A hazard-based duration model for analyzing crossing behavior of cyclists and electric bike riders at signalized intersections

This paper presents a hazard-based duration approach to investigate riders’ waiting times, violation hazards, associated risk factors, and their differences between cyclists and electric bike riders at signalized intersections. A total of 2322 two-wheeled riders approaching the intersections during red light periods were observed in Beijing, China. The data were classified into censored and uncensored data to distinguish between safe crossing and red-light running behavior. The results indicated that the red-light crossing behavior of most riders was dependent on waiting time. They were inclined to terminate waiting behavior and run against the traffic light with the increase of waiting duration. Over half of the observed riders cannot endure 49 s or longer. 25% of the riders can endure 97 s or longer. Rider type, gender, waiting position, conformity tendency and crossing traffic volume were identified to have significant effects on riders’ waiting times and violation hazards. Electric bike riders were found to be more sensitive to the external risk factors such as other riders’ crossing behavior and crossing traffic volume than cyclists. Moreover, unobserved heterogeneity was examined in the proposed models. The finding of this paper can explain when and why cyclists and electric bike riders run against the red light at intersections. The results of this paper are useful for traffic design and management agencies to implement strategies to enhance the safety of riders.     

Cyclists’ red-light running behaviours: An examination of risk-taking,opportunistic, and law-obeying behaviours

Literature has suggested that bicyclists’ red-light violations (RLVs) tend not to cause accidents although RLV is a frequent and typical bicyclist's behaviour. High association between bicyclist RLVs and accidents were, however, revealed in Taiwan. The current research explores bicyclists’ RLVs by classifying crossing behaviours into three distinct manners: risk-taking, opportunistic, and law-obeying. Other variables, as well as bicyclists’ crossing behaviours, were captured through the use of video cameras that were installed at selected intersections in Taoyuan County, Taiwan. Considering the unobserved heterogeneity, this research develops a mixed logit model of bicyclists’ three distinct crossing behaviours. Several variables (pupils in uniform, speed limit with 60 km/h) appear to have heterogeneous effects, lending support to the use of mixed logit models in bicyclist RLV research. Several factors were found to significantly increase the likelihood of bicyclists’ risky behaviours, most notably: intersections with short red-light duration, T/Y intersections, when riders were pupils in uniform, when riders were riding electric bicycles, when riders were unhelmeted.     

Exploring factors affecting pedestrians’ red-light running behaviors at intersections in China

Pedestrians’ Red-light running behavior is one of the most critical factors for pedestrian involved traffic crashes at intersections in China. The primary objective of this study is to explore how various factors affect pedestrians’ red-light running behaviors at intersection areas, using the data collected from Hefei, China. A questionnaire was well designed aiming at collecting pedestrians’ socio-economic characteristics, trip related features, and attribute variables in different crossing facilities. Based on 631 valid samples, a binomial logistic model was established to evaluate the impacts of contributing factors on pedestrians’ red-light running behavior. The modeling results show that four variables significantly affect the probability of pedestrians’ red-light running behavior, which are the trip purpose, time period in one day, pedestrian’s attitude towards whether to run a red light when in hurry, and pedestrian’s attitude towards whether quality of road facility affects crossing behavior. With those variables, the probability of pedestrians’ red-light running behavior at intersections could be predicted. Findings of this study can help understand why pedestrians in China run red-lights and identify which pedestrian groups and intersections are more likely to have such behaviors. This study can also help propose countermeasures more efficiently to reduce pedestrian-related crashes at intersections in China.     

The effects of sunshields on red light running behavior of cyclists and electric bike riders

Bicycles held an important position in transportation of China and other developing countries. As accidents rate involving electronic and regular bicycles is increasing, the severity of the bicycle safety problem should be paid more attention to. The current research explored the effect of sunshields (a kind of affordable traffic facility built on stop line of non-motor vehicle lanes (According to National Standard in China, e-bikes share the non-motor vehicle lane with regular bikes.) which was undertaken to avoid riders suffering from sunlight and high temperature) on diminishing red light running behavior of cyclists and e-bike riders. An observational study of 2477 riders was conducted to record and analyze their crossing behaviors at two sites across the city of Hangzhou, China. Results from logistic regression and analysis of variance indicated a significant effect of sunshield on reducing red light infringement rate both on sunny and cloudy days, while this effect of sunshield was larger on sunny days than on cloudy days based on further analysis. The effect of intersection type in logistic regression showed that riders were 1.376 times more likely to run through a red light upon approaching the intersection without sunshields compared to with sunshields in general. The results of MANCOVA further confirmed that rates of running behaviors against red lights were significantly lower at the intersections with a sunshield than at intersections without sunshields when other factors including traffic flow were statistically controlled. To sum up, it is concluded that sunshields installed at intersections can reduce the likelihood of red light infringement of cyclists and e-bike riders on both sunny and cloudy days. For those areas or countries with a torrid climate, sunshield might be a recommended facility which offers an affordable way to improve the safety of cyclists and e-bike riders at intersections. Limitations of the current sunshield design and current study are also discussed.     

