Easing Congestion with Pedestrian Crossing at Midblock

Abstract

Signalized arterials that support heavy commercial and business activities such as 34th and 42nd streets in Manhattan, New York City and heavy tourist activities such as South Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas attract a large volume of pedestrians along with heavy vehicular traffic. Thus, some signalized intersections along such arterials and grid systems that accommodate heavy vehicular and pedestrian traffic may fail to operate safely and efficiently; which in turn may create congestion that may propagate onto the entire arterial or grid system. As appropriate, this study proposes that pedestrian crossings at such intersections (targeted intersections that have significant pedestrian and vehicular conflict) should be eliminated while facilitating pedestrians to cross at midblock locations by installing pedestrian signals. Where pedestrians cannot be accommodated at midblock due to a shorter roadblock, they may be accommodated at other existing neighboring intersections where safety and operations are less critical. A sub-network including the 34th Street signalized arterial in Manhattan, New York City is modeled in CORSIM with a target of eliminating pedestrians at the 8th Avenue and 34th Street intersection. It is found that such an option (e.g., midblock pedestrian crossings) conditionally improves traffic operations and thus may improve air quality and reduce fuel consumption. Moreover, by eliminating pedestrians at high accident signalized crosswalks and accommodating them at midblock on a pedestrian signal should improve pedestrian safety. The other advantage is that such an option still accommodates pedestrians at the street level rather than at over or underpasses.