In the Macao Peninsula, the high population density (49,763 inhabitants/km2) and the lack of control over the number of vehicles (460 vehicles/km) have led to an increase in urban pollution. To provide useful information to local government and urban planners, this paper investigates the spatial distribution of traffic noise in the Macao Peninsula. The interactions among urban form, traffic flow and traffic noise are addressed. Considering the spatial nature of urban geometry and traffic, a high-resolution GIS-based traffic noise model system is applied. Results indicate that the Macao Peninsula has fallen into a situation of serious traffic noise pollution. About 60% of traffic noise levels along the major pedestrian sidewalks in the evening peak hour exceed the National Standard of 70 dB(A) in China. In particular, about 21% of traffic noise levels along the pedestrian sidewalks are above the National Standard by 5 dB(A). Noticeably, the high pedestrian exposure to traffic noise in the historical urban area reduces the comfort of tourists walking in the historic centre and is ruining the reputation of the area as a World Cultural Heritage site.
In the Macao Peninsula, the high population density (49,763 inhabitants/km2) and the lack of control over the number of vehicles (460 vehicles/km) have led to an increase in urban pollution. To provide useful information to local government and urban planners, this paper investigates the spatial distribution of traffic noise in the Macao Peninsula. The interactions among urban form, traffic flow and traffic noise are addressed. Considering the spatial nature of urban geometry and traffic, a high-resolution GIS-based traffic noise model system is applied. Results indicate that the Macao Peninsula has fallen into a situation of serious traffic noise pollution. About 60% of traffic noise levels along the major pedestrian sidewalks in the evening peak hour exceed the National Standard of 70 dB(A) in China. In particular, about 21% of traffic noise levels along the pedestrian sidewalks are above the National Standard by 5 dB(A). Noticeably, the high pedestrian exposure to traffic noise in the historical urban area reduces the comfort of tourists walking in the historic centre and is ruining the reputation of the area as a World Cultural Heritage site.
This paper describes an innovative pedestrian modeling technique known as Space Syntax, which was used to create estimates of pedestrian volumes for the city of Oakland, California. These estimates were used to calculate pedestrian exposure rates and to create a Relative Risk Index for the city's first pedestrian master plan. A major challenge facing planners, transportation engineers, and pedestrian-safety advocates is the lack of detailed and high quality pedestrian-exposure data. Exposure is defined as the rate of contact with a potentially harmful agent or event. Pedestrian exposure is therefore defined as the rate of pedestrian contact with potentially harmfully situations involving moving vehicles (e.g., crossing an intersection). Pedestrian risk is defined as the probability that a pedestrian-vehicle collision will occur, based on the rate of exposure. To estimate exposure, pedestrian volume measurements must be made, but such measurements not easily available. In the absence of accurate exposure data, pedestrian-safety decisions are often made by estimation, rules of thumb, or political influence, resulting in mixed and potentially less effective outcomes. This paper also explores the value of the Space Syntax volume-modeling approach for generating estimates of pedestrian exposure, using the City of Oakland as a case study. It discusses the method's theoretical background, data requirements, implementation, and results. The author suggests that the output of the model - city-wide pedestrian volume estimates - is useful to pedestrians, planners and transportation engineers, and he discusses the value of the pedestrian-exposure concept for the planning professional.
Exposure to risk is a theoretically important correlate of crash risk, but many safety performance functions (SPFs) for pedestrian and bicycle traffic have yet to include the mode-specific measures of exposure. When SPFs are used in the systematic approach to assess network-wide crash risk, the omission of the exposure potentially could affect the identification of high-risk locations. Using crash data from Minneapolis, this study constructs and compares two sets of SPFs, one with pedestrian and bicycle exposure variables and the other without, for network-wide intersection and mid-block crash models. Inclusion of mode-specific exposure variables improves model validity and measures of goodness-of-fit and increases accuracy of predictions of pedestrian and bicycle crash risk. Including these exposure variables in the SPFs changes the distribution of high-risk locations, including the proportion of high-risk locations in low-income and racially concentrated areas. These results confirm the importance of incorporating exposure measures within SPFs and the need for pedestrian and bicycle monitoring programs to generate exposure data.
