Date of Completion

5-1-2026

Thesis Advisor(s)

John N. Ivan

Honors Major

Civil Engineering

Disciplines

Applied Statistics | Categorical Data Analysis | Civil Engineering | Community Health and Preventive Medicine | Demography, Population, and Ecology | Epidemiology | Ergonomics | Human Factors Psychology | Infrastructure | Place and Environment | Spatial Science | Statistical Models | Transportation | Transportation Engineering | Urban Studies and Planning

Abstract

The number of pedestrian deaths increased by 78% between 2009 and 2023, while other motor vehicle crash deaths increased by 13% in the same period [1]. To identify potential pedestrian safety measures, this study analyzed the effects of location-based demographics, pedestrian phasing type, and other physical infrastructure and behavior variables on the probability of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts at signalized intersections, which is a surrogate measure of crash risk. Data were collected from 55 intersections in Connecticut, and the pedestrian-vehicle interactions were classified by severity based on the Swedish Traffic Conflict Technique: undisturbed passage, potential conflict, minor conflict, or serious conflict. Because of the skewed distribution of data, these classifications were grouped such that “no conflict” included undisturbed passage or potential conflict, and “conflict” included minor conflict or serious conflict. Given this form of response variable, binary logistic regression was used to fit the observational data to models. After testing regression model improvements for weights, variable significance, and random intercepts, one model was selected. This model determined that child population, crossing time, educational attainment, median presence, 85th-percentile speed, vehicle volume, number of sidewalks, and pedestrian signal indication were all useful predictors for a pedestrian-vehicle conflict. Notably, pedestrian-vehicle conflicts were less likely to occur during the pedestrian Walk indication, regardless of the accompanying vehicle signal, but the imbalance in conflict data warrants further analysis.

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