safety system. Keywords: Footbridges; pedestrian; crossing; security; vulnerable road users; human- infrastructure integration 3 Highlights · Explored pedestrian highway crossing behaviour via footbridge and ground · Majority reported ground crossing was dangerous, but one third never or rarely used footbridge · While perceived security increases safe crossing, positive safety attitudes reduces safe crossing. · The engineering solution of the nearby footbridge was an insufficient intervention for pedestrians 4 1. Introduction Road trauma and injury are among the greatest public health challenges of this generation. Although many efforts during the Decade of Action for Road Safety have saved a significant number of lives worldwide, there is still limited evidence of decline in the global annual number of deaths (WHO, 2015, Cantillo et al., 2015). In addition, the number of traffic- related injuries has tended to remain stable or even increased in some nations: middle- and low-income countries having the highest rates of fatalities worldwide, in which vulnerable road users represent the largest group. This gap appears to be a consequence of the traffic composition in these less-motorised environments, where an increased proportion of vulnerable road users (i.e. pedestrians and 2-wheeler riders) are typically predictors of traffic fatalities (Oviedo-Trespalacios and Haworth, 2015). Pedestrians, as the largest vulnerable road users in the road network, are generally overrepresented in road fatality statistics. To illustrate, pedestrians account for 30% of fatalities in the African Region, and 22% of fatalities in the Americas and around the world in general (WHO, 2015). A recent US study revealed that while fatalities from road crashes have decreased, the proportion of pedestrian fatalities has steadily increased 11%-14% over the past decade (Lee et al., 2015). Unfortunately, pedestrian safety has not been a priority in most developing countries (Damsere-Derry et al., 2010), and therefore there is a dearth of information regarding the current road safety system and how it impacts on pedestrians, and the factors that influence pedestrian behaviour. Notwithstanding this, it is expected that with the increasing rates of urbanisation in developing countries there will be a corresponding increase in the number of pedestrians injured, evidenced in epidemiological studies that have shown a relationship between pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions and population density (Cottrill and Thakuriah, 2010). More importantly, pedestrians are highly vulnerable in safety- critical situations; for example Prijon and Ermenc (2009) found that while a relatively small proportion of pedestrians were involved in road crashes (2%), pedestrians have the highest mortality rate of all road groups (13%). The main determinant of injury severity in pedestrian-motor vehicle crashes is the vehicle speed. In the road transport system the decision-making processes for setting speed limits are not only based on safety outcomes but consider also the efficiency of the transport infrastructure. Hence, reductions of speed limits to meet pedestrian-safe thresholds are not always possible, and if so, could be ineffective in regions where there is low or unsuccessful speeding enforcement. In the case of high traffic flow highways, with speed limits set at 80 kilometres per hour (kph) or more, the risk of pedestrian death as a result of collision approximates 60% (WHO, 2015). In addition, highly dense commercial regions provide further opportunities for pedestrians to be exposed to traffic risks, with threats to safe pedestrian mobility arising from sharing the road between pedestrians and vehicles particularly when the road context assigns low priority to pedestrians (Retting et al., 2003). In high risk contexts, there are expectations that pedestrians will assume a protective – and, thus, safe – behaviour. Specifically, previous research has highlighted that the level of perceived risk has an impact on the different attitudes toward safety, and with respect to intentions of risky crossing in particular. That is, pedestrians who perceive more risk have more adverse attitudes towards unsafe crossing behaviour and therefore report being able to 5 refrain from such risky road crossings (Holland and Hill,

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