Midblock Crosswalks Research Articles

Pedestrian quality of service at unprotected mid-block crosswalk locations under mixed traffic conditions: towards quantitative approach

Safety, comfort, convenience and minimal delay are essential for pedestrians at mid-block crosswalk locations. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the quality of crosswalk with these qualitative parameters. In this study, qualitative parameters such as safety, crossing opportunities (available time gaps) and delay index values are considered as a single measure of effectiveness as a Pedestrian Crossing Index (PCI) for evaluation of Quality Of Service (QOS) at unprotected mid-block crosswalk locations under mixed traffic conditions. Further, the study is aimed at identifying the factors contributing to the pedestrian QOS. In order to achieve these objectives, field surveys were conducted at eight different unprotected mid-block crosswalk locations to collect pedestrian individual (age and gender), behavioural, traffic and roadway characteristics. An ordered probit model has been developed to find out the significant factors contributing to the pedestrian QOS by taking QOS as the dependent variable and other collected variables as independent variables. The model results show that several factors have significant effect on pedestrian QOS and out of these, factors such as rolling behaviour, speed change behaviour of pedestrian, vehicle speed, number of lanes and number of vehicle encountered were identified as the primary factors affecting pedestrian QOS at unprotected midblock crosswalk locations. The developed model may be useful for design and evaluation of the existing pedestrian QOS at unprotected mid-block crosswalk locations under mixed traffic conditions.

Pedestrian Crossing Treatment Warrants for Midblock Crosswalks Under Mixed Traffic Conditions

Pedestrian crossings are important for accessing the adjacent land use facilities in daily life. Improperly designed crossing facilities cause discomfort to pedestrians and may even jeopardize their safety as well as being a hindrance to the smooth flow of vehicle traffic. These problems exist especially in developing countries such as India, where mixed traffic conditions prevail and road discipline is essentially absent. Thus, the design of efficient crossing facilities considering the flow of both pedestrians and vehicles is of utmost importance in these countries. In this regard, the objective of the current study was to propose warrants for pedestrian crossing facilities in midblock sections under mixed traffic conditions. To achieve this objective, pedestrian–vehicle ( PV2) conflict analysis was carried out at eight different unprotected midblock crosswalks in Mumbai, India. Videographic surveys were conducted and vehicle and pedestrian volumes were extracted, along with pedestrian-crossing characteristics such as crossing difficulty, safety and traffic, and vehicle characteristics. The initial computed PV2-values were adjusted by different factors, and k-means cluster analysis was carried out to determine the threshold PV2-values for selection of a suitable crosswalk facility. The study also highlighted the importance of taking into consideration site characteristics for evaluation of a midblock crosswalk facility. The results of this study are expected to have a wide range of applications in the design of new crosswalk facilities or in the improvement of existing pedestrian crosswalk facilities under mixed traffic conditions.

Multiobjective Evaluation of Midblock Crosswalks on Urban Streets Based on TOPSIS and Entropy Methods

This study presents a multiobjective evaluation method to estimate the performance of various midblock crosswalk treatments on urban streets. The considered objectives included traffic operation, traffic safety, environmental impacts, and costs. Data were collected at 16 midblock crosswalks in the Nanjing area in China. Vissim simulation models were developed and calibrated with field data to evaluate the operational and environmental impacts of various midblock crosswalk treatments. For the impact of various treatments on traffic operation, the total control delay to vehicles on the major streets and pedestrians were estimated. For the impact on traffic safety, the frequency of traffic conflicts was calculated. For the impact on the environment, vehicle emissions and fuel consumption were quantified. The TOPSIS entropy evaluation method was then used to rank the performance of various treatments of crosswalks considering multiple performance measures. Compared with the life-cycle cost analysis method that quantifies the benefits and costs using monetized expressions to establish a common unit, the TOPSIS method presented does not require the well-developed economic theories of valuation. It was found that by combining multiple objectives in decision making, one may obtain different results with regard to the optimum treatments of crosswalks. The research results can be directly used by traffic engineers to select crosswalk treatments given traffic flow conditions and geometric design characteristics. The framework implemented in the study can also be used to estimate the impacts of other traffic projects considering multiobjective evaluation.

