Modelling the utilization rates of pedestrian crosswalks

A zebra crossing is a form of pedestrian crossing provision point on roads that have significant volumes of traffic. It is one of the safety measures employed to reduce avoidable pedestrian-motorist conflicts and accidents on such roads. In the past several studies have been conducted on the behaviours of road users (pedestrians and motorists) especially on non-signal intersections. Although, various recommendations and solutions have been proffered to the many road-crossing challenges. But there has been little to no change in pedestrians' perceptions and preferences of zebra crossing. Contemporary researches have tried to rectify this by applying several models to rate the use of pedestrian zebra crossing. This study uses a Regression Model Techniques to analyse factors influencing utilization rate of pedestrian zebra crossing. In this study, 450 samples were collected from 12 locations, covering school, public building, residential and business areas to examine the utilization rate of the zebra crossing by pedestrians. To examine the significance level on the crossing utilization rates by pedestrian at 95% confidence interval, a pedestrian utilization rate (PUR) was acting as the dependent variable and the remaining variables served as the independent variables. The Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) model was also used to determine the utilization rate needed to develop the zebra crossing utilization model. From the findings, the calibrated R2 value was discovered to be at 0.937 and the descriptive statistics of MLR test, t and p-values, were also found within an acceptable range. The result also showed that, out of all the variables which were used, only three have a significant effect on the utilization rates of pedestrian zebra crossing while the remaining variables have an insignificant effect. The study concluded that among the different variables, Guardrail, number of lanes and Width of zebra crossing were the most influential variables. It is believed that the conclusions drawn from this research are expected to be useful to improve the state of pedestrian facilities in Malaysia.

Who goes first? A distributed simulator study of vehicle-pedestrian interaction

One of the current challenges of automation is to have highly automated vehicles (HAVs) that communicate effectively with pedestrians and react to changes in pedestrian behaviour, to promote more trustable HAVs. However, the details of how human drivers and pedestrians interact at unsignalised crossings remain poorly understood. We addressed some aspects of this challenge by replicating vehicle-pedestrian interactions in a safe and controlled virtual environment by connecting a high fidelity motion-based driving simulator to a CAVE-based pedestrian lab in which 64 participants (32 pairs of one driver and one pedestrian) interacted with each other under different scenarios. The controlled setting helped us study the causal role of kinematics and priority rules on interaction outcome and behaviour, something that is not possible in naturalistic studies. We also found that kinematic cues played a stronger role than psychological traits like sensation seeking and social value orientation in determining whether the pedestrian or driver passed first at unmarked crossings. One main contribution of this study is our experimental paradigm, which permitted repeated observation of crossing interactions by each driver-pedestrian participant pair, yielding behaviours which were qualitatively in line with observations from naturalistic studies.

Pedestrian-driver communication and decision strategies at marked crossings

The aim of this work is to describe pedestrian-driver encounters, communication, and decision strategies at marked but unsignalised crossings in urban areas in the Czech Republic and the ways in which the parties involved experience and handle these encounters. A mixed-methods design was used, consisting of focus groups with pedestrians and drivers regarding their subjective views of the situations, on-site observations, camera recordings, speed measurements, the measurement of car and pedestrian densities, and brief on-site interviews with pedestrians. In close correspondence with the literature, our study revealed that the most relevant predictors of pedestrians' and drivers' behaviour at crossings were the densities of car traffic and pedestrian flows and car speed. The factors which influenced pedestrians' wait/go behaviour were: car speed, the distance of the car from the crossing, traffic density, whether there were cars approaching from both directions, various signs given by the driver (eye contact, waving a hand, flashing their lights), and the presence of other pedestrians. The factors influencing drivers' yield/go behaviour were: speed, traffic density, the number of pedestrians waiting to cross, and pedestrians being distracted. A great proportion of drivers (36%) failed to yield to pedestrians at marked crossings. The probability of conflict situations increased with cars travelling at a higher speed, higher traffic density, and pedestrians being distracted by a different activity while crossing. The findings of this study can add to the existing literature by helping to provide an understanding of the perception of encounter situations by the parties involved and the motives lying behind certain aspects of behaviour associated with these encounters. This seems necessary in order to develop suggestions for improvements. For instance, the infrastructure near pedestrian crossings should be designed in such a way as to take proper account of pedestrians' needs to feel safe and comfortable, as well as ensuring their objective safety. Thus, improvements should include measures aimed at reducing the speed of approaching vehicles (e.g. humps, speed cushions, elevated crossings, early yield bars, and narrow lanes), as this would enhance yielding by motor vehicles. Other measures that specifically rely on the subjective perception of different situations by the parties involved include the education and training of drivers, the aim of which is to promote their understanding and appreciation of pedestrians' needs and motives.