|
Chair: David Davis, David Davis Associates
- UK
ADONIS, Making it happen 1. Presentation1. Presentation When we start to speak about, or to work with pedestrians, it is important to remember that pedestrians form a transport mode and as such they have rights to be attended. Pedestrians are not only persons on the street who should be protected against the wild drivers of cars, vans or motorcycles. The whole transport scheme must be planned in an integrated form, with incorporation in streets of minimum values for pavements, pedestrian accessibility and space and protection at bus stops. When these minimum values have been attended, other objectives for cyclists and bus passengers can be incorporated and finally space and time in the system can be dedicated to the drivers. This approach seem to be more human as the actual way of planning, where it is first stated in the street design the needs of lanes for driving and parking. As the street space is scarce it should only be permitted to park in a street when all other basic needs for the road users have been met, and even so, nobody have right to park on street and at kerb. Pedestrians and cyclists are exposed to risks in the urban traffic much more than drivers and public transport passengers. This risk must be lowered by making less aggressive the motorised traffic and not through prohibitions and detours for the pedestrians. This indicates that it is necessary to lower the speeds of the motorised traffic and to define sufficient number of protected pedestrian crossings. The European ADONIS-project has worked with 3 basic issues: Measures to stimulate walking and cycling, User behaviour on short trips and feelings and opinions of pedestrian and cyclist accidents. The paper shall give a brief description of the work done. [ Back To Top ] Pedestrians and cyclists together, are normally the most important transport modes in cities measured in number of trips. This basic concept is often forgotten behind calculations of number of person kilometres driven in the mechanic modes. Only seldom the kilometres walked or the number of trips of pedestrians are taken sufficient serious in the planning. Modal Split in some European cities:
It is therefore, of mayor importance to incorporate minimum standards for the definition of pedestrian areas in the same way that standards have been decided for the motorised traffic. Which are, for instance, the criterions for the decision to construct continuos pavement for the pedestrians or to construct continuos carriageway for the drivers? (Fig 1 taken from the ADONIS catalogue) Which criterions are used when calculating a light signal: delay for drivers or for pedestrians? A sidewalk must have a certain width in order to give commodity and safe feeling to the pedestrians. If they do not get this safe feeling they will leave the pavement, find another and better sidewalk or in the long, they will stop walking and look for a car. Some measurements of pedestrian behaviour in Barcelona can explain this behaviour. First it has been counted the number of pedestrians in local streets who use the sidewalk and how many walk on the street related to width of the pavements. When (As seen on fig. 2) the free width of the sidewalk come under 1.8 metres the pedestrians start to leave their space. The same happens when cars are parked at kerb. A wall effect is produced, and with free widths under 1.8 metres (Fig.3) the pedestrians pass to the other sidewalk reaching a distribution on only 30 % on the sidewalk with the wall effect. It can therefore be indicated that sidewalks of under 1.8 + 1 metre (for trees, signs etc) = 2.8 or 3 metres should not be used in order to maintain a minimum of commodity for the pedestrians. 3. Measures to stimulate walking [ Back To Top ] During the recent years measures to stimulate cycling have been published, but little information is available on pedestrians. The measures published within the ADONIS-project does not pretend to cover all possibilities but try to give an overview of technical and non technical measures which bring some new thoughts into the treatment of pedestrian as transport modes. The same has been the view for the measures to give better conditions for cyclists. In total 102 measures has been presented in a handbook of "Best Practice" and also edited in a CD. For each measure tables with general description, aspects (positive and/or negative) to pedestrians and non-pedestrians and when available cost and contact person. Table on the 102 measures exposed for
better conditions for cyclists and pedestrians:
Part of the criterions for the selection have been: Commodity of the measure: Is the solution
attractive and make the trip shorter or faster?