Novel application of red-light runner proneness theory within traffic microsimulation to an actual signal junction

Building on previous research a conceptual framework, based on potential conflicts analysis, has provided a quantitative evaluation of ‘proneness’ to red-light running behaviour at urban signalised intersections of different geometric, flow and driver characteristics. The results provided evidence that commonly used violation rates could cause inappropriate evaluation of the extent of the red-light running phenomenon. Initially, an in-depth investigation of the functional form of the mathematical relationship between the potential and actual red-light runners was carried out. The application of the conceptual framework was tested on a signalised intersection in order to quantify the proneness to red-light running. For the particular junction studied proneness for daytime was found to be 0.17 north and 0.16 south for opposing main road approaches and 0.42 east and 0.59 west for the secondary approaches. Further investigations were carried out using a traffic microsimulation model, to explore those geometric features and traffic volumes (arrival patterns at the stop-line) that significantly affect red-light running. In this way the prediction capability of the proposed potential conflict model was improved. A degree of consistency in the measured and simulated red-light running was observed and the conceptual framework was tested through a sensitivity analysis applied to different stop-line positions and traffic volume variations. The microsimulation, although at its early stages of development, has shown promise in its ability to model unintentional red light running behaviour and following further work through application to other junctions, potentially provides a tool for evaluation of alternative junction designs on proneness. In brief, this paper proposes and applies a novel approach to model red-light running using a microsimulation and demonstrates consistency with the observed and theoretical results.     

Classification analysis of driver's stop/go decision and red-light running violation

When the driver encounters a signal change from green to yellow, he is required to make a stop or go decision based on his speed and the distance to the stop bar making the wrong decision will lead to a red-light running violation or an abrupt stop at the intersection. In this study, a field data collection was conducted at a high-speed signalized intersection, where a video-based system with three cameras was used to record the drivers’ behavior related to the onset of yellow. Observed data include drivers’ stop/go decisions, red-light running violation, lane position in the highway, positions (leading/following) in the traffic flow, vehicle type, and vehicles’ yellow-onset speeds and distances from the intersection. Further, classification tree models were applied to analyze how the probabilities of a stop or go decision and of red-light running are associated with the traffic parameters. The data analysis indicated that vehicle's distance from the intersection at the onset of yellow, operating speed, and position in the traffic flow are the most important predictors for both the stop/go decision and red-light running violation. This study illustrates that the tree models are helpful to recognize and predict how drivers make stop/go decisions and partake in red-light running violations corresponding to the traffic parameters.     

Traffic safety analysis of powered two-wheelers (PTWs) in Slovenia

Due to the 2006 European research report on powered two-wheelers (PTWs) riders’ traffic safety, Slovenia represents the highest risk for PTW riders in the European Union. Namely, in Slovenia we have the largest number of PTW riders’ deaths per billion travelled kilometers in 2006. Since then the traffic safety situation in the field of PTW riders in Slovenia has been improving and we will discuss that phenomenon in the present paper.     

An evaluation of Winnipeg's photo enforcement safety program: Results of time series analyses and an intersection camera experiment

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of Winnipeg's photo enforcement safety program on speeding, i.e., “speed on green”, and red-light running behavior at intersections as well as on crashes resulting from these behaviors. ARIMA time series analyses regarding crashes related to red-light running (right-angle crashes and rear-end crashes) and crashes related to speeding (injury crashes and property damage only crashes) occurring at intersections were conducted using monthly crash counts from 1994 to 2008. A quasi-experimental intersection camera experiment was also conducted using roadside data on speeding and red-light running behavior at intersections. These data were analyzed using logistic regression analysis. The time series analyses showed that for crashes related to red-light running, there had been a 46% decrease in right-angle crashes at camera intersections, but that there had also been an initial 42% increase in rear-end crashes. For crashes related to speeding, analyses revealed that the installation of cameras was not associated with increases or decreases in crashes. Results of the intersection camera experiment show that there were significantly fewer red light running violations at intersections after installation of cameras and that photo enforcement had a protective effect on speeding behavior at intersections. However, the data also suggest photo enforcement may be less effective in preventing serious speeding violations at intersections. Overall, Winnipeg's photo enforcement safety program had a positive net effect on traffic safety. Results from both the ARIMA time series and the quasi-experimental design corroborate one another. However, the protective effect of photo enforcement is not equally pronounced across different conditions so further monitoring is required to improve the delivery of this measure. Results from this study as well as limitations are discussed.     

