The Impact of Pedestrian Crossing Flags on Driver Yielding Behavior in Las Vegas, NV

Estimating Mode of Transport in Daily Mobility during the COVID-19 Pandemic Using a Multinomial Logistic Regression Model

At the beginning of 2020 there was a spinning point in the travel behavior of people around the world because of the pandemic and its consequences. This paper analyzes the specific behavior of travelers commuting to work or school during the COVID-19 pandemic based on a sample of 2000 respondents from two countries. We obtained data from an online survey, applying multinomial regression analysis. The results demonstrate the multinomial model with an accuracy of almost 70% that estimates the most used modes of transport (walking, public transport, car) based on independent variables. The respondents preferred the car as the most frequently used means of transport. However, commuters without car prefer public transport to walking. This prediction model could be a tool for planning and creating transport policy, especially in exceptional cases such as the limitation of public transport activities. Therefore, predicting travel behavior is essential for policymaking based on people's travel needs.

Assessment of different pedestrian communication strategies for improving driver behavior at marked crosswalks on free channelized right turns

INTRODUCTION

Previous studies have indicated low driver yielding rates to pedestrians in various countries. This study analyzed four different strategies to improve driver yielding rates at marked crosswalks on channelized right turn lanes at signalized intersections.

METHOD

A sample of 5,419 drivers was collected for four gestures using field experiments for males and females in the State of Qatar. The experiments were conducted in daytime and nighttime on weekends at three different locations; two sites are located in an urban area and the third is located in non-urban area. The effect of pedestrians' and drivers' demographic characteristics, gestures, approach speed, time of the day, location of the intersection, car type, and driver distractions on yielding behavior is investigated using logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

It was found that for the base gesture, only 2.00% of drivers yielded to the pedestrians, while for hand, attempt, and vest-attempt gestures the yielding percentages were considerably higher, 12.81%, 19.59%, and 24.60%, respectively. The results also showed that females received significantly higher yielding rates compared to males. In addition, the probability of a driver yielding increased 2.8 times when drivers approached at slower speed compared to a higher speed. Further, drivers' age group, accompanied, and distractions were not significant in determining drivers' probability of yielding.

Identification and Improvement of Hazard Scenarios in Non-Motorized Transportation Using Multiple Deep Learning and Street View Images

In the prioritized vehicle traffic environment, motorized transportation has been obtaining more spatial and economic resources, posing potential threats to the travel quality and life safety of non-motorized transportation participants. It is becoming urgent to improve the safety situation of non-motorized transportation participants. Most previous studies have focused on the psychological aspects of pedestrians and cyclists exposed to the actual road environment rather than quantifying the objective safety hazards, which has led to a non-rigorous evaluation of their basic safety situation. An integrated processing approach is proposed to comprehensively and objectively evaluate the overall safety level of non-motorized transportation participants on each road segment. Our main contributions include (1) the universal approach is established to automatically identify hazard scenarios related to non-motorized transportation and their direct causing factors from street view images based on multiple deep learning models; (2) a seed points spreading algorithm is designed to convert semantic images into target detection results with detail contour, which breaks the functional limitation of these two types of methods to a certain extent; (3) The safety situation of non-motorized transportation on various road sections in Gulou District, Nanjing, China has been evaluated and based on this, a series of suggestions have been put forward to guide the better adaptation among multiple transportation participants.

Determinants of market participation and preference for production of pepper (Capsicum spp.) among farmers in southwest, Nigeria

The growing population and demand for staple foods in Nigeria necessitate the promotion of smallholder market participation, particularly in the pepper industry. Therefore, pepper commercialization can only be achieved when harnessing the nexus between production preference and market participation. Thus, the study examined the determinants of market participation and preference for pepper production in Southwest, Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select 500 respondents while the data were sourced using a well-structured questionnaire. Data were analysed using market participation index (MPI), Multinomial logit (MNL) and Tobit regression. The results of MPI indicated bell pepper was cultivated more (81.9%) for market purposes than cayenne (75.8%), scotch bonnets (68.8%) and birdeye (36.4%). The results of MNL indicated that education, experience, credit, market information and distance influenced preference for species cultivation while education, experience, income, market information and selected species were paramount in determining the level of market participation in the area using Tobit regression. The results established that production preference has a significant impact on market participation. Therefore, expected structural transformation in agriculture can be achieved through market participation if policies are guided by farmers’ production preferences and improved economic status with a good market infrastructure.

Multinomial Logistic Regression to Estimate the Financial Education and Financial Knowledge of University Students in Chile

All individuals face decisions during their lifetime that directly influence the economic well-being of their families. Therefore, financial education can be a fundamental tool to maximize our economic resources and use them wisely. A virtual survey was administered to 410 volunteer students belonging to a public university in southern Chile. The objective was to determine the level of financial knowledge and appreciation of financial education of future professionals. The most important results demonstrate a reality in which young people said they had the habit of saving and budgeting at home and were responsible for paying their bills on time. However, only a very small number of participants claimed having a superior level of knowledge regarding financial literacy. The main challenge for universities is to include this topic in the elective curriculum of all degree programs to promote financial criterion development that contributes to the comprehensive training and professional competencies of future graduates.

