A Study on Defining Pedestrian Level of Service for Road Links in Urban Indian Context

Abstract

In countries like India pedestrians form a large percentage of traffic volume and they are the most vulnerable road users. Movement of pedestrian are not restricted to the lanes but pedestrians experience certain physical boundaries such as walkways or pedestrian ways which restrict their movement. Normally Indian roads experience inefficient facilities for pedestrians, which leads to a number of fatal accidents all over the country almost every day. To know the efficiency of roadways in aspect to accommodate the pedestrian travel or how effectively they are useful for pedestrians, walking conditions need to be assessed. This assessment helps further for the development of road geometry, road-side furniture and road network assets etc. Estimation of Pedestrian Level of Service (PLOS) is the most common approach to assess the quality of operations of pedestrian facilities. The main purpose of this study is to outline suitable methodology to evaluate Pedestrian Level of Service for both on street and off-street aspect in Indian condition. All the existing models have certain limitations for which they are not applicable for Indian conditions. In order to assess the PLOS for India it is highly necessary to develop a new model. All the parameters affecting PLOS are considered and accordingly data was collected. Videography was found to be the most efficient method for the collection of traffic data. Video of traffic flow was taken during the peak hours of the day in 15 minutes segments at various locations in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela city. Video data were extracted in order to find the value of different parameters. The extracted data were used to develop a model and regression analysis was used as the main tool for the model development. Proposed model is quite significant as it gives the PLOS value as it is observed on the segment. It describes the traffic scenario very neatly and considers the effect of all parameters those affect pedestrian movement. Proposed model was also compared with the existing models and it was observed that the proposed model gives better result than the existing models. PLOS estimated using the proposed model shows that ivalmost 70% of road segment gives level of service ‘C’ and ‘D’. 15% to 20% road segment comes under level of service ‘E’ and ‘F’. Only a few road segments come under level of service ‘A’ or ‘B’.