title: Investigation of pedestrian crashes on two-way two-lane rural roads in Ethiopia.
abstract: Understanding pedestrian crash causes and contributing factors in developing countries is critically important as they account for about 55% of all traffic crashes. Not surprisingly, considerable attention in the literature has been paid to road traffic crash prediction models and methodologies in developing countries of late. Despite this interest, there are significant challenges confronting safety managers in developing countries. For example, in spite of the prominence of pedestrian crashes occurring on two-way two-lane rural roads, it has proven difficult to develop pedestrian crash prediction models due to a lack of both traffic and pedestrian exposure data. This general lack of available data has further hampered identification of pedestrian crash causes and subsequent estimation of pedestrian safety performance functions. The challenges are similar across developing nations, where little is known about the relationship between pedestrian crashes, traffic flow, and road environment variables on rural two-way roads, and where unique predictor variables may be needed to capture the unique crash risk circumstances. This paper describes pedestrian crash safety performance functions for two-way two-lane rural roads in Ethiopia as a function of traffic flow, pedestrian flows, and road geometry characteristics. In particular, random parameter negative binomial model was used to investigate pedestrian crashes. The models and their interpretations make important contributions to road crash analysis and prevention in developing countries. They also assist in the identification of the contributing factors to pedestrian crashes, with the intent to identify potential design and operational improvements.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q), Queensland University of Technology, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove 4059, Brisbane, QLD 4059, Australia. Electronic address: getu.tulu@student.qut.edu.au.
authors.forename: Getu Segni
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Tulu
authors.affiliation: Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Science and Engineering Faculty and Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety (CARRS-Q), Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, George St GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia. Electronic address: simon.washington@qut.edu.au.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Washington
authors.affiliation: Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety (CARRS-Q), Faculty of Health and Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, 130 Victoria Park Rd, Kelvin Grove, QLD 4059, Australia. Electronic address: m1.haque@qut.edu.au.
authors.forename: Md Mazharul
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Haque
authors.affiliation: Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety-Queensland (CARRS-Q), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), K Block K433, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove 4059, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. Electronic address: mark.king@qut.edu.au.
authors.forename: Mark J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: King
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002648:Child; D003906:Developing Countries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004779:Environment Design / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005002:Ethiopia; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012449:Safety / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016138:Walking / Q000293:injuries* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Count-based statistical model; Ethiopia; Pedestrian crash prediction models; Random parameter model; Two-way two-lane roads