Review of Pedestrian Level of Service: Perspective in Developing Countries

Analyses of pedestrian-related issues have been gaining much attention from researchers in recent years, particularly studies of pedestrian safety and pedestrian level of service (LOS) in developing countries. The focus for evaluating pedestrian LOS has shifted from quantitative methods to qualitative methods and factors to be considered have been changing. Crosswalks (namely, signalized, unsignalized, and midblock) are complex locations because of the interaction of pedestrians with the vehicle flow. Pedestrian LOS at crosswalks is quite different from that on sidewalks. A measure of effectiveness (MOE) is usually adopted for evaluation of pedestrian facilities, and the MOE changes with the type of facility. Pedestrian delay and space at the corner are considered as MOEs for signalized intersections. The MOE might depend on pedestrian safety, delay, available vehicle gaps (crossing difficulty), and behavior of pedestrians as well as that of vehicle drivers at unprotected midblock crosswalks. This study sought to identify the importance of pedestrian LOS in the context of developing countries, particularly at unprotected midblock crosswalks. To achieve this objective, a review of the literature was carried out on the pedestrian LOS at various facilities such as the sidewalk, intersection, and midblock crosswalk. The review highlighted the need for further pedestrian LOS studies at various facilities under mixed traffic.

Evaluation of Pedestrian–Vehicle Conflict Severity at Unprotected Midblock Crosswalks in India

Promoting and creating proper facilities for nonmotorized (pedestrian and bicycle) trips is very important in an urban transportation system to enhance pedestrian safety. Pedestrian–vehicle conflicts on urban roads are increasing, particularly at road crossings, because of the tremendous rate of growth in vehicle traffic in developing countries. Accident statistics clearly indicate the need to improve pedestrian safety and to analyze the pedestrian–vehicle interactions and collisions more deeply. This study analyzed the severity of pedestrian–vehicle conflicts at unprotected midblock crosswalk locations under mixed traffic conditions. The pedestrian–vehicle conflicts were considered on the basis of a pedestrian safety margin, which can be defined as the time difference between the time gap of an approaching vehicle and the pedestrian crossing time. For this purpose, field surveys were conducted at eight unprotected midblock crosswalk locations. Data such as pedestrian demographics and behavioral, traffic, vehicle, and roadway characteristics were considered to analyze the severity of the pedestrian–vehicle conflicts. The study identified the significant contributing factors in such conflicts by using an ordered probit model. The model’s results show that rolling behavior, pedestrian speed change condition, land use type, and vehicle speed have a significant effect on the severity of pedestrian–vehicle conflicts. The findings of this study contribute to developing traffic countermeasures to reduce the severity of pedestrian–vehicle conflict levels in order to improve pedestrian safety at unprotected midblock crosswalk locations under mixed traffic conditions. More studies at various unprotected midblock crosswalk locations would be useful to develop guidelines for redesigning the existing midblock crosswalk facilities by introducing suitable traffic control measures.

Effectiveness of a Rectangular Rapid-Flashing Beacon at a Midblock Crosswalk on a High-Speed Urban Collector

On April 8, 2013, the Virginia Department of Transportation installed a rectangular rapid-flashing beacon (RRFB) system at Belmont Ridge Road in Loudoun County, Virginia; two units at the Washington and Old Dominion Trail crossing were included in addition to advance warning units for the northbound and southbound travel directions. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the utility, effectiveness, and safety of the RRFB system during a 1-year period. Of particular interest were ( a) the percentage of trail users who pressed the push button to activate the RRFBs and whether that action varied by mode (pedestrians versus bicyclists), ( b) motorist behavior when the RRFB system was activated and not activated, and ( c) trail user impressions of the system relating to perceptions of safety. The results of the study indicated that the RRFB systems had a positive effect on motorist awareness. This finding was evidenced by the increased yield rates when the system was activated rather than not activated, speed reductions when the system was activated, and trail user perspectives on increased opportunities to cross and increased safety at the crossing location. In addition, the RRFB system was perceived by trail users as an enhancement to safety at the Belmont Ridge Road crossing, trail user perceptions of RRFB system benefits grew over time, and there was a correlation between trail user activations and the presence of traffic.

