Critical Gap Analysis based on Pedestrian Behavior during Peak-Hour Traffic at Unprotected Midblock Crosswalks

Abstract

Pedestrians' gap-acceptance behavior is an important process while crossing the road and pedestrian behavioral characteristics play a major role in gap acceptance. The existing critical gap-estimation methods (Raff's method and maximum-likelihood estimation), have focused on vehicle drivers' critical gap calculations and these methods do not reflect pedestrians' critical gap estimations. The objective of this study is to compare and select the most suitable method for pedestrians' critical gap estimation at unprotected midblock crosswalks. The critical gap estimation considers the effect of pedestrians' behavioral and individual characteristics based on a video recording survey at six locations with different geometric and traffic characteristics in Mumbai, India. The results show that there are significant differences in the estimated critical gap values with and without considering pedestrians' behavioral characteristics. These results would be useful in the evaluation of unprotected midblock crosswalks and design of new crosswalk facilities.