Quasi-induced exposure method for pedestrian safety at signalized intersections

ABSTRACT

To investigate pedestrian exposure when only pedestrian-crash data are available, the quasi-induced exposure method is used to identify the factors that contributed to pedestrian-vehicle crashes in Las Vegas from 2004 to 2008. The results show that overall crash severity, light conditions, and weather conditions are potentially risky factors in pedestrian crashes, and the time of day or day of the week are less risky. Multiple-correspondence analysis (MCA) is then used to investigate how pedestrian crash severity is influenced by the interactions among a range of variables. The results indicate that among instances of pedestrian-vehicle crashes cases of property damage only tend to occur during off-peak daytime hours and under dark or dawn light conditions in clear weather. Crashes resulting in injuries usually occur during weekday peak hours in daylight and under rainy conditions. Most fatal crashes occur during off-peak hours, at night on the weekends.

KEYWORDS:

• pedestrian crash
• signalized intersection
• quasi-induced exposure method
• multiple-correspondence analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Nevada Department of Transportation for providing the database used in this research, and they thank Professors Harry Teng and Mohamed Kaseko, from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, for their valuable suggestions.

Funding

This study was jointly supported by the Fundamental Research Fund for the Central Universities (HUST: 2013QN031), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No: 51208222), the Scientific Research Foundation for Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, the State Education Ministry of China and the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. 717512).