Pedestrians' Sidewalk Development and Level of Safety in Ikeja Area, Lagos Nigeria

Abstract

Safe and accessible pedestrian sidewalk is significant to sustainable infrastructural development and industrialisation of core of cities in world over. Studies have shown that safety of pedestrian on walkways aid their ability to shop more than sitting in the comfort of their vehicles. The study modelled the influence of lateral separation (LS) (sidewalk separation); volume of motor vehicles (VM); speed of motor vehicle (SM) and vehicular access to adjoining properties (VA) on pedestrians’ level of safety (PLS) along the streets of core area of Ikeja. Fifty-six (56) road segments were observed, measured and field information obtained analysed. Though, LS, VM, SM and VA contributed about 58.1% to (PLS) in Ikeja, the results further revealed that PLS increased with LS distant vehicles (βsd=0.60, tsd=5.14), but decreased with higher VM (βvv=0.20, tvv=1.73) and SM (βsp=0.07, tsp=0.76). It was recommended that a standardised distance of LS from moving traffic and its wideness; the required SM of vehicles and increased investment on pedestrian facilities in urban centre will improve pedestrian safety and as well promote sustainable industrialisation since pedestrian form major traffic of the industries.