Pedestrian behavior interacting with autonomous vehicles during unmarked midblock multilane crossings: Role of infrastructure design, AV operations and signaling

Abstract

One of the main challenges autonomous vehicles (AVs) will face is interacting with pedestrians, especially at unmarked midblock locations where the right-of-way is unspecified. This study investigates pedestrians' crossing behavior given different roadway centerline features (i.e., undivided, two-way left-turn lane, and median) and various AV operational schemes portrayed to pedestrians through on-vehicle signals (i.e., no signal, yellow negotiating indication, and yellow/blue negotiating/no-yield indications). This study employs virtual reality (VR) to simulate an urban unmarked midblock environment where pedestrians interact with AVs as they cross a four-lane arterial roadway. Results demonstrate that both roadway centerline design features and AV operations and signaling significantly impact pedestrians' unmarked midblock crossing behavior, including the waiting time at the curb, waiting time in the middle of the road, and the total crossing time. But only the roadway centerline design features significantly impact the walking time. Participants in the undivided scene spent a longer time waiting at the curb and walking on the road than in the median and TWLTL scenes, but they spent a shorter time waiting in the middle of the road. Compared to the AV without a signal, the design of yellow signal significantly reduced pedestrian waiting time at the curb and in the middle. But yellow/blue signals significantly increased the pedestrian waiting time. Interaction effects between roadway centerline design features and AV operations and signaling are significant only for waiting time in the middle of the road. Other factors, such as demographics, past behaviors, and walking exposure of pedestrians, are also explored. Results indicate that older individuals tend to wait longer before making crossing decisions, and pedestrians’ past crossing behaviors and past walking exposures do not significantly impact pedestrian walking behavior interacting with AV.