Volume 4, Issue 7, July – 2019 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology ISSN No:-2456-2165 A General Study on Safety of Vulnerable Road Users of Alappuzha District Neeraja Chandrasekhar B.K. Bindhu Dept. of Civil Engineering Dept. of Civil Engineering Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology Kottayam, India Kottayam, India Abstract:- Conventional traffic and transport studies Two-Wheelers, Cyclists and Pillion riders were considered focus on vehicular movement rather than the in the study. There interactions among each other and to the Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs). Vulnerable road users other heavy vehicles on road lead to severe accidents are mainly those unprotected by an outside shield, (Sharma and Abhishek, 2017). namely pedestrians and two-wheelers, as they sustain a greater risk of injury in any collision against a vehicle II. RELATED WORKS and are therefore highly in need of protection against such collisions. This work mainly concentrates on the Various studies were taking place regarding the safety of VRUs of Alappuzha district. The Alappuzha VRUs in India as well as in the other countries. Majority district is selected because it is a low lying district in the studies deals with the implementation of Intelligent state of Kerala such that the number of VRUs is also Transportation System (ITS) (Scholliers et al., 2017), high. For this the accident data for the past three years vehicle-vehicle interactions, vehicle-VRU interaction and is collected from the District Crime Records Bureau of all. In some studies, architectures are prepared for the Alappuzha district. Also the road inventory data and a VRUs that will help the other vehicles to detect the questionnaire survey were done. A detailed analysis of presence of VRUs (Scholliers et al., 2017) the data was done and based on the data analyzed inferences and suggestions for improving the safety of In some studies, measures to improve the quality of VRUs were made. accident data are proposed such as including pedestrian falls in accident statistics, precisely defining minimum Keywords:- Vulnerable Road Users; District Crime injury and combining police accident records with the Records Bureau . hospital data. (Mohan, 2004). Some studies provide an overview of the mobility patterns and accident I. INTRODUCTION characteristics of VRUs based on available travel surveys and national statistics. The challenges to improve the safety A nation’s development lies in the progress of its situation of vulnerable road users lie with a better transportation infrastructure. Nowadays the population is understanding of their accident patterns, it varies from increasing drastically it normally increases the number of place to place.The behavior of VRUs are different at vehicles on roads. VRUs are those road users, who have a signalized and unsignalized crossings (Daniels, et al., 2015) high casualty rate because on road they do not have any Studies show that in many developed and developing outer protecting layer. Due to this reason the VRU groups countries including, road safety situation is generally are the majority victims of road accidents. Ensuring safety improving, but our country India faces a worsening to the VRUs is a greatest challenge to the field of situation (Kumar Singh, 2017). Transportation planning and designing. In order to understand fully the road safety problems experienced by III. METHODOLOGY VRUs, it is essential to view accidents as the effects of interactions between road users and their environment. To Initially the review of literatures was done for getting a analyze these interactions, both the specifications of basic idea of the work. vulnerable road users and the characteristics of the traffic Secondly the study area was selected and a pilot survey environment have to be known. VRUs are especially was conducted. affected by underreporting of accidents and mis reporting Thirdly the data collection was done. For this of severity of injury (Olszewski et al., 2015). This work questionnaire survey, collection of accident data from will help to provide us with the unidentified data regarding District Crime Records Bureau (DCRB) and a to the VRUs in Alappuzha roads. It will provide with the collection of road inventory data from the selected data on which group of VRU is contributing towards the sites were done. road accidents and what all factors lead them to the crash, Based on all these data analyses were made and in what period of time the more VRU crashes are inferences and conclusions were obtained for ensuring happening, what are parameters to be taken into account to safety of VRUs of the selected study area. ensure the safety of VRUs on Alappuzha road. Pedestrians, IJISRT19JUL306 www.ijisrt.com 1044 Volume 4, Issue 7, July – 2019 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology