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Objectives: Over half of pedestrians killed and seriously injured in Great Britain in 2015 were involved in crashes at junctions. This study investigates the nature of these crashes. Methods:A study was conducted into pedestrian casualty crashes at priority controlled junctions, roundabouts and signalised junctions in England between 2005 and 2015 using information from the UK STATS19 accident database, the UK National Travel Survey and the UK National Census.Consideration was given to coding frequencies of contributory factors, exposure (in terms of miles walked or driven) as well as age, gender and the resident deprivation index of the road users involved. Results and Conclusions:In terms of indicative blame, the coding frequencies of subjectively determined pedestrian actions and behaviour factors which might have contributed to pedestrian casualty crashes were found to be between 1.6 and 2.8 times the frequencies of driver actions and behavioural factors. Substantial social gradients were found in pedestrian casualty rates per miles walked and in the driver involvement rates per mile driven with those from the most deprived quintile having higher rates. In addition, it was found that female pedestrians, aged 60 years and over, had higher pedestrian casualty rates, per billion miles walked, for all three junction types, when compared with males and females under the age of 60 years, apart from male pedestrians aged 16 years and younger at priority controlled junctions.

At non-signalized marked crosswalks, pedestrian priority is neither well-defined nor well acknowledged by drivers. This paper presents the findings of an investigation on both driver and pedestrian behavior at non-signalized marked crosswalks located on channelized right-turn lanes at intersections in the State of Qatar. Five crosswalks in Doha city were video recorded from discrete locations on a typical working day. The results from the data analysis of 1620 pedestrians’ behavior indicated that waiting behavior, gap acceptance, and crossing speed are complex phenomena and depend upon both pedestrians’ characteristics as well as their crossing characteristics. The drivers’ yielding behavior was mainly linked to pedestrians’ gender and adjacent land use. Low driver yielding rates indicated that significant improvements are required to enhance pedestrian safety. Among pedestrian attributes, gender had the most significant effect on crossing behavior followed by distractions, crossing in a group or alone, and dressing style. Findings of this research will be useful for planners when designing crosswalks at new intersections and during simulations of pedestrian and driver behavior at marked crosswalks on exclusive right-turn lanes. The results of this study will also be directly applicable to the Arabian Gulf countries as they exhibit similar conditions as the State of Qatar.

Vehicle automation technology is expected to bring significant benefits to transit systems. For public transportation to continue being a viable mobility alternative to private modes, automated technologies are anticipated to be actively utilized in the future. Investigating public perceptions and their determinants at an early stage is important to inform policies that will support the acceptance and future adoption of automated buses. The objective of this study was to investigate the factors that affect intention to use automated buses, using an extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model. To that end, survey data were collected from bus users in Scotland. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify the latent attitudinal constructs potentially influencing intentions to use automated buses. Considering the ordinal nature of the dependent variable, ordered models were estimated using the SPSS software. Age, gender, and experience with automated vehicle technologies were found to be crucial factors in the absence of attitudinal constructs. Young males with experience of using or seeing automated vehicle technologies were more likely to use automated buses at the early stage. The fear in relation to their navigation on roads, the perceived usefulness, enjoyment of using the system, trust, perceived safety, and security influenced how early one might adopt automated buses. Unlike the expectations, perceived ease of use did not emerge as significant. The sociodemographic variables lost their predictive power when used along with attitudinal latent variables. The findings of this study highlight the importance for policy interventions to increase public awareness about automated buses.

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