The impact of urban street median in pedestrian behavior and traffic flow: Experience from a growing city Khulna, Bangladesh

Abstract Urban transport planning puts its signature on a long-term sustainable urban environment that directly depends on urban traffic flow and travel efficiency. Median barricades physically separate opposing traffic streams and help stop vehicles traveling into opposing traffic lanes and controlling pedestrians crossing the road. The study aimed to know how the flexible and rigid median influenced the traffic flow and the pedestrian road crossing behavior in Khulna City. Physical surveys at seven major cross-sections of city roads were performed to measure the volume, travel time, and speed of vehicles, and head counting of the pedestrians. Indices such as Road use efficiency, traffic efficiency, low-speed proportion, passenger car unit, road segment congestion index, and volume-capacity ratio were explored. The results show that the flexible median fails to control pedestrian road crossing behavior over the rigid median. The study found that and almost 85% of pedestrians randomly cross the roads over the flexible road medians. This has been affecting urban traffic flow, makes roads congested, unsustainable, and risky for pedestrians, and has social, economic, and environmental impacts. The R2 value 0.9661 indicates that the increase of pedestrians on the road has significant effects on vehicle speed. This study provides comprehensive knowledge to transport planners for the design and adaptation of rigid medians in the major urban roads to increase the road use efficiency and safety level, i.e. sustainable urban transport system.