Crossing facilities

Crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists occur frequently at facilities designed for pedestrians and cyclists such as pedestrian crossings, cycle tracks, and cycle lanes. This means that these facilities are not necessarily good enough to prevent crashes [34]. However, pedestrian crossings might also be the location at which roads are most often crossed.

In the United Kingdom, over 20% of crashes happen at a place where people should be safe, such as on the pavement or at a pedestrian crossing. In Denmark, half of the crashes with cyclists occur at facilities for cyclists such as cycle tracks or cycle lanes [34].

Pedestrian crashes occur most often whilst crossing the roadway, especially for older pedestrians. In the Netherlands, 25% of the pedestrian fatalities that died as a result of a crash while crossing the road, were crossing at a zebra or another kind of pedestrian crossing. Of the elderly, 75% of pedestrian fatalities died as a result of a crash whilst crossing the road. Of these, 38% were crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing (probably they are also more inclined to cross the road at a pedestrian crossing).

Pedestrian crashes often occur when people are trying to cross the street on links outside pedestrian crossings or where no pedestrian crossings exist. One of the causes is the driver’s difficulty in perceiving pedestrians because of darkness and/or parked cars. In the United Kingdom, nearly 90% of the injuries to older pedestrians which are caused by motor vehicles happen under such conditions. In over 10% of cases, the driver cannot see pedestrians because of parked cars. 67% of pedestrians in the United Kingdom were killed or injured whilst crossing the road more than 50 metres away from a pedestrian crossing [34].