It is important to find criteria for preventive measures and appropriate assistive devices to reduce pedestrian injuries and increase walking in winter. Reducing the rate of falls on icy surfaces and improving people’s ability to safely cross a street in winter conditions by achieving an adequate walking speed, for example, need to be considered. This study explores pedestrian perceptions of fall risk, balance, and footfall transitions while using different designs for anti-slip devices on ice and snow-covered ice and relates these to measures of gait speed and friction. Trials were performed with nine pedestrians testing 19 anti-slip devices on ice and ice covered with snow. Laboratory tests of the dynamic coefficient of friction (DCOF) on plain ice were also performed. The findings suggest that there was conformity in the participants’ perceptions of good balance and low fall risk for one-fifth of the devices (three whole-foot designs and one design with built-in spikes). We also found that gait speed on icy pedestrian crossings is related to perceived fall-risk and balance control, but not to DCOF of the anti-slip devices.

Speed humps are a common physical measure installed at pedestrian crossings to reduce vehicle speeds therefore improve the safety and mobility of pedestrians at the crossing. The aim of this study was to determine whether variations in distance between speed humps and pedestrian crossings contribute differently to the safety and mobility of pedestrians and cyclists, especially children and the elderly, and if so, how. Three sites in Sweden were studied, where vehicle speed measurements and video filming at the site resulted in manually coded, road user behaviour of 1972 pedestrians and cyclists. Road user behaviour at three test sites and two comparison sites equipped with speed cushion at distances of about 5m and 10 m from the pedestrian crossing, i.e. about one or two car lengths, were studied. As vehicle speeds were somewhat lower at the pedestrian crossing when the distance between the speed cushion to the pedestrian crossing was greater, and there were positive aspects regarding the mobility of the pedestrians and cyclists, a greater distance of about 10 m or two car lengths between the hump and the pedestrian crossing is suggested. The present study only covers speed cushions, but the same distance is also regarded as important when installing other types of physical measures to reduce vehicle speed.

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A synthesis of best practice was done to come up with a "best design" of crosswalks used by children. The analysis is based on studies from three sites in Sweden and three in Israel, research results concerning "ideal" interactions, and a review of additional countermeasures as described in the literature. Our presumption is that actual vehicle speeds should be below 20 km/h where children (aged 7 to 12 years) are crossing a street, especially if they are walking unaccompanied by an adult. The results of field studies show that a "best design" to reach this should include a speed-reducing device located before the crosswalk. The optimal distance from such a device to the crosswalk is about 10 m if the speed limit is 30 km/h or lower. For streets with 50 km/h speed limits, a longer distance of 15 to 20 m is needed and, as a complimentary measure, the crosswalk itself should also be elevated. At approaches with two lanes or more, multiple-threat conflicts occur due to vehicles overtaking stopped ones in the adjacent lane. These conflicts are a threat especially to children, as they often are hidden behind the stopped vehicle if it has stopped too close to the crosswalk. To provide a stronger message for alerting drivers to stop and to stop early, and not to overtake a stopped car in an adjacent lane, advanced yield bars or stop lines are needed. For those, a distance to the crosswalk of about 10 m is recommended. To secure travel speeds below 20 km/h, additional measures like camera enforcement of speeds near the crosswalk might be needed. Within a few years, ITS technology may govern speeds at marked crosswalks, and speed-reducing measures will be less needed at that time. However, for the foreseeable future, older vehicles lacking such technology will still be allowed on streets and even in newer vehicles, speed-control systems may be voluntary and possible to switch off. Therefore, we believe that investments into the measures discussed in this paper will have a role to play for decades to come.

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