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

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.

Integrated optimization of location and signal timings for midblock pedestrian crosswalk

SummaryFinding the optimal location and signal timing plan is one of the most critical operational issues for a signalized midblock crosswalk on an arterial section, which is increasingly being installed in highly populated areas in developing countries such as China. This paper presents a multiobjective optimization model and an efficient solution algorithm for a one‐ or two‐stage midblock crosswalk on an arterial section. The proposed model aims to produce the optimal location and corresponding signal settings to balance the trade‐off between pedestrian delays and vehicular bandwidth when the signals of the crosswalk and adjacent intersections are coordinated. The proposed model has three distinguishing features: (i) the costs for both pedestrians and vehicles are considered in a unified framework; (ii) the location and signal settings of the midblock crosswalk are simultaneously optimized; and (iii) a multiobjective optimization approach is developed to study the effectiveness of the midblock crosswalk under conditions in which the priorities between pedestrian and vehicle flows differ. A nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA II)‐based algorithm is developed to solve the model efficiently. The results of the case study showed that the proposed model would help traffic practitioners, researchers, and authorities properly locate and signalize a one‐ or two‐stage midblock pedestrian crosswalk on an arterial section. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Analyses of pedestrian behavior on mid-block unsignalized crosswalk comparing Chinese and German cases

A large number of pedestrian fatalities are caused by the vehicle-pedestrian accidents. The application of new theory and technological approaches may hold great potential to reduce the accident frequency and severity for pedestrians. Considered the different driving cultures between China and Germany, the adaptation of such application in new market triggers an “intercultural comparison” related to the road user behavior and traffic safety. Field traffic data have been collected by video recording and image processing at unsignalized mid-block crosswalks both in Beijing, China and Munich, Germany. Centered Vehicle-Pedestrian conflict situation, pedestrian speed performance in different pedestrian categories and walking phases, pedestrian waiting behavior related to waiting decision choice and waiting time, pedestrian gap acceptance were statistically analyzed for understanding the pedestrian behavior in the conflict process. Intercultural comparisons were made between China and Germany. The research results addressed how the conflict participants (pedestrians only) behave differently and would hopefully be the impetus for further intercultural analyses from urban traffic side.

Interaction between vehicles and pedestrians at uncontrolled mid-block crosswalks

Pedestrian crossing safety has attracted increased attention in recent years. However, little research has been conducted for examining the interaction between vehicles and pedestrians at uncontrolled mid-block crosswalks. In this paper, both a decision model and a motion model are developed for simulating this interaction process. Cumulative prospect theory is embedded in the evolutionary game framework for modeling the decision behaviors of drivers and pedestrians during the interactions, which can capture the phenomenon of disagreement among a pedestrian crossing group. Cellular automata-based moving rules are used to depict the motion of vehicles with consideration of the three-second rule, and a modified bidirectional pedestrian model is developed in order to consider the right-moving preference and resolve the deadlock among mixed flows. Results of calibration and validation of the proposed model are also presented. An application is designed for the purpose of illustrating the model’s capabilities. The results demonstrate that the proposed model can well replicate actual observed traffic.

Pedestrian fatality risk in accidents at unsignalized zebra crosswalks in Poland

Poland has the second worst pedestrian fatality rate in the European Union. In the years 2007–2012, 9101 pedestrians were killed and 71328 injured on Polish roads. Almost 30% of pedestrian injury accidents took place at unsignalized zebra crosswalks. Based on police accident database, the worst problem in terms of numbers of fatalities occurs in built-up areas, on two-way undivided roads and at mid-block locations. Especially at risk are older people – almost 73% of pedestrians killed were 55 years or older. In order to show the effect of various factors on pedestrian fatality risk, a binary logit model with interaction terms was developed. The model shows that the following factors increase the probability of pedestrian's death at unsignalized zebra crosswalks: darkness, especially with no street lighting, divided road, two-way road, non built-up area, mid-block crosswalk location and summer time period. Speed limit is a crucial factor: probability of death increases by 37% with every 10km/h rise in the speed limit. Fatality risk increases also with victim's age and is higher for male pedestrians.

