Driving Behaviour and Road Safety at Signalised Intersections in Sicily and Thessaloniki

Road safety plays an important role in cities as far as sustainability and resilience are concerned. A large number of studies focus on the evaluation of the safety level of road users and especially vulnerable road users. In the framework of this paper an analysis was carried out concerning one of the most important problems at signalized intersections, which are the RLR (Red Light Running) and the YLR (Yellow Light Running) violations. This problem has to do with the behaviour and attitude of drivers as far as their compliance with Highway Code regulations is concerned. The existing situation in relation to RLR/YLR violations was investigated in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece and in Sicily, Italy. Field counts took place in each area followed by data analysis. Two sets of counts (Sicily and Thessaloniki) were used in the framework of this paper in order to investigate the above-mentioned phenomenon. Finally, a comparison between the results concerning both areas was made together with an attempt to investigate through inferential statistics the extent to which both the traffic volume and the category of vehicles affect RLR/YLR. The results can be used as a basis in order to calibrate behavioural models.