ASSESSMENT OF PEDESTRIAN MOBILITY ON ROAD NETWORKS IN THE CITY OF KIGALI

This paper analyzed and assessed the pedestrians’ mobility issues that are affecting their free movement and safety in the City of Kigali by outlining the major challenges in the City and providing alternative solutions and measures for improving the mobility and safety of pedestrians. The methodology of the paper was designed based on qualitative method with application of structured and unobtrusive. Referring to the paper findings about the mobility challenges of pedestrians within the City of Kigali, it is noted that the mobility of the pedestrians and their safety is still low and typical problems including road crossing viewed as the second challenges about pedestrians mobility, walking along very close to the road networks due to insufficient footpaths, lacking of enough road signs, lacking of information about pedestrian behavior on road networks, and improper functioning of existing traffic signals as the first challenge. The paper found that the majority of road networks in the City of Kigali did not provide walkways, traffics signals designs and availability is very poor and some of them not functioning, zebra crossing facilities were not provided adequately, pedestrians shelter on bus stop are almost absent and ignored, vehicles travelling speed is still high and does not allow pedestrians to move freely, and the mobility of physically challenged people has been forgotten and there is a need of introducing the pedestrian overpass bridges in clouded zones of the city center, Nyabugogo, Kicukiro and Remera-Giporoso areas of the City of Kigali.


Overview
The growth of the city should be hand in hand with the development of the transportation facilities for easing the movement of people and goods from one part of the city to another.
According to the Kigali City Master plan 2013, the road network in the city was supposed to be developed to fully meet the requirements of a modern city that is promoting the standard quality of life for its residents.
The City of Kigali is actually doing good to improve the existing road networks in various projects specifically in a project termed as Kigali Urban Road Upgrading Project where road network widening and traffic management by means of non-signalized and signalized junctions with traffic lights were implemented since 2016 till now. It is therefore important to upgrade and revitalize existing major master plan road networks for vehicles.
Surprisingly however very little has been implemented for the city pedestrian in the matter of their crossing facilities.
This paper sought to examine the constraints faced by the Kigali City pedestrians on the road networks around the city at various critical locations mostly characterized by the accidents at Nyabugogo, Kicukiro, Remera-Giporoso and city center roads. The study was carried out to identify the possible mobility challenges and establish technical proposals to overcome the matter for the safety of residents.

LITERATURE
According to Peter Wright (2012), the pedestrian safety should be promoted by awakening both pedestrians and drivers about the importance of acting safely in all traffic environments by using and providing pedestrians' facilities appropriately. Mariya et al. (2013) observed that pedestrians on Delhi roads are often exposed to high risks. This is because the basic needs of pedestrians are not recognized as a part of the urban transport infrastructure improvement projects in India. Also Dulaski and Liu (2013) discussed that the interaction between the pedestrian and vehicular driver at un-signalized mid-block locations when pedestrian is waiting at curb and stepping off the curb, the driver yield behavior is more when the pedestrian steps off from the curb and it is more during morning peak hours. However, Charles, (2010) said that the best way of teaching the pedestrians how to use road is by using communication designs which can facilitate their mobility. Dyaz (2002) highlighted that there is less likely risk to cross a roadway in the presence of motor vehicles in an urban area than rural area due to different design speeds. Holland and Hill (2010) collected adult pedestrian accident data which demonstrated that the risk of being killed or seriously injured varied with age and gender.
With increasing age, women were shown to make more unsafe mobility like crossing decisions, to leave small safety margins and to become poorer at estimating their walking speed. However, the age effects on all of these were ameliorated by driving experience. Men differed from women in that age was not a major factor in predicting unsafe pedestrians' mobility.
Zhuang and Wu (2011) studied that pedestrian's mobility, crossing out of crosswalks (unmarked roadway) and those crosswalks contributed much to traffic accidents, so the safety of pedestrians would be more in danger if not provided. Granie and Brenac (2014) wrote about pedestrian behavior of being strongly dependent on biological gender, and it has also been found to depend on the psychological masculinity of an individual. Pedestrian speeds are also significantly related to pedestrian age, and the speeds of pedestrians are slower as they get older. Pedestrians especially old ones continue to develop their physical, cognitive and psychosocial abilities to cross the road network (Lim, 2008).
According to Ahmad et al. (2014), Consideration of the safety aspect is recommended for design of crossing facilities like signal at locations where female or old pedestrians are substantial to cross.

