Roads Branch Public Works Department Malaysia Jalan Sultan Salahuddin
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Basic Guidelines on
Pedestrian Facilities
Introduction
Pedestrians are highly vulnerable road users and they form the second largest group of road users killed on Malaysian roads. In 1995, there were 5286 pedestrian casualties in traffic accidents, of which 711 were deaths. The majority of these (67%) involved people crossing roads, whereas about 33% involved people walking along (or working on) the road.
Existing Facilities For Pedestrians Crossing Roads
The current facilities provided in Malaysia to assist pedestrians in crossing busy roads include:
Pedestrian Bridges and Subways, Signalised Pedestrian Crossings, Pedestrian (`Zebra') Crossings, School Children's Crossings,
Combined `Zebra' and Signalised Pedestrian Crossings.
In respect to pedestrian bridges and subways, there is strong evidence that the majority of those which have been built across non-express-way routes have poor utilisation. For example a study of 10 pedestrian bridges in and around Kuantan Pahang, showed utilisation at some sites was less than 10 %. although at few sites utilisation was higher than 80%. A similar study of a Pedestrian Subway under Jalan SS l 64 (in the Bandar Utama area) had less than 20% utili-sation.
In respect to 'Zebra' type pedestrian crossings, there is considerable confusion about the obliga-tions of vehicle drivers and pedestrians at this type of crossing. There is generally poor obser-vance of the `give -way' obligation by vehicle drivers when pedestrians enter the crossing and there appears,to be little or no enforcement of this obligation by the police.
In respect to signalised pedestrian crossings, while these offer a higher degree of safety for pedestrians, they are often not adopted on Federal Routes because (it is argued) it would interrupt the "free flow" of traffic on these routes.
School Children's Crossings have been marked in various ways in different areas of Malaysia and none of them have any legal or regulatory backing. This poses a serious legal problem for road authorities such as JKR in the event of any
court action which may arise out of an accident at such sites.
At many signalised intersections, a combination of `white and black' Zebra crossing markings have been installed in direct contradiction of the current Road Traffic Rules. These pose consid-erable risk to pedestrians because of the confu-sion between pedestrians and vehicle drivers as to who has `right of way'. Quite recently, `Yellow and Black' Zebra crossing markings have been introduced in conjunction with traffic signals. These are equally confusing to pedestri-ans and motorists.
The provisions for pedestrians to walk along roads varies greatly even in urban and `built-up' areas. In town and city centres, footpaths are generally provided as part of building (shop) development, but in many cases these are severely obstructed by business activity, street furniture, motorcycle parking and even vehicle parking. In addition to this, most footpaths are `unfriendly' to pedestrians particularly the elder-ly and those who are `disabled'. The cutting of the footpath at driveways, the excessive height of the kerbs, the lack of `ramps' at intersections and driveways, the common use of steps instead of ramps to cater for changes in level and the common presence of deep uncovered (and often smelly) drains, is a significant discouragement to pedestrians using the footpath and as a result even where footpaths are provided pedestrians find it more convenient to walk along the road-way.
Guidelines On Facilities For
Pedestrians To Cross Roads
It is universally accepted that pedestrians need to be provided with safe and convenient facili-ties, to cross busy roads. The choice of type of treatment is not always clear cut and may be influenced by economics and other factors.
General Factors To Be Considered: The provision of pedestrian facilities at a par-ticular site needs to take into account factors such as:
the number and characteristics of pedestrians wishing to cross the road at a given location. Questions which need to be considered are : are the pedestrians predominantly school children? age? are there disabled pedestrians who need to use the crossing? etc..
the functional classification of the road, eg Expressway, Major Arterial, collector Road , Local street,
the speed, volume and composition of vehic-ular traffic,
the width of the road. the number of traffic lanes and is it operating two-way or one-way?
the character of the locality, eg urban, rural, residential , commercial, industrial etc.
Consideration of these factors in most devel-oped countries has resulted in a range of differ-ent types of treatmdiffer-ents to meet the needs of pedestrians at a variety of sites and local condi-tions in the most cost effective way. The selec-tion of the most appropriate treatment is often a matter of judgement, but this is assisted by the development of, and use of, warrants and guides which are aimed at achieving uniformity in deal-ing with similar conditions and ensurdeal-ing cost effective treatments.
