Comparative risk assessment of pedestrian groups and their road-crossing behaviours at intersections in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users and their risky behaviours make the situation worse. This study aimed to assess the crash risk associated with various pedestrian groups and their road crossing behaviours at intersections in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A two-stage, multi-criteria decision-making approach—analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS)—was used for risk assessment. In the first stage, five risk assessment criteria: nearest vehicle speed, nearest vehicle type, vehicle flow, interrupted by vehicle, and minimum gap were identified from the literature, and these criteria were weighted by the AHP. In the second stage, risk associated with various pedestrian groups and their road-crossing behaviours were quantified and ranked by the TOPSIS. The results indicate that male and young pedestrians had higher risk among pedestrian groups. Furthermore, an oblique crossing type, a running crossing pattern, mobile phone usage while crossing, carrying medium-weight baggage, a rolling gap crossing type, high crossing speed, and cross by using conflict zone were found as the riskiest behaviours. Besides, using crosswalk while crossing, single-stage and two-stage crossing types, perpendicular crossing type, and group crossing were found to be the safest behaviours.

Keywords:

• Risk assessment
• pedestrian safety
• intersection crossings
• AHP
• TOPSIS

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank Madiha Chowdhury (URP'15, BUET) for proofreading the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.