A probabilistic model for pedestrian gap acceptance behavior at uncontrolled midblock crosswalks

TL;DR

This study develops a probabilistic model to understand pedestrian gap acceptance at uncontrolled midblock crosswalks, highlighting key factors like conflict flow rate and vehicle behavior, while finding individual traits less influential.

Contribution

Introduces a probabilistic model based on logit regression to analyze pedestrian gap acceptance considering multiple variables at uncontrolled crosswalks.

Findings

Conflict flow rate significantly affects pedestrian acceptance.

Vehicle speed and type do not influence pedestrian decisions.

Pedestrian age and gender are not significant factors.

Abstract

A significant number of those killed in traffic accidents annually refers to pedestrians. most of these accidents occur when a pedestrian is going to pass the street. One of the most hazardous areas for pedestrians crossing the street is midblock crosswalks. These areas are often uncontrolled and there is no separated phase for pedestrian crossing. As a result, using created gaps among vehicles is often the only opportunity for pedestrians to cross the street. This research aims to investigate effective factors on pedestrian gap acceptance at uncontrolled mid-block crosswalks. In this regard, several variables such as individual, environmental, and traffic variables were considered and their related data were extracted by filming the location. from video images, they were analyzed using logit regression model and the behavior After extracting the data of pedestrian while he is crossing the street was modeled as the probabilistic function of pedestrian gap acceptance. The results illustrate that conflict flow rate, the temporal gap among vehicles, and driver yielding in the face of vehicles are the most important effective factors on pedestrian behavior. The other one is that the speed and type of vehicles do not affect the pedestrian's decision about rejecting or accepting the gap. The results also show that individual characteristics such as age and gender of pedestrians do not make a significant relationship with pedestrian gap acceptance.