Traffic light compliance by civilians, soldiers and military officers

Military officers, particularly those in the chain of command, are expected to provide “a good example of virtue, honor, patriotism, and subordination” (Snider, 2008). The aim of the present study was to examine the extent to which these values are reflected in the behavior that military officers exhibit crossing roads, as compared with soldiers’ and civilians’ road-crossing behavior. One thousand two hundred pedestrians were observed while crossing the street at an urban intersection in the center of Israel. Of these pedestrians, 594 (49.5%) were soldiers, 112 (9.33%) were officers and 488 (40.66%) were civilians. An observation grid was constructed to register pedestrians’ crossing behavior. The independent variables encoded were gender, military status and military rank. The dependent variables encoded were crossing the road at a red light; crossing a busy road; running across the road; crossing the road diagonally; crossing the road without looking both ways; and crossing without first stopping at the sidewalk edge. To compare the crossing behaviors of each group of pedestrians, a summation was made for the six parameters of safe crossing. An ANOVA compared the means of unsafe road-crossing behaviors of males and females, on the one hand, and of civilians, soldiers and officers, on the other. A post hoc Scheffe test conducted on the means showed that the mean of the unsafe road-crossing behaviors of the civilians (M = 1.55, SE = .04) was higher than that of the soldiers (M = 1.35, SE = .04) and of the officers (M = 1.21, SE = .08) p < .05. No significant difference was found between the means of the unsafe road-crossing behaviors of soldiers and officers, although the means of the officers’ unsafe behaviors was lower than that of the soldiers. That is, both soldiers and officers exhibited road-crossing behavior that was significantly safer than that of civilians. Generally, more females waited for the green light (54.1%) than males (45.9%). No main effect of gender or interaction with belonging to the military was found.     

A nationwide survey of self-reported red light running: measuring prevalence, predictors, and perceived consequences

A United States probability sample of 880 licensed drivers participated in a telephone survey of red light running perceptions and behaviors. Despite most drivers believing red light running was problematic and dangerous, approximately one in five respondents reported running one or more red lights when entering the last ten signalized intersections. Among several demographic and attitude variables, only age group predicted recent red light running. Specifically, younger respondents were more likely to be violators. Drivers also reported being more likely to run red lights when alone, and were typically in a hurry when speeding up to be beat red lights. Contrary to expectations, frustration was not as important for predicting red light running as it was for other driving behaviors, such as speeding, tailgating, weaving, and gesturing angrily at others. Additionally, drivers perceived and received few consequences for running red lights. Less than 6% had received a traffic ticket for red light running and most believed that police would catch less than 20% of violators. Slightly more than one in ten had been involved in a red light running crash. Respondents most commonly suggested legal initiatives to reduce red light running. Accordingly, we recommend traffic safety experts pursue interventions that apply immediate and consistent negative consequences to violators to change the public's red light running perceptions and behavior.     

Determinants behind young motorcyclists’ risky riding behavior

Young motorcyclists have traditionally been considered a high-risk population. Given the critical influence of riders’ behaviors on traffic safety, identifying what riders think can help clarify the nature of accidents. Although psychological studies have explored the relationships among personality traits, attitudes and risky driving behavior, the primary difference this study makes from past studies is incorporating both positive and negative effects in a refined causal framework. This study adopts structural equation modeling to analyze data collected from 683 young motorcyclists aged between 18 and 28. The results conclude three primary personality traits of young motorcyclists, namely sensation seeking, amiability and impatience. While amiable riders represent a group of relatively mature and safe riders, the sensation-seeking riders are extremely self-confident, comfortable with unsafe riding and interested in the utility gained from it. Meanwhile, the sensation-seeking ones also are highly aware of traffic conditions, which may lower the chances of getting into an accident, but the accident could be extremely severe if it ever occurs. Impatient riders, having low riding confidence and traffic awareness deficiency, also seek utility from certain risky riding behaviors. However, their fear of an accident leads them to fail to observe surrounding traffic conditions. The result indicates various mental compromise mechanisms for young motorcyclists in conducting riding behaviors. Thus, corresponding countermeasures, including licensure system and ITS roadway development, should consider the heterogeneous characteristics of young riders.     

