Analysis of the Impact of Pedestrian Crossing Activity on the Traffic Characteristics at Urban Midblock Sections Using Simulation Technique

Abstract

AbstractIn India, pedestrians in urban area, mostly, cross the road at midblock sections to save time and to access the nearby residential and commercial places. These midblock locations are undesignated; pedestrian crossing operations at these locations will cause interruption to the vehicular movement because of using force gaps to cross the road. So, it is necessary to focus on such undesignated locations of urban midblock, and studies need to be conducted to find the effect of these vulnerable crossing pedestrians on traffic characteristics like vehicular speed. Hence, this study aims to analyze the impact of pedestrian crossing on speed characteristics of vehicles and to quantify percentage reduction in speeds for different vehicle categories at undesignated urban midblock section using microscopic simulation software VISSIM. Traffic data were collected at three locations from two distinct cities in India using high-resolution video cameras, and data were extracted using Avidemux software. This extracted data were used to develop simulation model and to define model parameters. The developed simulation models were calibrated and validated using GEH and t-statistics to replicate the actual site conditions. Using the validated simulation models, percentage reduction in speeds for different vehicle categories was quantified. The present study revealed that there is a significant reduction in average speed of different vehicle categories. The overall speed of the traffic stream is reduced by 58.33% due to crossing pedestrians.KeywordsUrban midblock sectionCrossing pedestriansUndesignated locationsSimulation