ISSN No:-2456-2165 IV. BASIC DATA OBTAINED FROM ANALYSIS The monthly distribution of VRU accident in fig 3 gives a description about which month contributes more The rate of VRU accidents are not decreasing from towards VRU accident and it is found to be the month the previous years initially it is increasing then there is a of January. gradual decrease in the VRU accident and again it increased. This trend of accident data of VRUs says that the VRUs are the majority victims in the road accidents. Another analysis of the accident data and all gives the data on various factors regarding the VRUs like which VRU group is the most vulnerable category in Alappuzha district, then which gender group is majority contributing towards VRU accident, type of VRU casualty, during which period of time the majority VRU crash is happening, during what season and all. The basic data obtained are mentioned below with the help of graphical data: The fig 1, victim vehicle highlights which VRU group is the majority victim group and it is found that the Two-wheeler group holds the position. The severity of VRU injuries is also higher than those of four-wheelers Fig 3:- Monthly distribution of VRU accident (Constant A et al., 2010) Similarly the gender group suffering as the majority VRUs is also found and they are the male VRUs. The roads in Alappuzha are good but the conditions become very pathetic when the rainy season starts and the type of road contributing more towards the VRU accidents in Alappuzha District is OR roads followed by the NH and SH. The figure 4 shows which type of road contributes more in VRU accident. Fig 1:- Victim Vehicle The fig 2 type of casualty, gives what is the majority type of casualty for the VRUs and it is found as the grievous injury. Fig 4:- Type of Road The figure 5 explains the preliminary assessment of the VRU accidents for the easiness of reporting data by the police officials the analysis says that it is the fault of the driver. Fig 2:- Type of casualty IJISRT19JUL306 www.ijisrt.com 1045 Volume 4, Issue 7, July – 2019 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology ISSN No:-2456-2165 It also gives an idea about the police station were large number of VRU accident are reported and it is found the traffic at Alappuzha followed by Kayamkulam. From the above made analysis of accident data and eight sites were selected for further studies. Road inventory studies and a questionnaire survey were done at these places for better understanding of VRU problems of these areas; so that it can be corrected with suitable measures thereby the safety of VRUs can be provided. V. EIGHT SELECTED SITES THEIR LIMITATIONS AND CORRECTION MEASURES. The eight selected sites are as follows Krishnapuram, Fig 5:- Preliminary Assessment Kayamkulam, Kottukulangara, Nangiarkulangara, Haripad, Karuvatta, Thottappally, Ambalappuzha. All these selected Similarly, the analysis also gives also gives data on sites belongs to a straight stretch of road and covering a whether the accident is taking place during day or night total distance of about 35-40 km each stretch is 5km apart. time and it is found that during the day time majority Only this much area is selected because of the reliability of VRU accident is taking place. work. Table 1:- common features of selected sites The above mentioned are some of the common ensuring safety of two wheelers provision of cameras features of the selected sites and all these features should be ensured. contribute lots to the safety point of view of VRUs. Zebra crossing can be provided for the pedestrians now Majority of the sites not even have the footpath facilities it is absent at Krishnapuram. there is problem of edge obstructions and from the field Proper parking facilities for the vehicles can be analysis the edge obstructions are of the form commercial, provided without interrupting the traffic flow since it’s a agricultural, roadside dwellers and all. Lots of issues and spot of interest. problems were there in these selected sites each and every Traffic lights can be provided. single points were identified carefully and the suggestions for improving the facilities were made. For Kayamkulam An effective traffic signal is a necessary at SUGGESTIONS Kayamkulam and it is not there now. Road side parking should be avoided. Now when a The suggestions for selected sites are provided below: KSRTC bus turns towards the Alappuzha direction it is difficult to them due to the roadside dwellers and the For Krishnapuram parking in front of the shops. There are road side dwellers a fish market is also there Speed limiting provisions are there but from a certain in the entrance portion of T-junction to the NH. During distance other than the ones provided now can be the peak hours especially in the evening time this constructed because as it is mentioned in the above junction is more congested.