Models for pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour analysis at unprotected mid-block crosswalks under mixed traffic conditions

Pedestrian safety is an important aspect while crossing the road and it can be explained by pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour. The statistical models such as multiple linear regression (MLR) is often used to model linear relationships between dependent variable (viz., pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour) and independent variables, due to their ability to quantitatively predict the effect of various factors on the dependent variable. However such linear models cannot consider the effect of several variables on the output variable, due to primary assumptions of normality, linear, homoscedasticity and multicollinearity. In this regard, the non-linear models based on the artificial neural network (ANN), which are free from assumptions of linear models, can be easily employed for obtaining the effect of several input variables on the pedestrian accepted gap size. However, researchers have rarely applied ANN modelling technique for predicting the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour, as the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour depends on several pedestrian, traffic and vehicular characteristics. The ANN based models would be quite useful in establishing relationship between these factors on the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour at midblock crosswalks under mixed traffic conditions. In this direction, the present study adopts both MLR as well as ANN with different pedestrian, traffic and vehicular characteristics to assess the significant contributing factors for pedestrians’ gap acceptance behaviour at unprotected mid-block crosswalks under mixed traffic conditions. For this purpose, a video graphic survey was conducted at a six lane divided road at unprotected mid-block crossing in Mumbai, India. The data such as pedestrian (gender and age), vehicular, traffic and pedestrian behavioural characteristics were extracted to model pedestrian accepted gaps. The model results show that pedestrian rolling behaviour has a significant effect on pedestrian accepted gap size. The model results concluded that ANN has a better prediction with possibility to consider the effect of more number of variables on the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour as compared to the MLR model under mixed traffic conditions. However, the quantification of significant contributing variables on pedestrian accepted gap size is easy by MLR model as compared to the ANN technique. So, both models have their own significant role in pedestrian gap acceptance analysis. The developed models may be useful to enhance the existing mid-block crosswalk facilities or planning new facilities by more accurate prediction of the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour considering the influence of various factors under mixed traffic conditions.

EFFECT OF PEDESTRIANS UN-SIGNALIZED MID-BLOCK CROSSING ON VEHICULAR SPEED

Pedestrian is one of the important component in urban transportation system and also vulnerable at un-protected mid-block locations under mixed traffic conditions. At unprotected mid-block locations, some of the vehicles may yield to pedestrians who are already at crosswalk location. However, some of the pedestrians are using forced gaps to cross the road. Hence, while pedestrians use the mid-block crosswalk with forced gaps, which decreases the vehicular flow characteristics. The pedestrian sidewalks do not show a direct effect on the vehicular flow characteristics when the pedestrian have pleasant walking facilities. The present study has analyzed the effect of pedestrian crossing on the characteristics of vehicular flow at mid-block location under mixed traffic conditions. The results indicate that the pedestrian forced gap condition has significant effect on vehicular characteristics. The study results may be useful for decreasing the travel time for vehicular drivers by controlling usage of pedestrian forced gaps.

Dynamic analysis of pedestrian crossing behaviors on traffic flow at unsignalized mid-block crosswalks

