Examination of Pedestrian Crosswalk Design at Roundabouts

This study uses a rational approach to examine three elements of pedestrian design at roundabouts - crosswalk location, crosswalk angle, and exit design - and attempts to recommend how they could be implemented to achieve the best possible balance of pedestrian safety and convenience. This was done using the following objectives: maximize visibility; minimize impacts of vehicle queues; minimize walking distances; minimize pedestrian exposure in the crosswalk; minimize vehicle speeds through the crosswalk, and ; maximize pedestrian refuge width. The evaluation shows that the only clear preference in terms of pedestrian design at a roundabout is that a crosswalk be located one passenger car length from the roundabout on the exit side as opposed to two. This was because it was shown to minimize walking distances, minimize vehicle speeds through the crosswalk, and maximize pedestrian refuge width in the splitter island. There was determined to be no overall preference between straight and angled crosswalks, and no overall difference between a curved and a more tangential exit design. The evaluation was undertaken for an example two-lane roundabout. It is possible that different results may be obtained with different geometric designs. It is also possible that different results may be obtained with a different evaluation procedure that assigns weights to the study objectives based on their level of pedestrian safety or convenience. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD record number 201211RT334E.