The ability of pedestrians to cross roads 'at-grade' anywhere is very dependent on traffic volume (or `flow rate') and traffic speed. As traf-fic flow rate increases, the availability of `gaps', sufficient for pedestrians to cross the road safely between vehicle arrivals at the site, decreases and pedestrians are delayed. At high traffic flow rates pedestrian delays can become very large and in some cases impatient pedestrians may make risky crossings in short gaps in the traffic flow. This situation invariably results in the occurrence of traffic accidents involving pedes-trians. In this situation the ability of pedestrians to cross can be enhanced by measures such as: narrowing the vehicular roadway (maintain-ing only just sufficient width to meet
vehicu-lar traffic capacity requirements). This short-ens the distance pedestrians have to cross when exposed to traffic, and also helps to reduce traffic speed.
by providing pedestrian refuge islands so that pedestrians can cross the road in stages, eg placing a central refuge in a `two way' traffic stream allows pedestrians to cross one direction of flow at a time.
by reducing vehicle speeds and reducing the variability of vehicle speeds. This makes gap selection by pedestrians less subject to errors of judgement.
The Importance Of Speed Control In respect to traffic speed, this is closely related to the class of road, the road alignment and the nature of the locality. With the exception of expressways, where at-grade crossings are not acceptable, reducing traffic speed in the vicinity of a pedestrian crossing, on all other classes of road will greatly enhance pedestrian safety, both for crossing roads and for walking along roads. However speed control, particularly on high standard arterial roads is not easy to achieve. The imposition of unreasonably low speed lim-its, which require continual `heavy' enforcement by police, is rarely if ever effective. However, the setting of realistic speed limits (even if they are higher than may be desired for pedestrian safety), is desirable as this tends to reduce the variability of vehicle speeds.
The use of `Speed Humps' and other `vertical displacement' devices are not favoured on `arte-rial' roads because of the severe effect these have on heavy trucks and busses, but they are applicable and quite effective on `collector' and `local streets' in urban areas. Thus `Speed Humps' and `raised platform' areas, which may be used in conjunction with other `Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) Devices and `Traffic Calming' techniques can also be used in combination with pedestrian crossing facili-ties at appropriate locations.
Types Of Pedestrian Crossing Facilities
Pedestrian crossing facilities can be categorised into three distinct types as follows:
Uncontrolled Crossings Controlled Crossings Grade Separated Crossings
Guidelines for the selection and use of these types of pedestrian crossings follow:
A. Uncontrolled Crossings:
Uncontrolled crossing tend to occur by default at any location where pedestrians find it conven-ient to cross a road. They become more formal where pedestrian movements are concentrated such as at intersections, near bus stops etc. In general these uncontrolled crossings are simply provided with nothing more than ramps at kerblines to bring the footpath down to
explicit warrants are not necessary.
Where the number of pedestrians wishing to cross a road is significant and where the traffic flows are high, to the extent that pedestrians have difficulty finding a `safe gap' in traffic (eg on a two-way road), the provision of a pedestri-an refuge islpedestri-and may be justified. No numeric warrants have been adopted for the provision of refuge islands and each case should be treated on its merits taking into account the volume of traffic, the number of pedestrians, the type of pedestrians (eg children, elderly) , the speed of traffic, the sight distance available etc.
B. Controlled Crossings:
At some sites with high traffic flow rates, the above `un-controlled crossing' treatments may not provide adequate safety, or capacity (for heavy pedestrian demands), and some form of "Spacial (Grade) Separation" or some form of "Time Separation" of the pedestrian - vehicle conflict is necessary.
`Time Separation' treatments, which are the most common form of pedestrian crossing facil-ity, include the following:
Zebra Crossings, at which by statutory regu-lation, vehicular traffic must `give- way' to pedestrians who are on the crossing. School Children's Crossings, either
vised or not supervised, (preferably super-vised), at which vehicular traffic must give
way to pedestrians crossing the road between the flags (or flashing lights) during the periods when these devices are displayed. Signalised Pedestrian Crossings, at which
`right of way, is alternately allocated between pedestrians and vehicular traffic in accor dance with pre-set cyclic phasing, or on pedestrian demand by means of a "call" but-ton. This includes `Pelican Crossing' signals and "Puffin" (Pedestrian User Friendly Intelligent") signals, and the provision of pedestrian phases and signal heads at conven-tional signalised intersections.
Manually controlled traffic operation. eg by police or by other people so authorised such as 'School Children' Crossing Supervisors
C. Grade Separated Pedestrian Crossings:
Grade separated pedestrian crossings by means of pedestrian over-bridges or subways potential-ly offer pedestrians with the safest means of crossing busy roads, however the required bridge or subway construction is very expensive and these facilities are often poorly utilised unless extensive fencing is used to deter pedes-trians from walking directly across the roadway.