It is important to study the effects of pedestrian crossing behaviors on traffic flow for solving the urban traffic jam problem. Based on the Nagel–Schreckenberg (NaSch) traffic cellular automata (TCA) model, a new one-dimensional TCA model is proposed considering the uncertainty conflict behaviors between pedestrians and vehicles at unsignalized mid-block crosswalks and defining the parallel updating rules of motion states of pedestrians and vehicles. The traffic flow is simulated for different vehicle densities and behavior trigger probabilities. The fundamental diagrams show that no matter what the values of vehicle braking probability, pedestrian acceleration crossing probability, pedestrian backing probability and pedestrian generation probability, the system flow shows the "increasing–saturating–decreasing" trend with the increase of vehicle density; when the vehicle braking probability is lower, it is easy to cause an emergency brake of vehicle and result in great fluctuation of saturated flow; the saturated flow decreases slightly with the increase of the pedestrian acceleration crossing probability; when the pedestrian backing probability lies between 0.4 and 0.6, the saturated flow is unstable, which shows the hesitant behavior of pedestrians when making the decision of backing; the maximum flow is sensitive to the pedestrian generation probability and rapidly decreases with increasing the pedestrian generation probability, the maximum flow is approximately equal to zero when the probability is more than 0.5. The simulations prove that the influence of frequent crossing behavior upon vehicle flow is immense; the vehicle flow decreases and gets into serious congestion state rapidly with the increase of the pedestrian generation probability.

Optimization of mid-block pedestrian crossing network with discrete demands

• The quantity, location and signalization of pedestrian crosswalk network are optimized simultaneously. • Pedestrian and vehicle cost are integrated in a multi-objective optimization framework. • More crosswalks may not contribute much additional improvement in pedestrian crossing cost under some conditions. • Two-stage crosswalks are more favorable than one-stage ones for both pedestrian and vehicles. In many cases, pedestrian crossing demands are distributed discretely along an arterial segment. Demand origins, destinations and crosswalks comprise a pedestrian crossing network. An integrated model for optimizing the quantity, locations and signal settings of mid-block crosswalks simultaneously is proposed to best trade-off the operational performances between pedestrians and vehicles. Pedestrian behavior of choosing crosswalks is captured under a discrete demand distribution. Detour distance and delay at signalized crosswalks are formulated as a measure of pedestrian crossing cost. Maximum bandwidths are modeled in analytical expressions as a measure of vehicular cost. To solve the proposed model, the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA II) based algorithm is designed and employed to obtain the Pareto frontier efficiently. From the numerical study, it is found that there exists an optimal number of mid-block crosswalks. Excess available crosswalks may make no contributions to improvement in pedestrian cost when the constraint of the minimum interval between crosswalks and vehicular cost are taken into account. Two-stage crosswalks are more favorable than one-stage ones for the benefits of both pedestrian and vehicles. The study results show promising properties of the proposed method to assist transportation engineers in properly designing mid-block crosswalks along a road segment.

Evaluation of pedestrian crosswalk level of service (LOS) in perspective of type of land-use

In India pedestrians usually cross the road at mid-block crosswalks due to ease of access to their destination or the development of adjacent land use types such as shopping, business areas, school and residential areas. The behaviour of pedestrian will change with respect to different land use type and this change in behaviour of pedestrian further reflects change in perceived level of service (LOS). So, it is important to evaluate the quality of service of such crossing facilities with respect to different land-use type under mixed traffic conditions. In this framework, pedestrian perceived LOS were collected with respect to different land-use type such as shopping, residential and business areas. The ordered probit (OP) model was developed by using NLOGIT software package, with number of vehicles encountered, road crossing difficulty as well as safety considered as primary factors along with pedestrian individual factors (gender and age), land-use type and roadway geometry. From the model results, it has been concluded that perceived safety, crossing difficulty, land-use condition, number of vehicles encountered, median width and number of lanes have significant effect on pedestrian perceived LOS at unprotected (un-signalized) mid-block crosswalks in mixed traffic scenario. The inferences of these results highlights the importance of land use planning in designing a new set of pedestrian access facilities for unprotected mid-block crosswalks under mixed traffic conditions. Also the study results would be useful for evaluating pedestrian accessibility taking into account different land-use type and planning required degree of segregation with vehicular movement at unprotected mid-block crosswalk locations.

