Pedestrian Behavior in Road Crossing at the Intersections of Dhaka City

Abstract

Pedestrian accidents occur due to improper crossing patterns of people and improper crossing attempts occur for lack of proper road crossing infrastructure and poor traffic management. Dhaka, where pedestrian number is high, proper road crossing infrastructure is a must to halt collision of pedestrians with running vehicles. In this paper, pedestrian crossing behavior has been analyzed to provide proper pedestrian crossing infrastructure at anticipated points. This study has been conducted at 2 intersections of Dhaka; Mirpur 10 circle and Gulshan 2 circle. Mirpur 10 circle contains foot over bridge and Gulshan 2 circle without foot over bridge. The data has been collected in a quantitative method. It is a co-relational study where people’s behavior has been observed in their natural environment. This method is a type of field research. Separate models have been prepared to recognize pedestrians’ behavior. The factors for different models are; pedestrians’ age, gender, and luggage carrying. For intersection having the foot over bridge, the percentage of pedestrians using bridge and percentage of pedestrians using roads has been counted. For intersection not having the foot over bridges, the difference in crossing pattern of the pedestrians has been observed and the relation between the pattern and factors is analyzed. Walkers risk their lives even to avoid crossing bridges in order to save time and energy. This research will be helpful to identify the reason for the unwillingness to use foot over bridge and crosswalks of various types of pedestrians and thus the proper crossing facilities can be ensured to make the amblers' walking comfortable and safe.