Walking is an indispensable travel mode in the transport system; almost all road users are pedestrians for all or part of their trip. It is also among the most environmentally sustainable transport modes and its promotion has been rigorously advocated since the rise of concern about global warming and environmental degeneration. Moreover, as a form of physical activity, walking has considerable benefit for public and individual health. Notwithstanding the positive aspects of walking, there are a number of barriers preventing people from walking as a mode of travel, with the lack of safety chief amongst these. The focus of this thesis, therefore, was to address the pedestrian safety problem by identifying factors associated with pedestrian crash occurrence and with the severity of injuries sustained. The Central Business District (CBD) of Melbourne was selected as the case study for this research. This site has a high level of pedestrian activities and high pedestrian crash rate. The PhD research aims to address the following questions: 1. What is an appropriate design for a pedestrian road safety data system to collect the data necessary for pedestrian safety analysis in the Melbourne CBD? 2. Using the tools developed in 1, what are the risk factors for pedestrian crashes in the Melbourne CBD: a) What are the characteristics of the physical and socioeconomic environment and the transport system that influence the occurrence of pedestrian crashes? b) What are the characteristics of the physical and socioeconomic environment, the transport system, road users (drivers/pedestrians) and traffic that influence the severity of injury sustained by pedestrians in traffic crashes? A principal contribution of this research was the development of a conceptual framework for studying pedestrian safety. A review of the available pedestrian data systems revealed that data collection practices are non-systematic and irregular, and the existing data, particularly pedestrian exposure to risk, is not sufficient for pedestrian safety analyses. Thus, a methodology was developed to estimate pedestrian exposure at CBD intersections and midblocks using existing data sources and a set of complimentary data collections. Pedestrian crash risk at CBD intersections and midblocks were evaluated, separately: during daytime hours, or alternatively called working hours, (7-18), and hours of darkness, or alternatively called non-working hours, (0-6 and 19-23). Findings showed that pedestrian crash risk is multi-factorial in nature. Different sets of factors were found to be associated with risk across different space-time frameworks. For intersections, the three most powerful predictors of pedestrian collision rate during daytime hours were the characteristics of land-use, road and public transport, respectively. Similarly, during hours of darkness, the rate was highly correlated with the characteristics of land-use and road. For midblocks, the most powerful predictor of the frequency of pedestrian crashes during daytime hours was public transport, followed by land-use and road characteristics, respectively. In contrast, midblock pedestrian collision rates during hours of darkness were mainly predicted by the length of the midblock, followed by land-use and public transport characteristics, respectively. Another key finding of the pedestrian crash risk analyses was that different measures of pedestrian exposure influence pedestrian crashes at intersections compared with midblocks. While traffic volume (Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT)) played a significant role in developing pedestrian crash risk models at intersections, the product of "pedestrian road crossing counts" and AADT (P×AADT) was the influential pedestrian exposure measure in the midblocks daytime-hours risk model. Results of the pedestrian injury severity analyses also revealed a diverse set of factors associated with pedestrian injury severity for different space-time frameworks. The correlates of major pedestrian trauma at intersections were time of day, vehicle movement, pedestrian age, vehicle colour, and land-use and public transport characteristics. For midblocks, influential factors were time of day, the characteristics of land-use, and the interaction of day of week and speed zone. The injury severity data reported by the police for pedestrian crashes in the Melbourne CBD (2000-2009) was found to be not consistent with hospital data. Thus, using the police data can lead to misleading conclusions about pedestrian injury risk factors. Findings of this research provide evidence-based insight into the pedestrian safety problem in the Melbourne CBD and have implications for other concentrated urban areas. This knowledge can be applied by road safety researchers and practitioners to modify existing design practices to achieve a safer pedestrian environment and to facilitate the Victorian Government's strategic plan for a Safe System for all road users. In addition, six new Central Activity Districts and 26 principal activity centres are projected to be designed and implemented by 2030 in Melbourne. The outcomes of this research provide critical, new information to enhance the pedestrian safety design guidelines for these new developments.
