Pedestrian safety and mobility in relation to road networks for the city of Kigali-Rwanda

Abstract

Pedestrian safety in an urban area challenges due to high rate of road-related deaths ranging between 40-50% in developing countries on the world scale and for Africa that increased by 7% from 2017 to 2020, rise of car ownership in developing countries, reckless behavior of road users specifically drivers and poorly designed pedestrian facilities. The research objectives intended to evaluate the mobility and safety issues of pedestrians that affect their free movement in the city, explore road geometric parameters against the available standard for road user safety investigation; identify the challenges and opportunities of the transport master plan, portray the safety challenges of pedestrians due to drivers' and to investigate and analyze pedestrian crossing safety and compliance in relation to their habits. The methodology involved to collect measurable data on randomly 18 road networks in the City of Kigali for pedestrian challenges identifications, consulted some existing road Master plan documents and road standards for geometrical and non-Geometrical safety analysis, conducted visual data collection on 10 specific crossing sites around the City of Kigali to study about the Drivers’ Stopping Behavior and pedestrians crossing habits and their level of compliance. Barriers to Safe and Free Mobility were identified due to insufficient, lack of enough and improperly installed pedestrian facilities. Unsafe road geometric and non-geometric parameters were mainly discovered for lane width variation, small curve radius and unsafe values of grades and super elevation. Some technical, economic and environmental challenges of transport master plans exist and affect the road network planning. Limited number of drivers give access to pedestrian to cross. The pedestrians have negative habits and apparent weaknesses in crosswalks. The urban road network infrastructures affect the pedestrians’ mobility and disrupt their free movement, safety and design standards are violated. Drivers’ behavior to give access is better and more frequent during evening times than mornings. 27.21% of pedestrians may comply with the crossing policy, rules, and guidelines whereas the remaining 72.79% do not and put their safety at risk. The safety of road users was proven to be affected by the evaluated road parameters. Motorcyclists were found to exhibit the most aggressive behavior toward pedestrians. Car drivers were 10.389 times more likely to stop compared to bicycles’. Pedestrians genuinely moving defensively are 90.67 times more likely to comply with walking habits compared to any walking speed. Special scheme of reward would be applied to drivers who expresses friendly behavior towards pedestrians.