Where pedestrians need to cross expressway (freeway, motorway) type roads, other than at interchanges provided for vehicular traffic, grade-separated crossings are essential. They should only be used on other types of roads where conditions particularly favour this solu-tion and a high degree of utilisasolu-tion can be assured.
The following are some of the factors which have been found to be associated with low util-isation of pedestrian bridges or underpasses: Low traffic flows, to the degree that
pedestri-ans have little difficulty in finding a safe gap in the traffic flow to cross the road;
The proximity to traffic signals. The interrup-tion of traffic flow by traffic signals at a nearby intersection, usually provides pedes-trians with an acceptable opportunity to cross a road. Any traffic signal within approximate-ly 300 m of a pedestrian crossing site is like-ly to have a significant influence on the
utili-sation of any grade separated pedestrian crossing facility.
The provision of steps (stairs) rather than ramps at pedestrian grade separations has been found to be a discouragement to pedes-trians.
Where subways are depressed below ground level, are long and not well lighted, personal security can be a perceived problem, particu-larly for women, children and elderly people. Such facilities often experience poor utilisa-tion even in daytime.
Warrants And Layout Guidelines
Consideration of the various factors relevant to the choice of the appropriate type of pedestrian crossing leads to the presentation of a range of different types of facilities to suit various classes of road and different road environment situa-tions. Most of the `well proven' techniques and devices are currently being used in Malaysia, but the main problem is that particular treatments are often used at inappropriate locations and the geometric design, traffic signing and roadmark-ing vary greatly from site to site.
Guidelines for the selection of the most appro-priate type of treatment are provided in Figure 1. The desirable general layout etc for various types of pedestrian crossing facilities are illus-trated in Figures 2 to 7.
In the absence of quantitative and other guide-lines specifically developed for Malaysian con-ditions, it is suggested that those presented in the AUSTROADS (Australia) Guide To Traffic Engineering Practice, Part 13 - Pedestrians, (derived from Australian Standard AS 1742. 10), be adopted as `Interim Guidelines' until such time as experience in practice indicates any nec-essary changes to better suit Malaysian condi-tions. These are attached as Appendix A of this report.
Provisions For Pedestrians At Signalised Intersections
At intersections where traffic signals are installed to control conflicting traffic move-ments, the provision of special signal heads
(faces) and signal phases to assist pedestrians to cross safely can be incorporated at little addi-tional cost. In general, at important intersections within cities and towns. there will usually be suf-ficient pedestrian movements to justify the pro-vision of pedestrian facilities, not withstanding this, some guidelines / warrants for such provi-sions are included in Appendix A.
The type of pavement marking to be used to indicate the pedestrian crossing at signalised intersections is similar to that used at signalised pedestrian crossings away from intersections ie, conventional signalised pedestrian crossings as illustrated in Figure 5. These consist of white transverse lines marked across the carriageway the width between which may vary from a min-imum of 2.5m (for low pedestrian flows) to 4 m (for high pedestrian flows). Note that Zebra type markings must not be placed across the main carriageways at signalised intersections.
The pedestrian phases at signalised intersections are usually incorporated into the signal cycle in parallel with non-conflicting, or the least con-flicting traffic movements. It is generally accept-ed that conflicts between left turning traffic is acceptable except where high speed `slip' road with 2 or more traffic lanes are provided. At sig-nalised intersections with significant pedestrian movements, `Zebra' type pedestrian crossings may be installed across any separate left turn `slip' road, but never in conjunction with a sig-nalised left turn `slip' road. It is also generally acceptable to allow the conflict between right turn vehicular traffic and pedestrians crossing the roadway into which the right turners are entering, except where this traffic movement is proceeding on a green arrow signal.
Guidelines For Providing Facilities
For Pedestrians To walk Along
Roads:
There are few places on the road system where no provision needs to be made for pedestrians to walk along a road, and in view of the vulnerabil-ity of pedestrians in any conflict with vehicles (including motorcycles) some form of segrega-tion is desirable. However where the intensity of
land use and thus pedestrian movements are low , such as in most rural areas, the road shoulder can adequately provide space for people to walk clear of vehicular traffic.
While no numeric warrants are given for the provision of footpaths along roads, they are gen-erally considered necessary in all "built-up" areas and may also be necessary at some rural locations such as in the vicinity of schools, mosques or other community facilities where pedestrians are likely to be concentrated.