Pedestrian gestures increase driver yielding at uncontrolled mid-block road crossings

To protect pedestrians, many countries give them priority at uncontrolled mid-block crosswalks or pedestrian crossings. However, the actual driver yielding rate is not always satisfactory (only 3.5% in this study). To increase the yielding rate, this study proposed eleven pedestrian gestures to inform drivers of their intent to cross. The gestures were evaluated based on the process of human interaction with environment. Four gestures were selected as candidates to test in field experiments based on scores for visibility, clarity, familiarity and courtesy (see illustration in Fig. 2): (1) right elbow bent with hands erect and palm facing left (R-bent-erect), (2) left elbow bent with hands level and palm facing left (L-bent-level), (3) left arm extended straight to left side with palm erect facing left (L-straight-erect), and (4) a ‘T’ gesture for “Time-out”. In the experiment, confederate pedestrians waiting at the roadside displayed the gestures (baseline: no gesture) to 420 vehicles at 5 sites in Beijing, China. When pedestrians used the L-bent-level gesture, the vehicle yielding rate more than tripled of that in the baseline condition. The L-bent-level gesture also resulted in a significant decrease in driving with unchanged speed (63.5–38.8%) and had no significant side effects in terms of drivers’ horn use or lane changing. The effects of such gestures in other contexts such as when pedestrians are in the crosswalk and when they are interacting with turning vehicles are discussed, together with the applications in training vulnerable pedestrian groups (children or elderly) and facilitating pedestrian detection by drivers.

Evaluation of pedestrian mid-block road crossing behaviour using artificial neural network

Pedestrians usually cross the road at mid-block locations in India because of the ease and convenience to reach their destination as compared to intersection locations. It is important to evaluate the pedestrian gap acceptance behavior at mid-block locations because of inadequate vehicular gaps under mixed traffic condition, which translates into the pedestrian road crossing behavior. The present study examines the pedestrian gap acceptance behaviour by employing an artificial neural network (ANN) model for understanding the decision making process of pedestrians, i.e., acceptance or rejection of vehicular gaps at a mid-block location. From the results it has been found that the pedestrian rolling gap, frequency of attempt, vehicular gap size, pedestrian speed change condition and vehicle speed have major role in pedestrian gap acceptance. These results can lead to a better design of pedestrian crossing facilities where adequate gaps are not available in vehicular flow at mid-block crosswalk locations. Language: en

Power-law in pedestrian crossing flow under the interference of vehicles at an un-signalized midblock crosswalk

Mixed traffic without signal control is complicated. This paper proposes a pedestrian–vehicle cellular automata (CA) model to study the characteristics of the mixed traffic. The model includes two sub models. One is the pedestrian model, in which the heterogeneity is taken into consideration. The other is the vehicle model, in which a safely running mode and a normally running mode are introduced. Simulation results show that (1) the traffic flow experiences four phases, that is, free flow, pedestrians-free flow, vehicles-free flow and jams, (2) pedestrians cross the crosswalk in groups and the sizes of the groups obey power law distribution, and (3) the heterogeneity of pedestrians acts an important role in the system. If the pedestrians are simultaneously homogeneous, the mixed traffic flow shows a “polarization” and these power-laws disappear under high arrival rates of vehicles and pedestrians.

Method to Determine Pedestrian Level of Service for the Overall Unsignalized Midblock Crossings of Road Segments

This paper aims at developing a pedestrian level of service (LOS) model for the overall unsignalized midblock crossings of road segments from the perspective of the pedestrian's perception of safety and convenience in Chinese midblock crossing environment. Firstly, the potential primary factors influencing pedestrian LOS at unsignalized midblock crosswalks were summarized from four respects: traffic conflicts, the distance between crosswalks, crossing facilities, and delay. Secondly, 948 participants’ real-time sense of safety and convenience when they were crossing the 30 selected unsignalized midblock crosswalks and the design and operational characteristics of the selected road segments were collected. The selected midblock crosswalks were typical of those prevalent in the medium-sized urban areas of China, and the participants of questionnaire survey covered a broad cross section of Chinese population of pedestrians. Finally, Pearson correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis were carried out to develop pedestrian LOS model for the overall unsignalized midblock crossings of road segments. The results revealed that the factors significantly influencing pedestrian LOS of the overall unsignalized midblock crossings of road segments included volume of two-way motor vehicle, the distance between marked midblock crosswalks, and the distance between unmarked crosswalks. A reliable, statistically calibrated pedestrian LOS model was developed ( R2 = 0.80).