An Extensive Exploration of Pedestrian Safety Hazard Associated with Jaywalking on Highway Intersections in Bangladesh

Abstract

Pedestrian safety is a major concern around the world as pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users. Pedestrian fatalities account for 22% of all road traffic fatalities around the world. The statistics are even grimmer for the developing countries where jaywalking is predominant. There, along with jaywalking, the use of electronic gazettes, especially cell phones, while crossing the road is considered as a triggering factor in acerbating pedestrian casualties and fatalities. This study takes highway intersections of Bangladesh as the study area and delves into thought processing of jaywalkers and pedestrians using cell phones while crossing roads to devise countermeasures for improving pedestrian safety. The study observes pedestrian behavior at 32 intersections on national and regional highways of Bangladesh through video data and subsequently interviews 2,016 pedestrians found jaywalking and/or using cell phones while crossing the road. During this process, data on their socio-economic and demographic characteristics, various risk perceptions, physical obstructions that may have forced jaywalking, distracting cell phone activities, road crossing behavior as well as their knowledge about basic rules of the road were collected. Next, a Bayesian Belief Networks (BBN) was constructed to answer ‘who’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ related questions regarding jaywalkers and pedestrians who use a cell phone while road crossing. The findings suggest that jaywalking is more predominant among males, aged between 26-40 years who have received secondary education despite having decent knowledge regarding basic rules of the road. The most influential factors concerning risky jaywalking and using cell phone while road crossing are ‘Gender’, ‘Jaywalker Activities’, ‘Waiting Time’, ‘Types of Jaywalking’, and ‘Frequency of phone use while jaywalking’. The results of the study revealed that an appropriate, clean and hygienic way for passengers significantly reduces the amount of jaywalk. In the end decision-makers will develop pragmatic safety policies based on the high impact variables associated with the established jaywalking process and the factors that are caused by mobile jaywalking.