Safety Perception of Pedestrians at Level Crossings

Abstract

Rail-pedestrian crashes are a persisting tragedy in Bangladesh, with a growing magnitude of fatalities. Pedestrian crashes on road are prevalent but it’s not highly noticed on railway lines. Hence, a good number of studies have been done on pedestrian accidents involving roads, however, insignificant numbers of studies, if any, addressed the safety perception of pedestrians at road-rail crossing specifically in developing countries’ perspective. Moreover, road-pedestrian might result in severe injuries but rail-pedestrian collisions often end up in fatalities. With a view to finding the influence of the demographic traits of the victims, for instance, age, education, and gender, alongside propensity for suicides, and distractions due to electronic gadgets and other numerous reasons behind pedestrian crashes on railways, this paper will explore the safety perception of pedestrians at a level crossing. A questionnaire was prepared reviewing previous literatures, local context, and pilot survey. Questionnaires were again divided into 8 sub-groups namely socioeconomic characteristics, situational case, accident experience, safety knowledge, safety perception, personal crossing characteristics, surrounding conditions, and awareness. The survey was conducted by collecting data from level crossings of 8 different locations from 250 pedestrians, who use level crossings frequently. Independent variables were formed using the responses from this survey. The dependent variable is formed from the perceived safe distance of the respondents to cross the railway track in front of an oncoming train. The ordered probit model has been used because of ordinal behavior of the dependent variable considered in the study to find the significant factors effecting the safety perception of pedestrians. The model assists to find out the most and least risk-taking cohort. Moreover, independent variables with substantial impacts on the safety perceptions of pedestrians are also perceived. The study will disclose the less safety conscious cohort of pedestrians to the policymakers so that necessary measures can be taken by introducing safety education to them and implementing robust monitoring systems near railroads.