From the safety point of view, the bus stop is perhaps the most important part of the Bus Public Transport System, as it represents the point where bus passengers may interact directly with other road users and create conflicting situations leading to traffic accidents. For example, travellers could be struck walking to/from or boarding/alighting a bus. At these locations, passengers become pedestrians and at some stage crossing busy arterial roads at the bus stop in areas or at objects of main attraction usually outside of pedestrian designated facilities such as signal controlled intersections, zebra and pelican crossings. Pedestrian exposure to risk or risk-taking occurs when people want to cross the road in front of the stopped bus, at the rear of the bus or between the buses, particularly where bus stops are located on two-way roads (i.e. within the mid-block of the road with side streets, at non-signalised cross-section). However, it is necessary to have a better understanding of the pedestrian road-crossing risk exposure (pedestrian crossing distraction, obscurity and behaviour) within bus stop zones so that it can be incorporated into new design, bus stop placement, and evaluation of traffic management schemes where bus stop locations will play an increasingly important role. A full range of possible incidental interactions are presented in a tabular model that looks at the most common interacting traffic movements within bus stop zones. The thesis focused on pedestrian safety, discusses theoretical foundations of bus stops, and determines the types of accident risks between bus travellers as pedestrians and motor vehicles within the zones of the bus stop. Thus, the objectives of this thesis can be summarized as follows: (I) - Classification of bus stops, particularly according to objects of main attraction (pedestrian-generating activities); (II) - Analysis of traffic movement and interactions as an accident/risk exposure in the zone of bus stops with respect to that structure; (III) - Categorizing traffic accident in the vicinity of bus stops, and to analyse the interactions (interacting movements) that occur within bus stop zones in order to discover the nature of problems; (IV) - Formulation of tabular (pedestrian traffic accident prediction) models/forms (based on traffic interactions that creating and causing possibilities of accident conflict) for practical statistical methods of those accidents related to bus stop, and; (V) - Safety aspects related to the micro-location of bus stops to assist in the micro-location design, operations of bus stop safety facilities and safer pedestrian crossing for access between the bus stop and nearby objects of attraction. The scope of this thesis focuses on the theoretical foundation of bus stop microâ??location in areas of main attractions or at objects of main attraction, and traffic accident risk types as they occur between travellers as pedestrians and vehicle flow in the zone of the bus stop. The knowledge of possible interactions leads to the identification of potential conflict situations between motor vehicles and pedestrians. The problems discussed for each given conflict situation, has a great potential in increasing the knowledge needed to prevent accidents and minimise any pedestrian-vehicle conflict in this area and to aid in the development and planning of safer bus stops.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/284107 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Kovacevic, Vlado S |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | EN-AUS |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright 2005 Vlado S Kovacevic |
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