PEDESTRIAN BEHAVIORS ON CROSSWALKS AT INTERSECTIONS IN WINTER

In winter, pedestrian mobility in northern Japan deteriorates because of low temperatures and heavy snowfall. Snow removed from the street and piled up at the side of the road, narrows sidewalks, obstructs pedestrian visibility, and increases pedestrian danger, which in turn increases the number of traffic accidents. Slippery road surfaces are likely to cause pedestrian falling accidents. Frequent emergence of extremely slippery road surfaces resulting from the pervasion of the use of non-studded tires exposes pedestrians, particularly the elderly to the danger of slipping. Therefore, mobility of the elderly in winter significantly drops. Improvement of winter walkway conditions for the elderly is one of the major issues of road management policies in Japan, where the proportion of elderly persons is steadily increasing. The research surveyed pedestrian falling accidents and pedestrian walkway environments and also conducted a pedestrian walking experiment at intersections in the model district located in the center of Sapporo City. Crosswalks at intersections where pedestrian mobility worsens in winter because of slippery road surface conditions were focused on. The research reports on the survey results and an extensive analysis of the results conclude that "barrier free" intersections improve winter pedestrian mobility.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Conference proceedings available on CD-ROM.
• Corporate Authors:

  World Road Association (PIARC)

  La Grande Arche, Paroi Nord, Niveau 5
  F-92055 La Defense Cedex,   France 
• Authors:
  • Shintani, Y
  • Hara, F
  • Hiramori, Y
  • Asano, M
• Conference:
  • New Challenges for Winter Road Service. XIth International Winter Road Congress
  • Location: Sapporo, Japan
  • Date: 2002-1-28 to 2002-1-31
• Publication Date: 2002

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 10p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crosswalks; Icy roads; Mobility; Pedestrian areas; Pedestrian safety; Pedestrian vehicle crashes; Traffic crashes; Winter maintenance
• Geographic Terms: Japan
• Subject Areas: Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; I62: Winter Maintenance;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00921223
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 20 2002 12:00AM