In some city and town situations, on 'local street' class of roads, where there may be very high pedestrian activity, the roadway itself. These sit-uations in which vehicles and pedestrians share the road carriageway require specific traffic rules which give pedestrians equal priority to vehicles together with special traffic manage-ment arrangemanage-ments, including a maximum speed limit of 25 km/h or less, to reduce the degree of threat to pedestrians posed by vehicu-lar traffic. In some countries these are referred to as "Shared Zones".
Where footpaths are provided. consideration should always be given to the needs of elderly people and people with disabilities. The design should incorporate the following characteristics aimed at making them 'user friendly' for all classes of pedestrians:
Adequate width should be provided. This may vary from an absolute minimum of 0.9 m to 2.4 m or wider in shopping and other high pedestrian activity areas.
A height clearance of at least 2.0 m should be provided.
The pathway should not be obstructed by posts, poles, traffic signs, trees and other street furniture. Neither should they be allowed to be obstructed by adjacent business activity or parked vehicles, or unreasonably obstructed by motorcycles and bicycles. Any obstacle close to the pathway which could endanger pedestrians, particularly people with impaired vision, should be well delineat-ed.
Manhole covers and gratings, if they cannot be avoided, should be kept flush with the footpath surface and any drains close to the footpath, which could pose a danger to pedes-trians, should be covered.
Clearance of at least 1.0 m should be provid-ed between the traffic lanes and the footpath. This clearance, which should be greater where traffic volume and, or speed are high, increases the safety of pedestrians, and reduces the inconvenience / annoyance caused by the splash from vehicle tires in wet weather.
Changes in level along and beside the foot path should be minimised. Where it is not possible to avoid steps, particular care needs to be taken to properly identify them so that they can be seen, especially by people with impaired vision.
Where differences in level are catered for by a ramp instead of or in addition to steps, the gradient should not be steeper than 1 in 10. Where long ramps are involved, such as at pedestrian bridges, gradients of 1 in 20 to 1 in 33 should be provided.
Where kerbs are provided at the edge of the carriageway, they should not be higher than 150mm. Where the footpath crosses or intersects the kerb as at intersections and drive -ways, the kerb should be `dropped' and a ramp at an acceptable slope should be provid-ed.
In general driveways should not `cut' the foot-path but should be ramped up or down from roadway level to meet the footpath level. The need for pedestrians to step down to the drive-way level and back up to footpath level at each driveway is a major discouragement to pedestrians using the footpath. In addition. pedestrians should be given `right of way' (priority) over vehicular traffic where drive ways cross the footpath. This pedestrian pri-ority is greatly enhanced if vehicular traffic is ramped up to footpath level.
Footpath surfaces should be firm. even. smooth and skid resistant, especially in wet
conditions.
Conclusion
Pedestrian movement forms part of almost every trip made on the road system and thus Pedestrians form an important component of the traffic sN-stem. The vulnerability of pedestrians. when they must operate amongst vehicular traf-fic, is amply emphasised by the high number of traffic accident casualties involving pedestrians. The lack of proper provisions for pedestrians to cross roads or to walk along roads safely is a major contributing factor to the high number of pedestrian casualties on Malaysian roads. Consideration of the specific needs of
pedestri-ans must be made an essential part of the plan-ning. design. construction. maintenance and operation of every road or road project. These guidelines should be used as a means of achiev-ing better and more consistent standards and practices in relation to creating a more `user friendly' and safer road environment for pedes-trians.
Uncontrolled Pedestrian Crossings: No specific warrants have been adopted for uncontrolled crossings, but they can be used at quite high traffic flows on arterial roads (but Not on Expressways), particularly where traffic flow is `bunched' due to nearby traffic signals. Each case should be treated on its merits, considering factors such as: the width of road to be crossed, whether it is operating one-way or two-way, the number of pedestrians, the traffic flow rate, the speed of traffic, sight distance available etc. Uncontrolled pedestrian crossings are often combined with Local Area Traffic Management Devices and `Traffic Calming' Techniques.
Pedestrian, (`Zebra') Crossings:
'Zebra' type pedestrian crossings are appro-priate, in the situations indicated in Figure 1, where the general traffic speed as indicated by the 85th percentile traffic speed, is less than 70 km/h, subject to the following crite-ria being met:
The number of pedestrian (wishing to cross the road), P is at least 60 persons per hour,, the total volume of vehicular traffic on the road at the site, V is greater than 600 vph. for at least 2 separate one-hour periods of a typical week day, and the Product PxV > 90,000.
