Pedestrian Midblock Crossing Safety Development Modeling in Dohuk City Road Network

: Pedestrians are vulnerable users walking on foot, having no or little protection-usually provided by police officers-when trying to cross from a midblock section in urban areas. A lot of conflicts and sometimes real pedestrian crashes probably took place in some locations in Dohuk City midblock crosswalks. For this purpose, and to have a comprehensive idea about the safety situation in this city, and what are the main safety countermeasures needed at some hazardous pedestrian crossing locations, this study was proposed. Data were collected from twenty crosswalk locations in central business district (CBD), and suburban areas related to pedestrian movement using two video camera photography to collect data. Data were compiled and presented to measure pedestrian speeds, space, unit flow, crossroad width, etc., meanwhile, vehicular traffic data related to crossing volume, speed…etc. were presented too. Safety and security data related to conflicts of pedestrians with cross vehicles and some actual crash data were obtained from the qualified offices controlling traffic in the city. The Exponential Model was found as best-fitting conflict rates and pedestrian spaces with high R2 in both urban and suburban areas. Meanwhile, the Quadratic Model was found to best fitting conflict rates and pedestrian speeds with R2 values of 0.764, and 0.818 in both urban and suburban areas respectively. Conflict rates are found as best correlating the real crash frequency with a high R2 value of 0.924 in suburban areas. Conflict rates in both CBD and suburban areas are going to be decreased as the pedestrian provided space, speed, crossed road width, and 85th percentile vehicular speed, but increased with the amount of waiting time experienced by pedestrians at crosswalk edge with R2 values of 0.84, and 0.90 for CBD and suburban crosswalks respectively.