Towards Modelling Pedestrian-Vehicle Interactions: Empirical Study on Urban Unsignalized Intersection

TL;DR

This study analyzes pedestrian-vehicle interactions at unsignalized crossings in Milan, focusing on elderly pedestrians, to develop a microscopic agent-based model for safer urban crossing management.

Contribution

It provides empirical data and insights into pedestrian crossing behavior, especially among the elderly, to inform the development of a novel agent-based simulation tool.

Findings

Identified three main phases of pedestrian crossing behavior.

Analyzed the impact of aging on crossing decision-making.

Collected detailed traffic and interaction data at a real intersection.

Abstract

The modelling and simulation of the interaction among vehicles and pedestrians during cross-walking is an open challenge for both research and practical computational solutions supporting urban/traffic decision makers and managers. The social cost of pedestrians' risky behaviour pushes the development of a new generation of computational models integrating analytical knowledge, data and experience about the complex dynamics occurring in pedestrian/vehicle interactions, which are not completely understood despite recent efforts. This paper presents the results of a significant data gathering campaign realised at an unsignalized zebra crossing. The selected area of the city of Milan (Italy) is characterised by a significant presence of elderly inhabitants and pedestrian-vehicle risky interactions, testified by a high number of accidents involving pedestrians in the past years. The results concern the analysis of: (i) vehicular and pedestrian traffic volumes; (ii) level of service; (iii) pedestrian-vehicle interactions, considering the impact of ageing on crossing behaviour. Results showed that the phenomenon is characterised by three main phases: approaching, appraising (evaluation of the distance and speed of oncoming vehicles) and crossing. The final objective of the research is to support the development of a microscopic agent-based tool for simulating pedestrian behaviour at unsignalized crosswalks, focusing on the specific needs of the elderly pedestrians.