Investigating factors that influence pedestrian and cyclist violations on shared use path: An observational study on the Brooklyn bridge promenade

Shared use paths such as the Brooklyn Bridge promenade are painted with the centerline marking to avoid conflicts between pedestrians and cyclists and provide safe and comfortable accommodation of both modes of travel. However, pedestrians and cyclists do not always comply with the regulation indicated by line markings and corresponding signs, and violations happen frequently on such shared use paths. This study aims to identify factors that influence the violation behavior on the Brooklyn Bridge promenade by using random intercept/coefficient models. Video data of 6 hours from three sites of the promenade were analyzed, and a total of 497 pedestrians and 397 cyclists who were close to the centerline marking were defined as observations. Factors such as individual characteristics, environment conditions, and road conditions were considered. The modeling results show pedestrian violations are more likely when pedestrians are heading to Brooklyn, doing exercise, or there are pedestrians of the same direction, cyclists of the same or opposite directions, and vendor booth or garbage bin in front of them. Cyclist violations are more likely when cyclists are heading to Brooklyn, the cyclist path is too narrow, or there are pedestrians of the same or opposite direction in front of cyclists. The space-related variables (i.e., the presence of vendor booth and garbage bin, location effects) highlight the importance of adequate path widths, and the significant influence of direction variable implies that making the right-hand rule clear for pedestrians would decrease the likelihood of violation occurrence.