Pedestrian age and gender in relation to crossing behavior at midblock crossings in India

Pedestrians have unique needs to ensure their safety as they interact with others within a transportation system. Since this is especially true in third world context, it is imperative to gain a better understanding of pedestrian behaviors in developing countries. The goal is to have planners and engineers create appropriate design guidelines and inform policy decisions. Data on pedestrian characteristics and behavior metrics were gathered from midblock crossings in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Quadratic and logistic regressions suggest that pedestrian delay and utilization of crossings increase with age, while conflicts decrease with it. Male waiting time is approximately half of female waiting time, and males are twice as likely to cause conflicts with motor vehicles. These strong patterns will hopefully aid in the understanding of pedestrian behavior in relation to motor vehicle traffic in urban areas of developing countries, encouraging safer crossings to be designed.