The width to be crossed by pedestrians in one `stage' is not more than Four (4) traffic lanes, ie. a carriageway of not more than 15 m wide. The visibility is adequate, both in respect to
vehicle drivers being able to see the crossing and pedestrians about to step onto the cross-ing, and the pedestrians being able to see the vehicles approaching the crossing. In this
regard, the operating speed of traffic needs to be carefully assessed.
School Children's Crossings.
School children's crossings may be installed at any location as indicated in Figure 1, where children need to cross a road on a reg-ular basis. Subject to firm arrangements being made for the Children's Crossing Flags to be placed ( or the flashing lights to be switched on) during the appropriate periods of the day when children are expected to be crossing the road, and for the flags to be removed (or the flashing lights switched off) outside the crossing periods. This arrange-ment often includes the provision of a proper-ly authorised, `instructed' and uniformed `Crossing Supervisor', whose role is to oper-ate the crossing equipment and conduct the children safely across the road.
Signalised Pedestrian Crossing: A signalised pedestrian crossing may be installed where any one of the following criteria are met:
Where, P > 350 pph for each of three (3) one-hour periods of an average day, or,
where, P > 175pph for each of any eight (8) one-hour periods and :
where there is no central median or pedestrian refuge island provided, the vehicular traffic flow, V > 600 vph (sum of both directions) in the same hours.
where there is a central median or pedestrian refuge island, the vehicu Appendix A
WARRANTS / GUIDELINES FOR THE
INSTALLATION OF PEDESTRIAN CROSSING
FACILITIES.
Based On
AUSTROADS Guide To Traffic Engineering Practice Part 13 - Pedestrians, (1995).
(In the following warranting criteria, P is the number of Pedestrians per hour and, ' V is the volume of vehicular traffic in the same hour.)
lar traffic flow, V > 1000 vph (sum of both directions) in the same hours.
Subject to there being no other pedestrian crossing (including a grade separated crossing within a reasonable distance (say 200m) of the site.
A signalised pedestrian crossing may be placed instead of a school Children's Crossing where:
where P> 50pph for each of two (2) one-hour periods and V > 600 vph. and,
the product of PxV > 40,000.
A signalised pedestrian crossing may be justified at any location on an Arterial road where the above warrants for a Pedestrian (Zebra) Crossing are met, but at which it would not be appropriate to install a Zebra type crossing due to the high speed of traffic or where the car-riageway is wider than 15m, or where there is a continuous high flow of pedes-trians which would cause excessive delay to vehicular traffic at a Zebra type cross-ing.
A signalised pedestrian crossing may be justified to replace an existing pedestrian (Zebra) crossing where the has been two or more pedestrian involved accidents, of a type which may be corrected by the installation of traffic signals, in the last three (3) years.
A signalised pedestrian crossing may be installed instead of a Pedestrian (Zebra) Crossing where the site is within a `coor-dinated (linked)' traffic signal system , or close to signalised intersection or a rail-way level crossing, where there is a dan ger of vehicles
Grade Separated Pedestrian Crossings:
Grade separated crossings are very costly and experience shows that they are generally poorly utilised. They are however essential wherever pedestrians need to cross and `Expressway' (or Freeway) route.
While no specific warrants have been adopt-ed for grade separatadopt-ed padopt-edestrian crossings,
and each case should be treated on its merits, the following general guides should be con-sidered.
Low utilisation can be expected at sites where:
Traffic flow on the carriageway to be crossed is less than about 700 vph during the period when most pedestrians need to cross the road.
The site is within 250 m of a signalised intersection.
The site is not conveniently located for the pedestrian movements in the vicinity.
Good utilisation is usually achieved
In the vicinity of schools (particularly pri-mary schools) where children can be `channeled' to the facility by fencing. At high pedestrian demand locations
where ramps are provided directly on the most convenient route for pedestrians
Providing Pedestrian Signals At Signalised Intersections:
Pedestrian signal heads and 'push button' equipment should be incorporated as a gener-al practice into gener-all intersection and inter-change signals in urban areas. Where there is doubt about the justification of the increased cost of providing the pedestrian equipment on some or all approaches to a signalised intersection. this provision is usually consid-ered to be justified where the following crite-ria is met:
At intersections where for any two (2) one-hour periods of an average day the Pedestrian volume. P >60 pph across the intresection approach under construction. The presence of children, elderly or dis-abled pedestrians at the site may justify the specialpedestrian equipment at lower pedestrian flows than this.