Pedestrian environment and behavior in Lahore, Pakistan

In 2015 out of total road traffic crashes in the metropolitan city of Lahore, 25% fatalities involved pedestrians. In 2016 almost forty-five thousand crashes took place in the city. Seventy percent of victims from these crashes were rendered unstable, 55% involved motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians, 25% were related to over-speeding and 10% each for underage and distracted drivers. City Traffic Police attributes this high rate of pedestrian deaths to their unsafe walking behavior, especially at busy intersections. This study was carried out in an attempt to understand and investigate existing side-walking and road-crossing behavior of pedestrians at intersections in the second most populous city of Pakistan. This study also investigated the behavior of drivers with respect to pedestrians at intersections. For this purpose, 1040 pedestrians and 974 drivers were observed through video recordings at eight different intersections and differences in side-walking and road-crossing behavior was investigated based on their gender, age group, land-use characteristics of the neighborhood and according to the presence of traffic signal at the intersection. Driver behavior with respect to pedestrians was also investigated for the same factors excluding land-use characteristics of the neighborhood. Children and older pedestrians showed significantly different behavior in contrast to adolescent and middle-aged pedestrians. Results showed that pedestrians’ behavior was safer at sites located in more highly developed commercial areas and higher-income residential neighborhoods. Driver behavior was safer at intersections where the traffic signal was present. Driver behavior differed by gender and age group.