PURPOSE: With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic spreading across the world, protective measures for containing the virus are essential, especially as long as no vaccine or effective treatment is available. One important measure is the so-called physical distancing or social distancing. METHODS: In this paper, we propose an agent-based numerical simulation of pedestrian dynamics in order to assess the behavior of pedestrians in public places in the context of contact transmission of infectious diseases like COVID-19, and to gather insights about exposure times and the overall effectiveness of distancing measures. RESULTS: To abide by the minimum distance of 1.5 m stipulated by the German government at an infection rate of 2%, our simulation results suggest that a density of one person per 16m2 or below is sufficient. CONCLUSION: The results of this study give insight into how physical distancing as a protective measure can be carried out more efficiently to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.
As cities resume life in public space, they face the difficult task of retaining outdoor activity while decreasing exposure to airborne viruses, such as the novel coronavirus. Even though the transmission risk is higher in indoor spaces, recent evidence suggests that physical contact outdoors also contributes to an increased virus exposure. Given that streets constitute the largest percentage of public space in cities, there is an increasing need to prioritise their use to minimise transmission risk. However, city officials currently lack the assessment tools to achieve this. This article evaluates the extent to which street segments are associated with spatiotemporal variations of potential exposures of pedestrians to virus transmission. We develop a multi-component risk score that considers both urban form and human activity along streets over time, including (a) an assessment of pedestrian infrastructure according to the average width of pavements, (b) a measure of accessibility for each street based on its position in the street network, (c) an activity exposure score that identifies places along streets where exposure could be higher and (d) an estimate of the number of pedestrians that will pass through each street during weekdays and weekends. We use Amsterdam in the Netherlands as a case study to illustrate how our score could be used to assess the exposure of pedestrians to virus transmission along streets. Our approach can be replicated in other cities facing a similar challenge of bringing life back to the streets while minimising transmission risks.
Portuguese road traffic accidents statistics show that the number of accidents with fatalities and serious injuries has in general decreased in recent years. However, the number of accidents involving pedestrians is still high when compared with those observed in other countries of the European Union. In order to assess this problem, an index of pedestrian road traffic accidents for municipalities that could be used in decision-making about pedestrian safety measures is proposed. The use of absolute values of accidents involving pedestrians (running over) does not allow itself a reliable comparison of pedestrian safety level between municipalities. In this sense, the approach proposed uses the information available in the Portuguese database PORDATA to calculate a municipal index that takes into account the degree of exposure of pedestrians to accident, based on national and municipal resident population annual growth rates and number of pedestrian's casualties. This index allows to identify the municipalities with unfavourable deviation to national numbers of road accidents involving pedestrians (per 10000 inhabitants), supporting the plan and allocation of human and economic resources for the diagnosis, definition and implementation of safety measures. The results obtained can be visualized in a GIS for a more comprehensive comparison between municipalities. The analyses performed for Portugal showed that, in general, municipalities with higher resident population annual growth rates, located mostly along the coastline and in more consolidated urban areas, tend to present better index values, which points to the need to intervene in less consolidated areas. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
OBJECTIVES: Walking is older adults' second most preferred mode of transport and preferred recreational activity. This leads to greater exposure to traffic, increasing their risk of pedestrian-vehicle crashes, with older adults being more likely to die as a pedestrian when compared to other modes of transport. However, less focus has been placed on this particularly vulnerable group. This review summarises issues associated with older adult pedestrian and motorised mobility scooters (MMS) safety and interventions that have been conducted. METHODS: A literature search was undertaken from Pub Med, MUARC publications, Curtin University Library Catalogue and Google Scholar. Keywords included older pedestrians, older adult road injury, mobility scooter injury, and injury prevention. Publications from 2000 onwards were used, unless an earlier publication had significant relevance and worth. CONCLUSION: Maintaining older adults' mobility and independence during a time of decreasing physical and mental capacity is a priority. Walking provides a key mode of transport that needs to be given higher priority within the road environment by policy makers, transport planners and drivers. Therefore governments need to consider appropriate and comprehensive urban planning and road safety policies that accommodate 'active ageing' to provide pedestrians and MMS users with environments that facilitate active living and safe transport. In addition there is a need for community programs that raise awareness about safe road crossing for this growing vulnerable age group.