Signal treatments to reduce heavy vehicle crash-risk at metropolitan highway intersections

Heavy vehicle red-light running at intersections is a common safety problem that has severe consequences. This paper investigates alternative signal treatments that address this issue. A micro-simulation analysis approach was adopted as a precursor to a field trial. The simulation model emulated traffic conditions at a known problem intersection and provided a baseline measure to compare the effects of: an extension of amber time; an extension of green for heavy vehicles detected in the dilemma zone at the onset of amber; an extension of the all-red safety-clearance time based on the detection of vehicles considered likely to run the red light at two detector locations during amber; an extension of the all-red safety-clearance time based on the detection of potential red-light runners during amber or red; and a combination of the second and fourth alternatives. Results suggested safety improvements for all treatments. An extension of amber provided the best safety effect but is known to be prone to behavioural adaptation effects and wastes traffic movement time unnecessarily. A green extension for heavy vehicles detected in the dilemma zone and an all-red extension for potential red-light runners were deemed to provide a sustainable safety improvement and operational efficiency.     

我国骑车人违规行为及安全对策

观测骑自行车人的违规行为,研究提高机动车和自行车交互安全的对策。通过实地观测研究了在混合交通情况下骑自行车人的违规行为及其严重程度。研究者提出通过向机动车驾驶员发送自行车速度和方向信息,帮助驾驶员提前注意到自行车并及时采取避让措施,从而提高交互安全,并通过仿真驾驶实验验证了该对策的有效性。结果表明:观测过程中有大量骑车人违规行驶,最严重的两类行为是闯红灯和逆行。两个观测地点闯红灯的比例为高峰时段40.6%和55.7%,非高峰时间段60.9%和44.6%。仿真实验结果表明:在机动车左转、直行和右转三种场景下,通过发送提示信息对参试者的风险认知、机动车驾驶员的行为调整时间、二者距离最近时的速度、分开时的距离都有显著影响(p<0.05)。     

Prevalence and characteristics of red light running crashes in the United States

About 40% of motor vehicle crashes occur at intersections. In recent years, the number of crashes at traffic signals has increased considerably. A major cause of such crashes is drivers disregarding traffic signals. Despite concerns about the frequent occurrence of red light violations and the significant crash consequences, relatively little is known about the overall prevalence and characteristics of red light running crashes. The present study examines the prevalence of red light running crashes on a national basis and identifies the characteristics of such crashes and the drivers involved. Cities with especially high rates of fatal red light running crashes are identified. Countermeasures to reduce red light running crashes based on collision patterns and characteristics of drivers involved are discussed. It was estimated that about 260 000 red light running crashes occur annually in the United States, of which approximately 750 result in fatalities. Comparisons were made between red light running drivers and drivers deemed not to have run red lights in these same crashes. As a group, red light runners were more likely than other drivers to be younger than age 30, male, have prior moving violations and convictions for driving while intoxicated, have invalid driver’s licenses, and have consumed alcohol prior to the crash. Comparisons also were made between characteristics of red light runners involved in daytime and nighttime crashes. Nighttime red light runners were more likely than daytime runners to be young, male, and have more deviant characteristics, 53% having high blood alcohol concentrations.     

Red-light running rates at five intersections by road user in Changsha,China: An observational study

The red-light running rate by type of road users has not been reported in China so far. We conducted an observation study to report the violation rate in Changsha, China. Portable digital devices were used to record red-light running violations at five selected intersections. The observation was performed for three days (weekday, weekend and holiday), four time periods per day and an hour per time period (peak and off-peak hours in the morning and in the afternoon). Violation rate was calculated as number of violations divided by total number of vehicles/pedestrians × 100%. We used adjusted violation rate ratio (VRR) to quantify the effects of type of day and time period based on Poisson model. Totally, 162,124 vehicles (including motor vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles) and 31,649 pedestrians were recorded. The red-light running rate was 0.14% for motor vehicle drivers, far lowering than those for motorcyclists (18.64%), bicyclists (18.74%) and pedestrians (18.54%). The rate on holiday was 1.89 times that on weekday for drivers. The rate for motorcyclists was high in off-peak hours (adjusted VRR: 1.11), but low on weekend and on holiday (adjusted VRRs: 0.80 and 0.65). The rate for bicyclists was 32% lower on weekend than on weekday. For pedestrians, the rates were high on weekend and holiday and in off-peak hours (adjusted VRR: 1.09, 1.67 and 1.30). The red-light running rate of motor vehicle drivers is far lower than those for motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians. The effects of type of day and time period on violation rate vary with road users, indicating the type of day and time period should be considered when developing and implementing interventions to reduce red-light running of different road users.     

