Study on pedestrian and cyclist interactions at signalised bicycle-cum-pedestrian crossings

Cycling has been a form of sport and recreation in Singapore. With the Government’s consistent effort in integrating cycling with the public transport, Singapore is progressing to become a bike-friendly city. Nowadays, cycling is not only limited to the parks, but also within cycling towns such as Tampines, Pasir Ris and Sembawang. Many have gradually begun to regard cycling as a cost saving, convenient, healthy and environmentally friendly mode of transport over the time. Thus, there is a growth in interest in cycling not only as a recreation, but also as a form of sustainable transport. Under the National Cycling Plan (NCP), Land Transport Authority (LTA) has been building more cycling amenities, such as cycling paths and signalised bicycle crossings, to cater to the rising demand and to facilitate intra-town cycling. With the rising popularity in cycling, conflicts and accidents are bound to occur between the cyclists and other road users. There were several fatal accidents that involved cyclists and other road users in Singapore, which comes under the attention and scrutiny of the public. This has sparked the debate over the sufficiency and safety issues of appropriate cycling facilities. One of the areas that cyclists will experience high interaction with other road users, such as the pedestrians, occurs at the traffic road crossings. Currently, a limited number of signalised bicycle crossings have been implemented across Singapore only. However, LTA is working to install more of such facilities to enhance the safety and accessibility of the cyclists. Through investigating and evaluating the effectiveness of existing signalised bicycle crossings sometime after the implementation, improvements can be made for future implementations and thus minimising the occurrence of any potential problems. Besides, the needs of cyclists are also studied in order to enhance their travelling experience. Furthermore, overseas practices in The Netherlands and New Zealand are reviewed to gain better understandings on the various types of bicycle crossings that are adopted and being used extensively across the countries for many years. With such references, it can provide insights and thus assist in the designing of suitable and effective signalised bicycle-cum-pedestrian crossing for Singapore. In order to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented facility, surveys were conducted at selected pedestrian-only and bicycle-cum-pedestrian crossings. The survey consists of questionnaires to find out the behaviour of cyclists at both types of crossing and to determine their level of knowledge with regards to the rules when cycling at these crossings. II Video footages were taken concurrently with the survey sessions. Extracted data from the video footages would provide more information on the behaviour and interaction of cyclists and pedestrians at the crossings. This would enhance the reliability of data collected from the survey questionnaires. The analysis and evaluation of the data were carried out to determine the effectiveness of the signalised bicycle-cum-pedestrian crossings sometime after the implementation, as well as the possible improvements to be made to improve the safety and travelling experience for the cyclists. In general, the majority of interviewees responded in the perception survey that they would follow the designated bicycle crossing at the signalised bicycle-cum-pedestrian crossing. 89% of the interviewees using the signalised bicycle-cum-pedestrian crossing at Tampines Avenue 3 stated that they would follow the designated bicycle crossing. However, there were only 78% of the cyclists doing so according to the video footage. While for the signalised bicycle-cumpedestrian crossing at Simei Street 1, 90% of the interviewees indicated in the perception survey that they would follow the designated bicycle crossing. Based on the data extracted from the video footage, only 84% of the cyclists actually followed the designated bicycle crossing. At Tampines Avenue 4, 94% of the interviewees stated that they would follow designated bicycle crossing in perception survey, however the video footage has highlighted that only 55% of the cyclists had done so. The difference in percentage between perception survey and video footage for Tampines Avenue 3 and Simei Street 1 is small, while Tampines Avenue 4 has the highest difference of 39%. Furthermore, more than 60% of the interviewees felt that there was an improvement after the implementation of signalised bicycle-cum-pedestrian crossing at all the three locations. After the data were analysed and findings were obtained, the shortcomings and problems of signalised bicycle-cum-pedestrian crossing could be identified. Following which, measures and solutions could be applied to improve the existing signalised bicycle-cum-pedestrian crossings, as well as new crossings in the future.Bachelor of Engineering (Civil