Multinomial Logistic Regression to Estimate and Predict the Perceptions of Individuals and Companies in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Ñuble Region, Chile

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is transforming the world we live in, revealing our health, economic, and social weaknesses. In the local economy, the loss of job opportunities, the uncertainty about the future of small and medium-sized companies and the difficulties of families to face the effects of this crisis, invite us to investigate the perception of the local community. Based on a questionnaire applied to 313 citizens and 51 companies, this study explored the perception of these actors on the effects of the pandemic at the local level and determined the main factors that influenced their assessment using a multinomial logistic regression model. The results indicated a systematic concern for issues of employment, job security, and household debt. The variables of age and sex were significant when analyzing the vulnerability of certain groups, especially women and the elderly, to face the effects of the crisis and their role as citizens. At the business level, the focus was on economic policies that support its operational continuity and management capacity to face a changing scenario.

Analysis and Prediction of Engineering Student Behavior and Their Relation to Academic Performance Using Data Analytics Techniques

This study focuses on identifying personality traits in computer science students and determining whether they are related to academic performance. In addition, the importance of the personality traits based on motivation scale and depression, anxiety, and stress scales were measured. A sample of 188 students from the Computer Engineering Schools of the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso was used. Through econometric two-stage least squares and paired sample correlation analysis, the results obtained indicate that there is a relation between academic performance and the personality traits measured by educational motivation scale and the ranking of university entrance and gender. In addition, these results led to characterization of students based on their personality traits and provided elements that may enhance the development of an effective personality that allows students to successfully face their environment, playing an important role in the educational process.

Urban School Area Road Safety Improvement and Assessment with a 3D Piano-Keyboard-Styled Pedestrian Crossing Approach: A Case Study of Chiang Mai University Demonstration School

Traffic accidents are a major cause of death in Thailand. Thailand is ranked third in the world by the World Health Organization for traffic-related deaths. Decreasing road accidents is one of the Thailand National Strategy Goals and also the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Several traffic calming tools for school areas were reviewed for safety improvement. An approach of creating a three-dimensional piano-keyboard-styled pedestrian crossing was implemented. It used a one-point perspective technique to increase driver perception when approaching a pedestrian crossing. The assessment data were observed during 12 weeks of a school semester. A roadside camera was used to record vehicles during the morning peak, midday off-peak, and evening peak traffic. The vehicles’ average speeds were used to compare the pre- and post-installation safety. The results showed that after the new crossing was installed, vehicle speeds drastically decreased. After three weeks, vehicle speeds began to increase. After twelve weeks, the vehicle speeds had gradually increased toward the same level as before the installation. A z-test was performed at the 95% significance level (p-value 0.05), showing that the new crossing approach had only affected vehicle speed during the first three weeks post-installation. Driver familiarity behavior and faded paint were major factors in the results.

Evaluating Pedestrians’ Safety on Urban Intersections: A Visibility Analysis

Overall visibility plays a key role in the safety of pedestrians. Despite its importance, verifying the right provisioning of sufficient available sight distances among pedestrians and vulnerable road users (VRUs) is not a prevalent practice. On top of that, the pursuit for more sustainable modes of transportation has promoted the establishment of different shared mobility services which are prone to increase walking and, thus, the number of pedestrians and other VRUs in urban settings. With the intention of verifying how car-centered designs perform for non-motorized users, a 3D procedure that evaluates the visibility of pedestrians and other users is presented and applied to specific cases in Madrid, Spain. The proposed solution employs virtual trajectories of pedestrians with mobility impairments and without them, cyclists, and personal transportation device riders. Their visibility was assessed around the functional area of urban intersections, including zones where possible jaywalking practices might occur. The evaluation was performed three-dimensionally, making use of LiDAR data, GIS tools, and 3D objects. Results show the impact of street furniture location on visibility, the distinctive influence of vegetation on the lines of sight of each observer, and how design parameters that were intended to improve motorized traffic could affect VRU.

Road Users’ Behavior at Marked Crosswalks on Channelized Right-Turn Lanes at Intersections in the State of Qatar

At non-signalized marked crosswalks, pedestrian priority is neither well-defined nor well acknowledged by drivers. This paper presents the findings of an investigation on both driver and pedestrian behavior at non-signalized marked crosswalks located on channelized right-turn lanes at intersections in the State of Qatar. Five crosswalks in Doha city were video recorded from discrete locations on a typical working day. The results from the data analysis of 1620 pedestrians’ behavior indicated that waiting behavior, gap acceptance, and crossing speed are complex phenomena and depend upon both pedestrians’ characteristics as well as their crossing characteristics. The drivers’ yielding behavior was mainly linked to pedestrians’ gender and adjacent land use. Low driver yielding rates indicated that significant improvements are required to enhance pedestrian safety. Among pedestrian attributes, gender had the most significant effect on crossing behavior followed by distractions, crossing in a group or alone, and dressing style. Findings of this research will be useful for planners when designing crosswalks at new intersections and during simulations of pedestrian and driver behavior at marked crosswalks on exclusive right-turn lanes. The results of this study will also be directly applicable to the Arabian Gulf countries as they exhibit similar conditions as the State of Qatar.