Bus Stop Environment and Pedestrian Crash Risk in Kumasi, Ghana: Implications for Safe and Sustainable Urban Mobility

Abstract

Pedestrians are amongst the most vulnerable road user groups. Efforts to enhance pedestrian safety have mainly focused on intersections and midblock crossings. This study investigated the effect of bus stop environments on pedestrian safety in Kumasi, an area with a high incidence of pedestrian fatalities in Ghana. Crashes within a 50 m radius of bus stops were extracted using a spatial join. The Negative Binomial regression model was applied to model pedestrian crashes around bus stops as a function of three distinct non-collinear independent variable groups: road design features, bus stop characteristics, and pedestrian exposure measures. Formal bus stops were associated with higher crash rates than informal ones. The presence of medians and crosswalks was associated with lower crash rates, whereas wider carriageways were associated with higher crash rates. Higher crashes were linked to passing pedestrians and waiting pedestrians, while crossing pedestrians were associated with reduced crashes. These findings suggest that the combined effects of infrastructure and behavioural factors influence pedestrian safety at bus stops. Prioritising low-cost safety treatments, such as guard-railed waiting areas, marked crosswalks, medians, and raised crossings, around bus stops will yield substantial safety benefits for resource-constrained contexts and advance sustainable urban mobility.