Pedestrian safety at urban mid-block crossings
type: CreativeWork
description: The mid-block crossing is a common behaviour among people walking in urban areas. Where demand for crossing is high, it can result in increased crash risk. Most of these crashes are likely to result in pedestrian severe injuries or fatalities, especially when crash impact speeds are high. Despite pedestrian-orientated designs being constructed around cities, the risk exposure for pedestrian crashes continues to remain a challenge for road safety practitioners. Pedestrian crashes are not random events. They indicate not only an underlying environmental effect but also behavioural issues related to risk-taking. For this reason, this research aimed to obtain a comprehensive insight into pedestrian behaviour and factors that impact their safety across age and gender. Pedestrian safety is discussed from three perspectives: policy, urban design, and behaviour. By incorporating behavioural theories into the engineering discipline, this research promotes general principles to implement appropriate measures to reduce pedestrian-related traffic crashes at mid-blocks. To determine the causation and occurrence of pedestrian-related traffic crashes in New Zealand, the research began by examining crash data and road safety strategies from 2000 to 2016 and compared New Zealand to some of the best-performing countries in road safety. The findings reveal that stringent targets toward urban safety management and vulnerable road users have led to a significant move in reducing pedestrian crashes. In New Zealand, strategic plans gravitated initially toward the vehicle/driver system especially in urban areas and less on encouraging transport system user behaviour (including pedestrians) and therefore the safety of active mode choices. The Safe System approach has contributed to an overall reduction in death and serious injuries in New Zealand but to a lesser degree in pedestrian crashes. The gap between pedestrian safety outcomes and Vision Zero targets reaffirms a need for evidence-bas…
abstract: The mid-block crossing is a common behaviour among people walking in urban areas. Where demand for crossing is high, it can result in increased crash risk. Most of these crashes are likely to result in pedestrian severe injuries or fatalities, especially when crash impact speeds are high. Despite pedestrian-orientated designs being constructed around cities, the risk exposure for pedestrian crashes continues to remain a challenge for road safety practitioners. Pedestrian crashes are not random events. They indicate not only an underlying environmental effect but also behavioural issues related to risk-taking. For this reason, this research aimed to obtain a comprehensive insight into pedestrian behaviour and factors that impact their safety across age and gender. Pedestrian safety is discussed from three perspectives: policy, urban design, and behaviour. By incorporating behavioural theories into the engineering discipline, this research promotes general principles to implement appropriate measures to reduce pedestrian-related traffic crashes at mid-blocks. To determine the causation and occurrence of pedestrian-related traffic crashes in New Zealand, the research began by examining crash data and road safety strategies from 2000 to 2016 and compared New Zealand to some of the best-performing countries in road safety. The findings reveal that stringent targets toward urban safety management and vulnerable road users have led to a significant move in reducing pedestrian crashes. In New Zealand, strategic plans gravitated initially toward the vehicle/driver system especially in urban areas and less on encouraging transport system user behaviour (including pedestrians) and therefore the safety of active mode choices. The Safe System approach has contributed to an overall reduction in death and serious injuries in New Zealand but to a lesser degree in pedestrian crashes. The gap between pedestrian safety outcomes and Vision Zero targets reaffirms a need for evidence-bas…
author: Soathong, Ajjima
license: https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm
date published: 2023
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:04:15Z
provider: University of Auckland
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: ResearchSpace@Auckland

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/2292/64076