Pedestrian crossing characteristics under the effect of right turn on an exclusive lane

Abstract

This study focuses on the new rule of right-turning vehicles on an exclusive right-turn lane to study the characteristics of pedestrian crossing at a right-turn facility with an island. Furthermore, the change of the headway of the right-turning vehicles during saturated and unsaturated release from the upstream intersection of the right-turning vehicles was surveyed in China. Based on this, models were developed that reflect pedestrian delays by comparing the priorities of the pedestrian and the right-turning vehicles during both saturated and unsaturated releasing periods. Finally, the theoretical pedestrian delay calculated through the models is compared with the observed delay, using field data; the paper analyses the differences of the characteristics of pedestrian crossing for both saturated and unsaturated releasing modes. The maximum relative error between the calculated data and the observed data is 20%. For a vehicle-arrival rate below 0·19 pcu/s, pedestrian delay during the saturated releasing period is lower than during the unsaturated releasing period. In summary, the number of vehicles and the degree of congestion greatly affect the probability of the occurrence of an acceptable gap, which has a major influence on the waiting time of pedestrians.