Assessment of Pedestrian Overpass Facilities along the Addis Ababa Ring Road
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2018-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AAU
Abstract
Among the different modes of transport, walking dominates the modal split of daily trips in Addis Ababa,
making up more than 62% of total trips. Despite this, most of the streets lack crossing facilities and
footways and the problem is reflected with the number of traffic accidents which is increasing by 12%
every year. Walking suffers from unsafe crossing points particularly along the Addis Ababa Ring Road
with no pedestrian priority with posted speed limit of 50-80km/hr and very high probability of fatality,
wide carriageway separated by barriers to discourage at-grade crossing and encourage mobility with high
speed and the act is stated ‘illegal’ and punishable, pedestrians avoid to use overpasses and take the risks
of jaywalking. Most researches about the city’s transport problem focus mainly on motorized traffic and
neglect walking mode.
The aim of this study is to assess the rate of utilization, location appropriateness, spacing, accessibility,
capacity and level of service (LOS) of pedestrian overpasses along the Addis Ababa Ring Road. The study
also enquires weather the overpasses can accommodate if all non-user pedestrians at different range of
distance would have used it or 100% utilization is sustained. Seven overpasses along the MegenagnaHana
Mariam
Road
were
selected.
Guideline
from
HCM2000
was
used
to
determine
the
PLOS
based
on
three
flow
rate
(V
P
), average pedestrian space/area (A
P
) and volume to capacity ratio (V/C). Primary data
like pedestrian count crossing the Ring Road every 15-minutes, questionnaire survey for overpass users
and non-users and field observation and measurements are used.
In this study, 103,342 pedestrians were observed while crossing the Ring Road out of which 92,824
(89.8%) were legal and 10,518 (10.2%) illegal. The observation was made within 200m range of distance
from the facilities in both sides including along the overpasses for three different weekdays at each site.
A total of 1,083 questioner was distributed to 840 overpass users and 223 non-users out of which 1,063
responded fully and 20 failed to complete the questionnaire. Utilization rate was analyzed by considering
non-user pedestrians crossing the Ring Road within 100m (Case-I) and non-users within half distance of
the next facility in both sides (Case-II).
The maximum and minimum rates were observed at St. Yoseph overpass (OP-4) and Saris Addisu Sefer
(OP-5) in case-I and Hayat Hospital (OP-2) and Nyala Motors (OP-1) in case-II with 94.61%, 83.89%,
81.49% and 45.09% utilization rates respectively. Time saving, lack of awareness, absence of law
enforcement and the facility being far from their origin/destinations are main reasons that made most
pedestrians not to use overpasses. The overpasses are capable of accommodating all users plus non-users
within up to half distance of the facilities with a PLOS-A, B or C. They fulfill a basic area for standing
(0.3m
2
) and an area to evaluate pedestrian facility (0.75m
II
2
) as a buffer zone. A v/c ratio of less than 1.0
was found implying that they serve well below capacities. The overpasses take twice of the time required
to cross the Ring Road at grade level.
Description
Keywords
Pedestrian Overpass, Pedestrian Level of Service, Utilization Rate, Measure of Convenience