Impact of Pedestrian Movements on Capacity of Undivided Streets: A Case Study

Abstract

Pedestrian movements with inclusive right-of-way along the vehicular traffic on carriageway have negative impacts on traffic flow characteristics. With pedestrians moving alongside the traffic or crossing the road, the drivers often slowdown and shy away from the pedestrians to other lane or sometimes stop the vehicle resulting in decrease in capacity of the road. The present study aims at developing an empirical model of Percent Capacity Reduction (PCR) to predict the impact of pedestrian movements on the capacity of undivided urban road. Traffic data were collected at three base sections (without pedestrian movements) and both traffic and pedestrian data at three non-base sections (with considerable pedestrian movements) having carriageway width of 5.5 m, 6.2 m, and 9.0 m, respectively. Capacities of base and non-base sections were compared at the identical carriageway width, and therefore, a significant reduction in capacity was observed for non-base sections. This reduction in capacity is governed by the pedestrian parameters. To this end, these pedestrian parameters were utilized to develop the capacity reduction model. The outcome of this paper can help transportation planners in feasibility study for pedestrian facilities and its possible influence on the present traffic movements.