Pedestrian conflicts

Vehicle-pedestrian conflicts can be present at every intersection, even those with minimal pedestrian volume. The following sections examine pedestrian conflicts at signalized intersections and at roundabouts.

Signalized intersections offer the opportunity to reduce the likelihood of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts through the use of signal phasing that allows only a few movements to move legally at any given time. Exhibit 5-5 summarizes the typical pedestrian conflicts present on one approach to a signalized intersection. As the exhibit shows, a pedestrian crossing at a typical signalized intersection (permitted or protected-permitted left turns, right turns on red allowed) faces four potential vehicular conflicts, each coming from a different direction:

• Crossing movements on red (typically high-speed, illegal)
• Right turns on green (legal)
• Left turns on green (legal for protected-permitted or permitted left turn phasing)
• Right turns on red (typically legal)

In terms of exposure, the illegal movements should be accorded a lower weight than legal conflicts. However, they may be accorded an offsetting higher weight in terms of severity. For an intersection with four single-lane approaches, this results in a total of 16 pedestrian-vehicle conflicts.

Pedestrians at roundabouts, on the other hand, face two conflicting vehicular movements on each approach, as depicted in Exhibit 5-6:

• Conflict with entering vehicles; and
• Conflict with exiting vehicles.

At conventional and roundabout intersections with multiple approach lanes, an additional conflict is added with each additional lane that a pedestrian must cross.