MATERIALS AND METHOD
This paper analyzed the problems faced by pedestrians in the City of Kigali, looked at their needs, existing infrastructure to facilitate them and adequate measures that would be taken to improve their mobility and safety.
The methodology of this paper was designed based on the qualitative methods (Groat & Wang, 2002;Neuman, 2006) with application of observation technique specifically the structured observation (Miller, et al., 2004;Marshall & Rossman, 2006;Tafahomi & Nadi, 2016) and the unobtrusive (Bonnes & Bonaiuto, 2002; Tafahomi & Nadi, 2020), which applied in the urban spaces and in a sensitive areas to study human behaviors. The descriptive approach was selected to explain the observation through storytelling (Groat & Wang, 2002) and then analysis based on the collected for a period of three months.
The methodology adopted to conduct this research was The Primary data included the field data collection for pedestrian spot point's prone areas to accidents, crossing location without facilities identified and interviewed to experts and some pedestrians to get their views. The following are pedestrian needs parameters that were assessed and include the Crosswalks (Zebra crossings and over bridges),sidewalks (Paved ways and unpaved ways),Warning marks, Shelters, Road Visibility, Density of pedestrians, Traffic lights.

RESULTS
From data collection the following were pedestrian needs that were assessed and included crosswalks (Zebra crossings and over bridges), sidewalks (Paved ways and over bridges), Warning marks, buses shelters, road visibility, density of pedestrians, traffic lights availability. Also the existing facilities were noted down for further comparison.

Pedestrian Buses Shelter Facilities
Comparison between Available and Needed pedestrian buses shelter facilities

Zebra Crossing Facilities
From the field assessment on 18 visited road network, it was found that many of the needed crossing facilities for

Comparison between Available and Needed Pedestrian Public Stairs Facilities
From the field assessment on 18 visited road network, it was found that many of the needed crossing facilities for pedestrians are missing and this is dangerous to the their safety. The figure 9 below shows that only 120 facilities are available instead of 245 required as per the field findings.
the available crossing vs the needed crossing facilities

Traffic Lighting Facilities
Also from the field assessment on 18 visited road network, it was found that the needed traffic lighting to facilitate pedestrians while crossing at junctions only 9 were available and installed out of 19 required to be installed as per the site and field visit data. Some of them 4 units were found not functioning at that time and needed repairs. Statistically computed results showed that only 47.4% of the traffic lighting facilities were implemented to help pedestrians to cross but still 44.4% of them are only reliable. So there is a need to increase these facilities and repair the ones out of service.

Pedestrian Bridges (Overpass)
During the assessment of pedestrian needs facilities in this paper, it was found that they are needed for some places like at KN1 Round About to Nyabugogo (KN8Ave & KN1Rd) Network as an alternative of Zebra crossings, at KK2Ave & KN68St on the leveled side as an alternative to the zebra crossing for they are located in danger zone.

Warnings signs Facilities
Warning signs are still very low on the road networks visited and it was found that almost 47% of the required are yet installed and this needs to be a priority so as to help pedestrians to escape from any road danger about their safety.

Pedestrian Bus Shelters
Those facilities are related to the bus stops; they are sometimes ignored during pedestrian facilities designs but they are needed for pedestrians' health for sun radiation and rainfall. Sunrays and rainfalls are the natural phenomena that pedestrians can't escape while he or she is using road for daily base activities or trip. It was found that generally out of the required around 35% are constructed and operational. Still a large number is to be added as soon as possible. The figure below illustrates some of the road networks lacking shelters for pedestrians. Figure 12: Bus stop without pedestrian shelter on KN501St

Pedestrian Pathways
Those facilities are mostly occurring beside the curved road or near the network from one sidewalk to another.
They reduce the density of pedestrians near the networks and provide a comfort passage of pedestrians.
They may be implemented where there is such possibility, but better if they are relatives to the Zebra crossings.
The paper found that around 67% of the required pedestrian pathways are built but still some of the road does not provide them and this is an encouraging indicator that in the near future the coverage is possible.
Apart from the pedestrians pathways the escaping island are also useful for lanes separation and also for pedestrians to refresh while waiting for motor drivers to give a free way for him or her. They may be implemented in T-networks or junctions, on a wider crossover networks.

Public Stairs Facilities
From the results, it was found that 48.5% of the required stair case facilities are provided and some are missing.
Stairs which give pedestrians access to the roads need to have slip but rough staircase with a limited angle of elevation which is not adequate to physically challenged people were only found on the field. At least one side access should be designed to facilitate physically challenged people.