Data from 26 cities in Belgium, Denmark, Holland and Spain was collected regarding trips and transport policy. It could be seen that the number of trips by pedestrian and cyclists is not directly related to the policymaking. Some relation could be found between car ownership and car trips. The catalogue and the CD with the measures can be asked for from the participants in the project as long as copies are available. For the moment, the European Communities have edited a second edition of the report. [ Back To Top ] The study of the user focus on a number of statements related to short trips in urban areas. The users should normally make short and medium distance trips and should be in possession of a valid driving license. A travel diary and an attitude survey were prepared for all participants and were delivered by mail. People were later, if they had sent no response, contacted by mail and by phone. In order to prepare the survey some primary surveys was made and a group discussion held in each city. Among other questions the person was asked to imagine a journey of 2.5 km and rate on a 7 point scale their attitudes, perceived behavioural control and subjective norms towards walking biking and driving. A total of 354 persons participated in the two studies with the following distribution: Table of persons interviewed: Predictable
Behaviour.
Within the modal election the habit is the most important followed by the perceived behavioural control. It could therefore be stated that the Theory of Planned Behaviour, with or without habit is a useful model to understand travel behaviour. The distance (if under 1 km.) was the most important for trips by foot. Most persons have a positive attitude towards trips by foot. For car trips the commodity seem to be the most important reason for the election of this mode. Drivers think, more than pedestrians and cyclists, that driving give relax, more liberty and is faster. Substantials number of car journeys were less than or equal 5 km. In addition the study indicated that Socio-economic and demographic variables did not contribute to the prediction of the modal split intention more than the other variables included. 5. Opinion after road violations [ Back To Top ] It was considered important to analyse if part of the road users, involved in pedestrian or cyclist accidents, changed their modal choice or their behaviour after this experience of road violence. Therefore a direct study by interviews in the three cities of Amsterdam, Barcelona and Copenhagen was set up. The method of interview was polished through a minor number of pilot surveys was made. In total the following number of interviews were carried out. Table of interviews in the three cities
(105 persons)
16 of the pedestrian accidents were a crossing situation, where the pedestrian came from the right. In Barcelona, with collaboration of the local police it was possible to contact directly the implicated persons and ask them to participate in the ADONIS-project, and most of the accident involved persons agreed. It was therefore possible to interview the two parts of the same accident: Driver and pedestrian/cyclist. The results of these interviews show that the involved pedestrians and cyclists has not lowered their walking or cycling, but that they feel more unsafe and take more care. They think that the cars drive too fast in the urban area and that drivers do not respect other road users. To stimulate walking traffic calming and better public lightning at the sidewalks can be recommended. It is also important to restrict parking near pedestrian crossings in order to get better visibility, and to regulate more crossings by light signals with preference to pedestrians and cyclists. Bus stops should be situated at intersections with good visibility. [ Back To Top ] There is a clear need to include counts of pedestrians and cyclists in all traffic and transport studies. They are more than many professionals and politicians think. It is also needed to include pedestrians in different interviews made for traffic analysis. In many cases it can be sufficient with pedestrian surveys in order to know the total modal split and the trip motives of car drivers and public transport passengers. If pedestrians and cyclists are taken into account in the planning it might possible to maintain their quotes in the transport sector and even rise this participation in the modal split. The most important actions in the urban traffic for achieving better and safer conditions for pedestrians and cyclists are: speed control for motorised drivers (30 km/h in many urban streets), minimisation of delays for the cyclists and pedestrians in light signals, and of cause, pedestrian crossings and signals where needed. 7. Participants of the ADONIS – project [ Back To Top ] The coordinator of the ADONIS – project
under EU - DG VII, was the Danish Council of Road Safety Research (DK)
with the partners: INTRA s.l. (ES), SWOV, Dutch Institute for Road Safety
Research (NL), VTI, Swedish National Road and Transport Institute (SE)
The project was co-financed by: Danish Transport Council, Danish Ministry of Transport, Municipality of Barcelona, Catalan Institute for Traffic Safety, the firm SAINCO TRÁFICO s.a., Swedish Transport and Communications Research Board and Belgian Institute for Traffic Safety. [ Back To Top ]
Best Practice to promote cycling and walking, 1998. Behavioural factors affecting modal choice, 1998. A qualitative analysis of cyclist and pedestrian accident factors, 1998. All by:
The final report: ADONIS. Analysis
and development of new insight into substitution of short car trips by
cycling and walking. TRANSPORT RESEARCH. FOURTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME URBAN
TRANSPORT.European Commission, Luxembourg,1998.
Related Links : |
| Site hosted by cast
Page published by L Farmer This page was last updated on 03/08/00 |
General Enquires may be emailed to CAST at cast@staffs.ac.uk |