Driver age and vehicle engine size effects on fault and severity in young motorcyclists accidents

This paper reports a study of the combined effect of driver age and engine size on accident severity and at-fault risk of young riders of two-wheelers. Data from the national accident database of Greece are used to calculate accident severity and relative fault risk rates. The induced exposure technique is applied due to the lack of exposure data. A log-linear analysis is then used to examine first- and second-order effects within three-variable groups. Accident severity modelling revealed a significant second-order interaction between severity, driver age and two-wheeler engine size. On the contrary, no second-order effects were identified in fault risk modelling. Moreover, a significant effect of driver age on accident fault risk was identified. The effect of engine size was not significant.     

The dark side of stimulus control--associations between contradictory stimulus configurations and pedestrians' and cyclists' illegal street crossing behavior

Since illegal pedestrian behavior represents a major source of accidents, research investigating possible reasons and risk factors for crossing against the lights is pivotal for enhancing safety in traffic. The present approach regards behavior at signalized intersections as a result of multiple stimulus discrimination. Hence, it is expected that at crossings divided by a median refuge the excitatory potential of a “consecutive green light” or “oncoming pedestrians” (S+*) attenuates the inhibition of crossing behavior induced by the relevant red light (S−). Standardized observations at critical intersections in Braunschweig, Germany, were conducted to investigate these hypotheses. Comparing outside traffic participants’ behavior in the presence of different stimulus configurations identified the assumed S+* as substantial risk factors for illegal crossings. Moreover, the presented model of stimulus control integrates past risk factor research and may help develop future prevention measures.     

Still red light for red light cameras? An update

The present study has replicated the results from a previous meta-analysis by Erke (2009) [Erke, A., 2009. Red light for red-light cameras? A meta-analysis of the effects of red-light cameras on crashes. Accident Analysis & Prevention 41 (5), 897–905.] based on a larger sample of RLC-studies, and provides answers to the criticisms that were raised by Lund et al. (2009) [Lund, A.K., Kyrychenko, S.Y., Retting, R.A., 2009. Caution: a comment on Alena Erke's red light for red-light cameras? A meta-analysis of the effects of red-light cameras on crashes. Accident Analysis and Prevention 41, 895–896.] against the previous meta-analysis. The addition of recent studies to the meta-analysis and a more thorough investigation of potential moderator variables lead to a slight improvement of the estimated effects of RLC in the previous meta-analysis. The present study found a non-significant increase of all crashes by 6% and a non-significant decrease of all injury crashes by 13%. Right-angle collisions were found to decrease by 13% and rear-end collisions were found to increase by 39%. For right-angle injury collisions a decrease by 33% was found and for rear-end injury collisions a smaller increase was found (+19%). The effects of RLC are likely to be more favorable when RLC-warning signs are set up at main entrances to areas with RLC enforcement than when each RLC-intersection is signposted. The effects of RLC may become more favorable over time, this could however not be investigated empirically. Several results indicate that spillover effects may occur for right-angle collisions, but most likely not for rear-end and other crashes. If spillover effects do not occur for rear-end crashes, which increase at RLC intersection, this would be a positive result for RLC. However, the results seem to be affected to some degree by publication bias and the effects may therefore be somewhat less favorable than indicated by the results from meta-analysis.     

The influence of pedestrian countdown signals on children’s crossing behavior at school intersections

Previous studies have shown that pedestrian countdown signals had different influences on pedestrian crossing behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the installation of countdown signals at school intersections on children’s crossing behavior. A comparison analysis was carried out on the basis of observations at two different school intersections with or without pedestrian countdown signals in the city of Jinan, China. Four types of children’s crossing behavior and child pedestrian-vehicle conflicts were analyzed in detail. The analysis results showed that using pedestrian countdown timers during the Red Man phase led to more children’s violation and running behavior. Theses violators created more conflicts with vehicles. However, pedestrian countdown signals were effective at helping child pedestrian to complete crossing before the red light onset, avoid getting caught in the middle of crosswalk. No significant difference was found in children who started crossing during Flashing Green Man phase between the two types of pedestrian signals. Moreover, analysis results indicated that children who crossed the road alone had more violation and adventure crossing behavior than those had companions. Boys were found more likely to run crossing than girls, but there was no significant gender difference in other crossing behavior. Finally, it’s recommended to remove countdown at the end of the Red Man phase to improve children’s crossing behavior and reduce the conflicts with vehicles. Meanwhile other measures are proposed to improve children safety at school intersections.