Analyzing and Identifying Characteristics of High Risk Intersections for Pedestrians and Its Countermeasures: A Case of Dire Dawa City

Abstract

edestrian accidents are a serious and growing problem in the world, especially in the cities of low-income and middle-income countries. Dire Dawa City, one of the federal states in East Ethiopia has a high frequency of pedestrian injuries. Thus, the primary goal of the study was to identify high risk intersections, relationships between pedestrian crashes and the environments in terms of intersection and traffic characteristics. Three year (2013/14 to 2015/16) pedestrian crash data from police records of Dire Dawa Administration Police Commission has been used in for the analysis. From the study, the total number of pedestrian Crashes reported at Dire Dawa intersections were 165. From this, 13 were fatal, 54 were serious injury and 98 were minor injury. Both probability sampling and random sampling techniques were applied. Based on the results of this research using priority value method, there were nine selected intersections from the 24 sample intersections selected. To identify how specific roadway intersection characteristics are associated with pedestrian crashes, this study conducted pedestrian crash frequency analysis on the basis of negative binomial (NB) model. The analysis compared the association of the number of pedestrian crash with intersection characteristics. In the analysis, sixteen variables was considered for use in the statistical model of the number of pedestrian crashes at each study intersection. The result of negative binomial regression indicated that motorized traffic volume, pedestrian crossing volume, presence of school and alcohol bar within 300m radius, availability of an intersection at near offices and commercial areas, presence of stop or yield control and width of minor road were positively associated with the number of pedestrian crashes. Therefore, these identified factors found out which are associated with an increase in the number of pedestrian crashes. Based on the findings, it was suggested countermeasures such as provision of sidewalks, pedestrian crosswalk markings, pedestrian refuge island and regular crosswalks maintenance