Date Approved
9-29-2023
Embargo Period
10-1-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Civil Engineering
Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
College
Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering
Sponsor
New Jersey Department of Transportation
Advisor
Mohammad Jalayer, Ph.D.
Committee Member 1
Yusuf Mehta, Ph.D.
Committee Member 2
Charalampos Papachristou, Ph.D.
Committee Member 3
Mouyid Islam, Ph.D.
Keywords
pedestrian safety, bicyclist safety, roads, motor vehicles, pedestrian-involved crashes, traffic signals
Subject(s)
Traffic accidents--United States--Prevention; Risk assessment
Disciplines
Civil Engineering | Transportation Engineering
Abstract
The safety of pedestrians and bicyclists (vulnerable road users) has become a paramount global concern, especially with a 53% and 31% surge in related crashes over the past decade in the U.S. Despite transportation agencies implementing various safety measures to address this issue, the number of severe injuries among these road users continues to climb annually. This underscores the urgent need for innovative methodologies and technologies to pinpoint the factors compromising their safety. To do so, this study aimed to introduce and employ techniques and countermeasures to gain deeper insight into risks faced by vulnerable road users. This study includes a comprehensive literature review on pedestrian safety and intelligent transportation system-based pedestrian safety countermeasures, a crash narrative analysis to classify at-fault parties, a hazard-based analysis to investigate pedestrian traveled distance, and a vehicle speed analysis to identify its contributing factors. The literature review section revealed that there is a gap in crash narrative analysis. The results of the crash narrative analysis revealed that the logistic regression classifier outperformed the other developed classifiers. As the result of the hazard-based analysis, it was concluded that 25% of severe pedestrian crashes occurred within 0.19 miles of pedestrians' residences. Lastly, the vehicle speed analysis results showed that the bicyclist's presence decreased vehicle operating speed.
Recommended Citation
Kakhani, Anahita, "VULNERABLE ROAD USER SAFETY: DATA COLLECTION, ANALYSIS, AND COUNTERMEASURES" (2023). Theses and Dissertations. 3164.
https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/3164
