Interaction behaviour of active mobility users in shared footpath

• Main Author: Tan, Xin Da
• Other Authors: Lum Kit Meng
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Engineering::Civil engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/167543
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In 2013, Personal Mobility Devices (PMDs) as a form of green transportation was introduced in Singapore. PMDs which are compact and run on batteries are designed for personal use that has become increasingly popular as they provide a cost-effective and environmentally friendly mode of transportation. However, the popularity of PMDs also brought about many safety concerns, with reports of multiple accidents involving PMD riders and pedestrians. In response, the government implemented stricter regulations in 2019, including banning the use of e-scooters on footpaths and reducing the maximum speed limit to 10 km/h. This has led to inconveniences and a decrease in usage of an otherwise innovative and green alternative mode of transportation. Past studies on the interaction behaviour between PMD users and pedestrians have been conducted to assess their perception towards PMDs to understand the situation better. PMD users, being more familiar with the technology possesses more moderate views towards PMDs while pedestrians’ view towards it are stronger and mostly negative. As a result of the Singapore Government banning PMDs on shared footpaths on November 2019, it is timely to carry out a research study to gather pedestrians’ view towards PMDs in Singapore under various scenarios of improvements on infrastructure and road markings/signages. This study would thus serve to provide valuable inputs on infrastructure and other improvements that pedestrians would feel safe to allow PMDs back onto the shared footpaths. The study was carried out with a Likert 5-point scale survey study in which the survey respondents were asked to agree or disagree with different implementations in place for them to feel safe and to be open to the idea of sharing footpaths with PMDs, and the results were analysed using the Wilcoxon Signed rank test method. Results of our findings concluded that most implementations in the survey had a significant impact on the respondents’ attitude towards sharing footpaths with PMD users and cyclists. The effectiveness of these implementations were arranged in descending order based on the number of respondents agreeing with it: 1. Addition of cameras alongside road signages and markings (79.1%) 2. Implementation of licensing of PMD users, similar to a driving license (67.3%) 3. Installation of light indicators on PMDs (64.7%) 4. Road markings to separate pedestrian and PMDs/cyclist lanes. (61.4%) 5. Road markings to dictate one directional travel. (51.7%) 6. Signages that dictates one directional travel. (43.1%) In addition, majority of the respondents agreed on the fact that shared footpaths width should be 2.25m, 1.5 times the current shared footpaths width, before taking the above measures into consideration for sharing footpaths with PMDs. According to the results findings, it is recommended for PMDs to be allowed back on shared footpaths only when the width is extended to at least 2.25m with the addition of monitoring cameras, PMD user licensing, installation of light indicators and adequate road markings for lane segregation.