2025 Volume 11 Issue 2 Pages A_118-A_126
The majority of the fatalities in pedestrian traffic accidents in Japan occur while crossing the road, and ensuring safety while crossing is a major issue. One of the measures to address this issue is the introduction of bulb-outs. A bulb-out is a type of pedestrian crossings that shortens the crossing distance for pedestrians by widening the sidewalk to the side of the roadway. The advantages of introducing bulb-outs include the reduction of conflicting opportunities between pedestrians and vehicles. In this study, we conducted a walking experiment using a head-mounted display for three types of unsignalized pedestrian crossing facilities (standard type, two-stage type, bulb-out type), and conducted a comparative analysis of each crossing facility in terms of both pedestrian's walking behavior and awareness. The results showed that the introduction of bulb-outs at unsignalized crosswalks improved pedestrian safety and facilitation while crossing the road, and was an effective measure to show drivers the presence of pedestrians clearly.
